Nia Holt thought she had left her bike racing days behind her.
But after a 10-year hiatus, which included raising a family, she is set to compete at the Commonwealth Games just a year after getting back in the saddle.
For Nia, that means juggling her time between training and spending time with her young family.
But after being away for so long from the activity she loved, the 28-year-old is delighted she found room in her life again for sport.
Carmarthenshire-born Holt began cycling from an early age, before joining Towy Riders Club in Carmarthen when she was 13.
It was at the famous velodrome in Carmarthen Park that Holt fell in love with the sport.
At 17, her vision started to deteriorate. Fortunately, she found a disability programme in Newport.
She later put the bike down and started a family with her partner, Adam Holt.
That family is cycling-mad, and so it was no surprise to many that she returned to racing. A shock to a few, perhaps, that she quickly made the Team Wales squad for the para cycling in Birmingham.
Holt will be competing in the Tandem B event with pilot Amy Cole.
“I had kind of left the bike behind,” she says.
“I got pregnant and it was probably one of those things where I said to myself, I’m probably not going to get back on the bike now.
“Yet here I am today. We raised our kids, and we tried that chapter. I’d lost more eyesight at that point, and I was just thinking about what I was going to do for myself.
“It was hard at first because I was unfit. But I jumped back on the bike, and it all came back to me.
“I was just really enjoying being back on the bike and having fun. Then all of a sudden, I realised I had a chance to go to the Commonwealth Games, so I just thought, ‘let’s do that!’”
“It has been hard juggling family life with training. My husband, Adam, has also recently got a job with Welsh Cycling as a journalist, so he’s pretty flat out as well.”
Holt would be the first person to tell you that a year or two ago she was not expecting to be competing at a major tournament such as the Commonwealth Games.
Being only a year back into cycling, she has achieved an awful lot.
While she has defied some predictions to get to this position, she is just focussed on taking in the occasion and enjoying herself.
