PETE Kibble hit top gear last week when he won the young riders white jersey in the Junior Tour of Ireland.

The 17-year-old, from the hamlet of New Zealand near Calne, tackled more than 320 miles across six days as part of the race, which is famous for being the longest road race in the world for juniors and past winners include current Team Sky professionals Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard and Nicholas Roche.

Kibble, who represented Wales, was up against the most international field ever assembled for the race, with teams from South Africa, USA, France, Belgium and Holland, as well as the home nations all in action.

Stage one was an individual time trial, with Kibble finishing fourth of the 110 starters, just one second off second place and 14 behind the American stage winner.

Kibble also got to wear the white jersey for his efforts, which is awarded to the highest place young rider in the race.

On stage two, Kibble maintained his overall position and the white jersey after finishing in the leading bunch in 16th place.

However, there were seveal crashes on a wet and windy stage three, with another rider crashing into Kibble, causing damage to his bike beyond repair.

Kibble had to wait 10 minutes at the roadside for a replacement bike but by the time he was finally able to cross the finish line he was no longer in contention to win the Tour outright and had also lost his position as the highest placed young rider in the field.

For the remainder of the Tour, Kibble put the disappointment behind him and clawed his way back up the general classification and also raced to a fabulous fifth place finish on stage five.