A MOUNTAIN biker has died after being thrown from his cycle into a dry stone wall.

Russell Hewitt, 31, of Cardigan Avenue, Oswaldtwistle, was in Darwen with a friend when the accident happened just after 5pm yesterday.

Today his devastated parents Alice, 63, and John, who was today due to celebrate his 66th birthday, spoke about the popular roofer, who worked at All in One builders at Clayton-le-Moors.

Alice said: "He lived life to the full. Whatever he did he enjoyed doing and went mad about it. He loved his cycling and did it about two or three times a week.

"He had also taken up mountain climbing and went up Ben Nevis last winter and he had also done snowboarding.

"Everyone in Oswaldtwistle knew and loved him and it will be a shock to them all. He was a really loveable lad, outgoing and cheerful.

"It is just a massive shock to us both. We are really going to miss him. I am just devastated and it hasn't sunk in yet. Police think he broke his neck and that he was killed outright." Russell's body was found on a sharp left hand bend at the bottom of a hill close to Sunnyhurst Woods and Darwen Golf Club.

His friend, who was cycling in front of him, continued back to a van they had left parked nearby and was unaware Russell had fallen. Russell, who also leaves sister Shirley, 42, of Corsham and brother Mark, 38, of Garden Street, Oswaldtwistle, was discovered on a rough road that forms the continuation of Tockholes Road by a member of the public who raised the alarm.

Paramedics from Blackburn Ambulance Station attended the scene but Russell, a former pupil at Rhyddings High School, had suffered fatal neck and head injuries.

PC Gordon Dickinson, of Lancashire Constabulary's road policing unit in Accrington, said the two friends had been going to Darwen Tower when Mr Hewitt fell from his bike.

He went on: "Mr Hewitt and his mate came down the hill from the tower. His friend was in front and appears to have carried on unaware of what had happened.

"Someone who was walking along found him but it is not thought that he had been there very long."

Accident investigators from the unit were continuing their inquiries today but PC Dickinson said it was impossible to estimate the speed the bike was going at this stage.

He went on: "We do not know how fast he was going or indeed how he died until a post mortem examination has been carried out.

Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley coroner Michael Singleton has been informed of the incident.