WHEN most people reach 80 they could be forgiven for wanting to put the brakes on a bit.

Not Halifax bike veteran Dave Moore.

He spent his birthday racing along a 10-mile circuit through the Yorkshire Dales and winning.

Although as the only competitor old enough for the over 80s category, he admits he's had harder races.

Mr Moore, of Highroad Well, Halifax, has been a committed cyclist since he was 12 years old, racing across a field in Filey to escape machine gun fire from a passing German plane in 1941.

He said: "We went on holiday during the war. I didn't think I would survive that holiday.

"My dad and I were sitting in a cafe in York when it got bombed and all the windows burst through.

"Then later in Scarborough we were cycling through a field when it was strafed with machine gun fire from a plane.

"It was pretty scary and we were very lucky we didn't get injured, but I took to the cycling straight away."

And despite suffering from prostate cancer, a severe heart defect, and being fitted with a pacemaker the size of a grapefruit, he is out pedalling as much as ever.

He said: "I was given £10 for winning my class on my birthday race but felt like a bit of a fraud being the only one there.

"I decided that is going to be my last race ever because I'm not in a great state of health for them now.

"But I will keep cycling for as long as I can – it's in my blood.

"I keep a diary of every time I go out and this year I have done 5,165 miles.

"Being out on my bike is so therapeutic, I can just forget any problems I have."

He joined the Halifax branch of the Cyclists' Touring Club as one of its youngest members and started his racing career.

With his slight frame he was renowned as a hill-climbing specialist and racked up several trophies from early events.

But after starting work as a signalman on the railways Mr Moore was moved to the Cambridge area with his wife Kathleen and only son and stopped cycling for nearly 30 years.

They eventually moved back to Calderdale in 1984, but it was only after his wife's unexpected death that Mr Moore took the sport up seriously again.

Since then he has clocked up some remarkable achievements.

At 61 he rode 25 miles in one hour, 21 seconds, and at 64 he rode a 10-mile race in just 23 minutes – averaging roughly 25 miles an hour.

At 66 he came third in his category in the prestigious British TLI race, beating some of the best cyclists in the country along the way, including a former Tour de France rider.

When he was 67 he rode a 220-mile race in just 12 hours, non-stop.

Friends say his most remarkable achievement was when he rode a 126-mile time trial only to realise he had a fractured wrist at the end of it.

Mr Moore said: "I had been knocked off my bike on Manningham Lane a few days earlier but thought I had only sprained it.

"It was hurting a fair bit but I thought I would be fine for the race.

I was very surprised when the doctor told me what had happened afterwards.

"I'll miss the races but they're not the most important thing to me.

"To be out on my bike riding over the hills and country lanes is what I love about cycling and I hope to be doing that a while longer yet."