A legend of British cycling who rode at the Munich Olympics and went wheel to wheel with Tour De France winners is back on his bike again thanks to the skills of an award-winning surgeon.

Dave Lloyd, 73, had his sights set on the sport’s big time back in the 1970s when he left his home in Liverpool to ride alongside greats, but 18 months ago, hit a road sign 200 yards from his then Cheshire home.

Mr Lloyd, from Llanymynech, smashed the top of his left thigh, his elbow and broke his forearm in three places but was successfully treated by Spire Murrayfield orthopaedic surgeon Alan Highcock, who also works at NHS Arrowe Park Hospital and was back on his bike within months.

But within a year he needed crutches again, which led to a diagnosis of blood cancer, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and a five-hour operation was needed to rebuild the top of his right leg and his pelvis.

He said: “It was a huge operation.

“Alan had to reconstruct my pelvis before putting in a replacement hip and then I had to spend three days in intensive care.”

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It has allowed him to return to the sport he loves and was only denied a high Tour of Switzerland finish because of team orders.

He said: “It was fantastic to be alongside the big names. I was cycling in a group with the great Eddie Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck and Eddie offered me the can of Coke he was drinking from – I’ve still got it.

“Alan’s done an amazing job and with the weather warming up I’ll soon be out there again, clocking up the miles.”

The recovery he has made is remarkable, according to his award-winning orthopaedic surgeon, a Wirral man himself, who has worked at the world-famous Cedars Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

He said: “The X-ray we had done showed his pelvis had basically disintegrated – that’s pretty unusual and I thought immediately it looked like cancer so we had the tests done here at Spire Murrayfield and then got Dave over to Arrowe Park Hospital for the operation.

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“It was a five-hour operation during which we rebuilt the pelvis and fitted the hip joint into the reconstruction, but it was physiologically stressful for Dave, even as fit as he is, and we had to monitor him very carefully throughout.

“We’re talking about someone who was top-level at his sport and it’s so satisfying to see him on his bike again because he could barely walk just three months ago.

“He lives for his cycling and is already back doing four hours on the bike a day on a trainer and he’s started going out on the road again."