Imagine hurtling around a heavily steeped track at 70kph on the back of a tandem. Now imagine doing it with severely limited vision. Sound terrifying? Spare a thought then for the gutsy men and women who ride in vision-impaired cycling.
The adrenaline-filled competition is among the parasports at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Australia — and riders have been smashing records.
Scotland’s Neil Fachie and his able-bodied “pilot” Matt Rotherham on Saturday obliterated the opposition and tore up the history books at a capacity 4,000 crowd at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane.
The 34-year-old Fachie, a pocket dynamo, broke his own sprint world record with a new time of 9.568 seconds on the way to winning gold.
It was his second gold of the Games, adding to his growing haul of world, Paralympic and Commonwealth titles.
Fachie, who was born with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disorder, said trust in the pilot steering at the front of the tandem was vital.
It is a trust that Fachie and Rotherham have had to build up quickly, because they have only been paired up since December last year.
“Obviously at the back of a tandem, traveling at the speeds that we get up to, it’s not for everyone,” said Fachie, whose wife, Lora, is also a highly decorated paracyclist.
“I love the adrenaline and obviously you need to put a lot of your trust in your pilot,” he said.
Fachie, who was a talented runner before turning to cycling, said he and Rotherham “gel.”
“We had to go through a selection process. It’s decided by British Cycling — it’s not up to us who we ride with,” Fachie added.
Theirs is a relationship that, while recent, has been intense in the past few weeks.
“We’ve spent the best part of a month together, sharing rooms, so we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well,” Rotherham said. “No fights as yet, so I think we’re doing pretty well.”
Also breaking records in vision-impaired cycling and grabbing two golds at the Commonwealth Games is England’s Sophie Thornhill, 22, who was born with oculocutaneous albinism, a condition which affects coloring of the skin, hair, and eyes.
Her pilot, Helen Scott, said the key to their victories was that they know each other so well, after being partners for four years.
“And we’re really good friends. I’ve got no doubt that really helps, getting along well together and being comfortable enough to have those conversations when training’s not going so well and pushing each other every day,” Scott said.
“It’s a really special partnership and we trust each other 100 percent and as the years have gone by, we’ve just synched together,” she said. “It’s a dream team.”
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