Well, as some of you may already know there’s a new tandem cycling team on the roads with Beijing in our sights, we are Jayne Parsons and Annaliisa Farrell.

Here’s a short history of myself, Annaliisa, for those of you that don’t know me.

I’ve been riding for 13 years (I started at the ripe old age of 28) and have won a number of National, Regional and club titles both on the road and on the track and have won two Oceania titles, 3000 metre pursuit and the Road Time Trial amongst other races in multisport teams, mountain biking, age group duathlons, tours.

To this combination I bring experience on both the road and on the track with my love and passion for the pursuit and road time trial being foremost.

On the tandem we get to race the kilo and I must say that I’m getting quite a taste for it.

Recently Jayne and I attended the Panamerican Regional Open Paralympic Championships that were held in Cali, Colombia, South America. We had only been on the bike together for four weeks so it was going to be an interesting trip with not knowing what we were capable of doing. We had set goals “as you do” and achieved them. We were over the moon. For the kilo we had set the goal of 1:15, we rode a 1:14. For the 3000 Pursuit we set the goal of 3:45 and rode in our qualifying round a 3:44. That was enough to put us into the final two ride off for Gold and Silver. We won the Silver against the World Champs Britain. It was an amazing feeling. The Silver was a bonus for us, we were just so happy to have ridden the times that we had.

We are currently building up for the Australian Track Champs which are being held in Sydney at the Dunc Grey Velodrome from the 4th February to the 19th of February. We have high hopes of achieving even better times than in Cali. Two weeks after getting back home we will be heading to Invercargill for our own National Track Champs and again with good times in sight.

And I’m Jayne, otherwise known as “The Rear Admiral” or “Stoker”, pumping it up right behind Annaliisa commonly known as “The Captain” or “Pilot”, in charge of all controls, safety and navigation.

I’ve been riding for two years. Within the first 7 months of competitive cycling became a Bronze Medallist at the 2006 IPC Cycling Championships in Switzerland. A Bronze Medallist at the 2007 Australian National Cycling Championships. National titles in the NZ Road Cycling Championships 2006. (Tanden). Silver and Bronze medals NZ Track Cycling Championships 2007 (Tandem). Annaliisa and I are the NZ North/South Island combination that will set the standard for NZ Paralympic Tandem Cycling. Gold is the Reality of our dream, and our determination is there set for us to achieve it.