Visually impaired Brittany pushes her limits to tandem to Paris

Brittany Stead and Jeannie Goff-Daniels are two friends who met whizzing round a velodrome, on a brakeless tandem bike.

Last week they rode 180 miles together and on July 28 they’ll be riding from London to Paris to raise money for Huddersfield charity Tandem Trekkers. The only twist is, Brittany is blind.

Tandem Trekkers is a unique organisation, they pair sighted riders, or ‘pilots’ as they’re known, with visually impaired riders of any skill level and increase their confidence in a safe environment whilst tandem riding.

Despite an age gap of almost 40 years, Brittany is 19, and Jeannie have share love for cycling and running. Jeannie confesses to being a Jack-of-all-trades when it comes to keeping fit and has had interests in body building, long-distance running and completed five Tough Guy endurance events.

Brittany, a member of the GB goalball squad, although she narrowly missed out on going to Rio. recently ran the Leeds 10k and a 5k run in the same weekend .

“I was born with very limited vision and no option of corrective surgery,” says Brittany.

“Throughout my life, I was able to see two metres in front of me with my right eye and one metre with my left. However, three years ago I started to lose my vision due to several eye conditions, this was a rapid and unexpected deterioration. As a result I now have no useful vision and only light perception. I have found it incredibly difficult to adapt and come to terms with the sudden loss of sight.

“As a result she steered me away from cycling and put a bit of a downer on it,” explains Brittany who has just left Brighouse High School.

“I thought, ‘why should I do it if I can’t do it on my own?’ But in year 11 the PE department decided that they’d buy me a tandem bike to have a go. It started with a tootle around during PE lessons and grew from there really. Last year I got properly into it, I got my own tandem bike I joined Tandem Trekkers and last summer I cycled the coast to coast.”

Now Brittany owns three tandem bikes. The latest edition is Oscar which they will be taking with them across the channel in a few weeks.

Jeannie, who works as an NHS care assistant, hadn’t ridden a tandem in about 30 years until recently.

“I have always fancied riding a tandem with somebody who is visually impaired or has some sort of disability,” says Jeannie.

“I approached Martin Eatherley, vice chairman of Kirklees Visually Impaired Network and then I went to the velodrome. Brittany and I were riding round and I must admit, she has nerves of steel, she was encouraging me, she has no boundaries whatsoever this girl. We got talking afterwards and she told me she’d like to do the London to Paris.”

Jeannie, a married mother-of-three and grandmother-of-two, admits she was encouraged to call Brittany by her husband and eldest daughter after they had first met and offer to be her pilot.

“When I phoned her up, all I was going by was the power in her legs and I thought, ‘this one is capable.’ I didn’t even know that she had done coast to coast, I was going solely by the power in her legs.

“You know how some people have engines on their tandems? I’ve got Brittany.”

The pair are optimistic about their voyage to Paris, they rode 100 miles in the Castleford area recently.

“We started off in too slow a group and I had to keep telling her to lay off her pedals because we kept passing the leader,” says Jeannie.

“Then we eventually got into a faster group after dinner and we did do some hills after that. We clip in, both of us, it’s just a matter of telling her if I have to brake suddenly, sometimes I might be coming to a junction and I forget.”

“We did it in six and a half hours,” adds Brittany.

The ride to Paris is just under 300 miles and split over four days but surprisingly, the only thing they aren’t looking forward to is the hustle and bustle of London St Pancras Station where they will pick up the 10ft-long long bike.

“We’ve found it quite challenging getting the bikes across because the trains won’t take it,” says Jeannie.

The preparation process for the trip is more complicated than mere logistics.

“It’s like a lot of things, it’s practise. I’d always come off (the bike) when I’d got an audience, you never come off on a quiet road by yourself.”

Brittany adds: “I’ve come off about five times. We’ve done a couple of cycles to feel what the difference is when you’re clipped in or out. We’ve done comparison rides we’ve done some rides on different bikes, clipped in, clipped out, hydration packs, water bottles and we decided on this bike, clipped in with hydropacks.”

Riding a tandem bike is always going to come with its fair share of risks.

Most people would imagine those risks increase if one of you is visually impaired but that’s not the case here.

“I am always aware of the situation, when I’ve got Brittany on the back it’s a bit like when I’ve got my grandkids in the car,” says Jeannie.

“But believe me, Brittany is more capable of looking out for herself than anybody is.

“She knows her limits and she pushes them.”

Tandem Trekkers is based in Huddersfield at Leeds road sports complex.

This cycling group actively encourages visually impaired novice, or experienced cyclists to further enhance their skills and increase their confidence in the saddle within a safe, traffic-free environment with the ability to progress on to more challenging routes.

This charity is unique as people suffering sight loss may find it very daunting to ride a bike. Tandem Trekkers provides these people with the opportunity to ride and train at different cycle trails, track sessions and exciting activities.

“It gives you the sense of freedom, to be able to do something you didn’t think you would be able to do again. You can have a really good conversation and get to know somebody. It combats social isolation, it’s all about people’s health and well being and getting them fit as well,” said Martin Eatherley, of Kirklees Visually Impaired Network.

To support Jeannie and Brittany visit https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/brittany-stead

Tandem Trekkers are looking for more members. Contact Martin Eatherley on 01484519053.