Cundy takes inspiration from Olympians
Jody Cundy wants to follow the example of the Olympic cyclists
Great Britain's Jody Cundy has taken inspiration from the success of his Olympic cycling counterparts over the last few weeks as he makes his final preparations for the Paralympic Games.
Including Bradley Wiggins' time trial triumph, Team GB came away with a mighty haul of eight cycling gold medals from the London Olympics, the squad handling the significant weight of expectation upon them impressively by truly rising to the occasion.
The spotlight and high hopes of a watching nation now transfer to the Paralympic cycling team, who won 17 golds at the 2008 Beijing Games.
The task of following up that effort on home soil brings a considerable degree of pressure, something one might imagine can only have increased now the Olympic team have built upon their own achievements in China - where they also won eight golds - so spectacularly.
But while double Paralympic cycling champion Cundy acknowledges all eyes will be upon him and his team-mates in London, his main feeling is one of inspiration after watching GB's Olympic riders, whose performances he sees as a good omen for his own prospects.
"For me, the Olympics were pretty mind-blowing," Cundy said.
"Normally it is a good motivational tool before you go to the Paralympics - you sit and watch the most amazing athletes in the world do their thing, and then you try to emulate them and create your own bits of history a couple of weeks later.
"But watching the cycling team take most of the medals in London really sets it up nicely for our team to now go there and keep the ball rolling.
"To see some of those performances was pretty special, and it has inspired me to do bigger and better things when we get to London - not that my ambitions were small anyway!"
