How a tandem can open up the world

On the pm radio programme yesterday, a thrilled blind lady was featured - she had just been cycling on a tandem. Through Companion Cycling, a charity based in Surrey, people with disabilities are able to take to a bike and enjoy the wow feeling we all get from pedalling away.

Last summer, we had our own tandem wow, when Erik Weihenmayer took his young family cycling with us in Oxfordshire. Erik, who lives in Colorado is the only blind man to have reached the Everest summit which he did in 2001. His life reads like an action man Oscar and his autobiography, Touch The Top of the World is a source of inpsiration to all of us.  Now married, his wife took the front saddle of the tandem and with their two children following, they rode out of Oxford along the rural Thames to start their adventure with us. We had made some adjustments to the tandem before their arrival as the front rider is not usually the smaller of the pair. All went well and we were left standing in awe and viewing the crudentials of the tandem in a new light!