Following on from a very successful Olympic Games for our Scottish athletes, we caught up with some of our representatives for the Paralympic Games, which start on Tuesday 24th August.
In this edition of #TokyoThursdays, Strathpeffer’s Fin Graham took time away from his heat acclimation sessions to reveal how he got into cycling, the coaches that helped him and his selection for Tokyo.
On his selection for the ParalympicsGB squad, Graham was excited but slightly apprehensive, as he told Scottish Cycling:
“I was so happy to receive that email, but I was stressing out as you’re nervous and you’re not sure what the email is going to say. You’ve got to read through all of it, but it was all good. I still can’t quite believe it is happening”
Although most of Graham’s youth was spent in the Easter Ross, his first foray into cycling came in a much more Southerly part of the country:
“I used to live in the Borders, the nearest biggish town was Biggar and we were only half an hour from Glentress, so we ended up going to the Mountain Bike trails there. In 2008, we moved up to the Highlands and it was bit different to ride up there. More big days out up Torridon rather than trails.”
These grand days out did lead Graham to catch the bug of racing – a bug that has started him on the journey to the Paralympic – as he discussed:
“At about seven or eight I started racing – and I was getting my head kicked in every time – but I just enjoyed it so much. The result meant nothing at that point. In about 2016, the para-cycling stuff started and from there it’s just kicked on massively. I still enjoy doing the racing, but the results started to matter a bit more, I’m looking more into them and wanting to better.”
That shift since 2016 saw Graham take the sport far more seriously, as he became a foundation rider for the British Cycling Para Programme the following year. However, having to come down to the Emirates Arena to train caused issues as the eight-hour round trips along the A9 took their toll and massively hampered the track and road rider’s recovery.
“To begin with, I was going down on a Wednesday morning and doing a three-hour session then getting home after midnight on a Wednesday night. Thinking about that now, I was getting no quality from the session as you were spending twice as long travelling.”
The endurance rider joined the Scottish Cycling Performance Programme at the same time to bolster his training opportunities and make journeys down from the Highlands more worthwhile, as he described:
“Through Scottish Cycling it was really good as they’ve been a massive help from the start. I was able to get the extra time through the Scottish Cycling programme and to use the facilities at the Velodrome, like the gym and the track. Through that I was able to make it a bit more of a trip, I would head down on Tuesday and head back up north on the Thursday – so I could have more than the one session to give me more benefit.”
Sprint coach David Daniell was the subject of much of Graham’s praise, as the Scot recalled some of the extra training and accommodation provided in Glasgow that gave him an advantage over his fellow teammates:
“Dave was there for my first track session, holding me in the gate for starts and such. That’s really pushed me on as I went on camps and riders from elsewhere like London, haven’t had the same track time or starts. It was so invaluable. He even let me stay at his house when I had come down to Glasgow for training! There’s so much I need to thank him for, he’s just been so helpful throughout the full journey”
Eventually, this commitment from the now 21-year-old Graham, saw his ascension to the Great Britain Cycling Team in the C3 category, which has provided even more opportunities to develop, as he describes:
“It was all worth it as at the end of October 2018, I moved down to Manchester and joined the full-time programme at British Cycling. When I moved down here, I really noticed how much recovery helped.”
The ability to easily access the track and being in the cycling bubble alongside Olympian flatmate Ethan Vernon, he believes had made a sizeable positive impact that allowed him to reach results such as sixth place finishes in both the C3 Time Trial and Road Race at the UCI Paracycling World Cup event in Belgium this May.
“It might sound silly or obvious, but when you’re not having to travel all the time it makes so much of a difference. My performances started to get better and better, without having to increase my training. It was all just to do with the recovery I was getting. From there I pushed on and just kept all the road and track stuff in, and slowly but surely my performances have improved to the point that we found out we were going to the Games.”
Hopefully, we’ll see a lot of success from Fin over the C3 Road and Track events in Tokyo, which start on the 26th August. The 2020 Paralympic Games will be available to watch on Channel 4 and Scottish Cycling will keep you up to date of any Scottish success via our social media channels.
