THREE years ago, Adam Bright borrowed his dad's bicycle from the garage and went for a ride.

Little can he have imagined where it would lead him.

In the inaugural Ilfracombe Carnival Evening Criterium, Bright completed a super fast journey from casual cyclist to 1st Category rider.

Although the Revo Racing clubman was outsprinted just short of the winning line, he was North Devon's top finisher in second place.

"I'm a bit gutted to lose the sprint but it's a good result for me because it gives me my 1st Category licence," said the Westward Ho! rider.

It completes a rapid rise for Bright, who began serious racing only last year, having freewheeled into it almost by chance.

"I was a bit bored and I just went out for an hour in my shorts and a T-shirt," said Bright, recalling the beginning of his life-changing journey in 2007, when he jumped on his dad's bicycle.

"The next time I went out for a bit longer and it was just once a week for maybe a month. Then it was a couple of times a week and now it is almost every day."

Or, calculated in distance, 250 miles a week.

The £200 bicycle — that was how much Adam paid to buy it from his dad — has been replaced by a modern £2,000 carbon fibre machine. And the shorts and T-shirt have given way to Revo Racing black and green.

But Bright not only looks the part now, he plays it too.

After the race last Thursday was reduced to a leading bunch of five riders halfway through, Bright made sure he was never out of the hunt.

The five, who included a second North Devon rider, Southfork Racing's Henry Benning, were still locked together as they entered the final lap.

Under the race format of 50 minutes plus three laps, it all came down to the last few seconds.

After the sharp right-hander into Wilder Road, Bright began to sense a victory, but Mid Devon's Jake Durant snatched it from him close to the finish outside the Grosvenor Hotel.

"I thought I had him," said Bright. "I was trying to look round to see if I could see him and, the next thing I knew, he came flying past me."

But any disappointment felt by Bright was neutralised by the acquisition of his new status.

Under the structure of the national governing body, British Cycling, riders are categorised according to ability. They begin at 4th Category, rising to 3rd, 2nd, 1st and Elite.

Bright's second place took him past the 200 points he needed for the season to gain a 1st Category licence — his second celebration of the week. It had been his 24th birthday four days earlier.

Not that he went out for a few beers with his mates.

"I had a three-day stage race in Dorset and my birthday was right in the middle of that," said Bright.

It was six months from the day that his dad's bicycle left the garage before Bright joined a club, Guerciotti (now Taw Velo). He stayed with them for a season before joining Revo Racing and his first success came in June last year when he won a circuit race in Portreath, Cornwall.

Bright has come up so quickly that Durant, who had won a criterium race in Plymouth the night before, had not factored him in as a contender.

Asked beforehand whether he regarded Bright and Mark Lees, of Southfork, two local riders singled out by race organiser Clark Denby, as serious opposition, Durant replied: "They are not the guys I would be looking out for."

For the Mid Devon club, Durant's victory will have provided a little cheer at a difficult time for team sponsor Colin Lewis, a 1960 Tokyo Olympics and 1967 Tour de France rider.

Lewis frequently attends local events but he was absent following the death of his wife, Pamela, three weeks earlier.

Durant, 19, showed no hangover from his efforts in Plymouth the night before.

"This is my sort of thing, where you can tuck in and hide, and you have to go into the red only at certain times in the race, particularly at the end," said Durant.

"The Revo Racing guy was strong but there are not many people in the South West who will come past me in the last 100m."

Hosts North Devon Wheelers devised a circuit which was spectator friendly and testing for riders, with its climb up Sommers Crescent into Fore Street before hitting the High Street and returning, via Wilder Road, to the seafront.

Among the 38 riders, the first woman home was Plymouth's Alli Holland, with Southfork's Jane Cumming second.

Unlike some sports, British Cycling takes foul language seriously.

"If we hear any bad language there will be repercussions," said Andy Walker in his briefing speech before the riders set off.

"Because it is in front of the public, you do not want to give a bad impression," said a watching British Cycling official.

Good behaviour, good racing, good organisation, good fun. In anybody's language the event was a success.