"I wanted to get a bit fitter, I thought that by losing weight it would make my life easier with being disabled, and cycling was the only thing I knew really.

"It's also good in that my weight is supported and everything. I went out a few times, started bumping into people from the old days so you've got groups to go out with and the social aspect as well."

However, as Darren pointed out it wasn't all plain sailing.

"In your head you can still race, and it spurs you on when you don't do very well. You start thinking I've got to knuckle down and do a bit more."

Although Darren can look back on those early days with a knowing smile, he's fully aware of the hard work he had to put in to get to this opportunity.

Just getting onto the Paralympic team was difficult enough for him.

"I'd been cycling again for nearly two years before I found out about the Paralympic side of things. That was only by chance as I hadn't started with the intention of doing so, it was a way of making my life easier.

"Had I found out about it earlier in my first few years when I'd have been nowhere near the standard, then I did and the opportunities that were there I trained a lot harder and putting a lot more into it and I managed to win the national championships that year, but I wasn't anywhere near the standard for world level.

"I managed to get to the standard required to join the world class performance plan, get the proper coaching and back-up and everything. I suppose two years on the plan led me to Athens, by Athens I was absolutely pinging!"