STILL SMILING

Former national champion Jess Roberts is back after a two-year absence caused by debilitating back pain. Vern Pitt hears her story of pain, self-doubt and self-discovery

- Vern Pitt

Jess Roberts can barely wipe the smile off her face. That's not unusual for a bike rider, especially one who's won national titles and is in the ascendancy. However, on this occasion, Roberts is telling Cycling Weekly about some of the toughest two years imaginable.

"I was just really sad," says Roberts of how she felt in 2021 after a year spent wrestling with a debilitating injury that had derailed her career to the point that she hadn't ridden a bike in months and felt depressed. "I wasn't enjoying life. I never had thoughts about hurting myself or anything like that, I was just really sad and unhappy. I wasn't finding joy in many things and it was hard to train, to get up. I couldn't do the thing I loved properly, I was exhausted every day. It felt like a chore to do normal things and I didn't want to do anything. I didn't feel like the usual Jess."

We're pleased to report this description no longer matches the beaming young woman talking to CW on Zoom from her family home in Carmarthen. But how the old Jess went to low Jess and then to this Jess is quite a journey that takes in hopping around European cities, learning yoga from YouTube, and having dye injected into her veins...

The last time the Welshwoman was in these pages was not long after Roberts won the British National Championships stripes in the road race in 2018, beating a slew of the country's best pros including Dani Rowe, Lizzy Banks, and Hannah Barnes. She was still a junior.

It was an extraordinary result but it was no fluke. She backed it up with two stage wins in a high-quality field including road and track powerhouse Kirsten Wild, at the Tour de Bretagne Féminin the following year.