Iwan's a Welsh wonder
By TMX Archives on 3rd Sep 15
WELSH Champion Iwan Roberts, who celebrated his 19th birthday in Belgium just a few weeks ago, had a fantastic couple of weeks on his Beta doing the European rounds in Belgium and Switzerland.
With a few days' practice in Germany in between, he then came home to claim his first British Championship victory in the Guisborough club's John Hardaker trial last Sunday.
Iwan's a hard-working lad who only finished college at the end of May, the day before heading off to the Czech and Swedish World rounds – which was good timing after three years of studying heavy plant mechanics.
He is now fully qualified and works for the family business, John Roberts Ffestiniog Ltd Haulage and Plant Hire.
Iwan's next target is to do his HGV test as soon as he can fit it in.
The final two World Championship events in Portugal and Spain get priority now where he is in with a very real chance of taking the World Cup title in an extremely hard-fought class.
The story is all the more noteworthy as in January the Roberts family thought he might have to sit the year out as he spent the first five days of the year on a drip in hospital with severe glandular fever which kept him off the bike for eight weeks.
It takes between six and 12 months to recover (as Hard Enduro rider Jonny Walker can tell you) and Iwan has still not fully recovered.
So the results this year have surprised many, including the family and Iwan himself as he's a very unassuming young man. Here's hoping he can lift that World Cup!
