From the dry slopes of Lancashire to an alpine podium: Meet Britain's best-ever World Cup skier Dave Ryding who claims northern grit has helped him make it against the odds

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Typically, achieving your goals for the New Year takes a little while. Not so for Dave Ryding.

He became Britain's most successful World Cup alpine skier on the very first day of 2019 by finishing second in the parallel slalom event in Oslo.

That podium, combined with his runner-up position at Kitzbuhel two years ago, made the 32-year-old from Lancashire our best-ever on the slopes.

That result two years ago was Britain's first alpine World Cup podium since 1981. 

Great Britain's Dave Ryding took silver in the World Cup parallel slalom event in Oslo

Ryding (left) became Britain's most successful World Cup skier of all-time with the silver medal

Ryding (left) finished behind Austrian Marco Schwarz in the head-to-head final in Oslo

With that reward for all his years of devotion and dedication in Norway - plus the fact his beloved Liverpool are top of the Premier League - it's been a pretty happy New Year for Ryding.

The perception of British snowsports has long been dominated by the heroic failures of ski jumper 'Eddie the Eagle' - plucky but never likely to trouble the winter powerhouses of central Europe and Scandinavia.

But a new generation of Brits, led by Ryding, are challenging all that and, slowly but surely, the successes are starting to come.

Ryding's achievement is all the more remarkable given he didn't actually train on snow until the age of 13 - and even then for just three or four weeks a year.

Given that many Austrians, Swiss, Germans and their ilk are introduced to the slopes pretty much as soon as they can walk, it's been a remarkable journey.

Growing up in the Lancashire village of Bretherton, near Chorley, Ryding had access to the nearby dry slope at Pendle and it was here he learnt his trade.

British winter sports have moved a long way since 1980s ski jumper Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards

Ryding celebrates the first of his two second-place World Cup finishes - at Kitzbuhel in 2017

The 32-year-old from Lancashire competes at the Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang in 2018

Aged six, his parents Shirley, a hairdresser, and Carl, a market trader who retrained as a gas engineer and is now a ski coach, gave him the incentive of coming along on a family skiing holiday if he could master the basics.

A year with the Pendle Ski Club and Ryding was away on the slopes of Samoens in the French Alps.

'I was not really exposed to it [the snow] but the old northern grit comes through,' Ryding told The Times.

Ryding spent his teens competing for the English Alpine Ski Team but his parents only allowed him to pursue skiing full-time once he'd finished his A-Levels at 18.

Carl and Shirley gave their son a year to see how far he could get. It ended with selection for the British team at the age of 19 and the beginning of World Cup touring.

'At first when I was around they were saying "oh, this is just the new Eddie the Eagle",' Ryding recalls.

Liverpool fan Ryding poses with his skis in a Mohamed Salah shirt in an Instagram post

Ryding, pictured in the Anfield museum, will be delighted Liverpool sit top of the league

Ryding offered an insight into his regimented diet in this Twitter picture from 2014 

'I think they now realise Eddie was a bit of a joke compared with the professionalism we are trying to do in the team.'

That was reflected last year when British Ski and Snowboard performance director Dan Hunt set the ambitious target of making Britain a top-five nation in snow sports within 12 years.

Ryding, whose nickname is 'The Rocket', finished ninth at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, but his two podiums in the World Cup suggest things are moving in the right direction, even if Britain's quest for an alpine World Cup gold continues.

Sports fans may remember the fast and frenetic parallel slalom from the Winter Olympics - it sees two competitors go head-to-head, weaving between gates in a sprint to the finish line. Milliseconds count.

Ryding is part of a new generation of British skiers hoping to regularly make the podium

Ryding will aim to become the first Briton to win a World Cup gold medal in the coming years

Picturesque Alpine scenes are never far away for Ryding during his training schedule

Ryding's journey from a dry slope in Lancashire to World Cup success is an inspiring one

In Oslo, Ryding defeated the Austrian world No 1 Marcel Hirscher in the last eight of the event but missed out in the final to another Austrian, Marco Schwarz.

Pushing hard for the finish line having trailed by 0.28 seconds in the first of two runs, Ryding missed a gate and settled for silver.

But the result was a mighty confidence boost to start the year.

'I will look back at the end of my career and see where I'm at,' the Lancastrian said.

'But I just want to keep working, keep learning, keep getting better and maybe - you never know - maybe go that one step more.

'The depth in men's slalom is crazy at the moment, but if I keep putting myself in the position then maybe one day I will pick it up.'

Britain's first alpine gold medal is now tantalisingly near.