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Great Britain’s Jody Cundy is motivated to continue the achievements of Team GB’s cyclists at the London Olympic Games when cycling at the 2012 Paralympics begins on the 30 August.
British Cycling’s athletes came away with a total of 12 medals from the capital – eight gold, two silver and two bronze medals which featured seven of the 10 gold medals available to win on the track.
It surpassed the haul of medals won in Beijing in 2008 and for Cundy, a Paralympic champion in both swimming and cycling, offers a great source of inspiration for Great Britain’s para-cyclists who themselves claimed 17 gold medals in Beijing and will be aiming for more triumphs this summer.
"For me, the Olympics were pretty mind-blowing," Cundy told Press Association Sport.
"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.
"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."
Jody Cundy
"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!"
The 33-year-old - who is the defending Olympic champion in the kilo and team sprint disciplines and renowned for his explosive speed – has also been training for the individual pursuit which he will add to his programme in London.
Having spent plenty of time on the track with those who performed so well in the London Velodrome, Cundy is confident the hard-work of him and his fellow atheletes will pay off in front of a home crowd.
"I train alongside those guys and do the same efforts, so if they are going well, ultimately we are all in the same ballpark and should be coming into some good form," Cundy said. "Training at the moment is indicating that we are on the right track, and it is just now getting to that point of race day, getting in there and really attacking and seeing how it all comes together.
"The world is going to be watching. Everybody knew the cycling team (at the Olympics) was going to be the one to watch and now they have performed, it's like 'right - next team on the boards is the Paralympic team, and can they deliver that golden performance they have been promising over the years?'
"With the performances we had at the World Championships earlier this year and in previous years since Beijing, I think we are in good shape to do that.
"From what I see in training everyone is on song at the moment, so look out the rest of the world."
You can view the fulls schedule for the Paralympic track cycling here as part of our Para-Cycling at London 2012 area.
