“I went out to Majorca to train with my friend Karen (Darke) when the Paralympic selections were being made – I was so nervous that I wouldn’t get picked so I thought that if I had my favourite hills round about me to go ride on, I wouldn’t have to think about it. I was phoned 15 minutes after Karen got told she had been picked to go to Rio. It was the most agonising 15 minutes of my life.”

Hannah Dines, 23, is a trike rider from Glasgow who has just been picked to compete for Team GB at the Rio Paralympics. Scottish Cycling was able to catch up with Hannah at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome to find out more about her journey to this point in her career.

“Going to Rio still doesn’t seem like a possibility – I just can’t believe it. It is incredibly rare for someone as new to the sport as me to get to go. I was glad to be with Karen when we both found out we were going – it meant we could celebrate together.

I have been training on my trike for just under two years – previous to which I did a sport called race running for a year. This is where you run using a running frame – a bit like a zimmer frame but it makes you go really fast. I got involved in that a year before I started cycling, I hadn’t done any other sport before and I joined Red Star AC in Glasgow, they made me the athlete I am today. British Cycling got the finished version of this committed athlete to work with – and have turned me to cycling!

I remember being on the phone to my Mum when my cycling career started with British Cycling – at the time I was still balancing race running and university – “I want to commit my all to cycling” I told her, and she said “Go for it, I can tell this is what you want to do” – and I have! I am lucky that I still managed to finish university too.

Since then trike racing has become my whole life. Being an athlete for me is all about the process of training and not winning individual medals – my aim is to become the best trike racer in the world so my process hasn’t ended yet – Rio is just the beginning. It will take me a while to tick this box!

I train six days a week with one rest day – although sometimes I don’t even get a rest day. This is a mixture of on the road and at the gym with support from British Cycling, Scottish Cycling and the sportscotland Institute of Sport. I love it, it is time when I get to be free – I feel like a ballerina mixed with Bradley Wiggins when I am on my trike!

With trike racing you only really need a road, any road – in the city centre of Glasgow it can be difficult with pot holes and traffic – but the people are always really friendly when they see  me out and about. I do get out to the country as much as possible though so I can stay clear of traffic.

It is funny because a bike with three wheels is actually less stable than one with two – in the Paralympics they put those with the least balance on a bike which is most likely to tip over.

I didn’t really get into sport until I was 19, which is quite old in sport. However, I have always been competitive – in primary school I used to like arm wrestling the boys because I knew I could win! Everyone gets nervous before c competition but when I am in the middle of a race I am at my happiest – I totally relax and enjoy myself.

When I started going to world competitions I struggled to keep up with the main bunch –it wasn’t until started to keep up with them and had competitors to mess about with tactics that I really felt like a racer!

British Cycling would only have picked me to go to Rio if I was in for a chance of a medal – you only go if you can bring back the goods! I have a chance of a bronze medal in Rio, and hopefully gold in Tokyo. There are two really good female trike riders who I won’t mention – but I imagine they will fight it out for silver and gold – I am have my own nemesis to beat for bronze – but I am determined.

There is a big team from Britain who are going, however you should keep an eye out for every cyclist on the able bodied and the Paralympic Team GB squads!”