Offaly's Sinead raising funds for specialist bike with LA 2028 her goal

Offaly-based paracyclist Sinead Greenan has launched a fundraising campaign to help finance a specialist tandem bike as she sets her sights on competing at the Paralympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

The GoFundMe campaign, which was launched just last week, has raised a sum of €700 of its €25,000 target as of Wednesday, September 23.

Greenan who is originally from Cavan and has lived in Offaly for the past seven years. Her mother, Andrea, is from Cootehill, Co. Cavan while her father, Mark, is from Monaghan. Greenan says she is fortunate to have the unwavering support of her husband, Colm Hill, as she pursues her sporting ambitions.

She was born with congenital cataracts and secondary glaucoma and has lived with a visual impairment all her life. While her sight has deteriorated significantly over the past two years, she has refused to let that halt her sporting career.

A qualified physiotherapist and former mountain biker, Greenan only joined Cycling Ireland’s para-cycling development squad in March of this year, but has quickly established herself on the international stage.

She has enjoyed a remarkable first season alongside tandem pilot Alice Sharpe, winning two silver medals at the World Championships.

The pair had only met around four months before competing at the championships, making their success all the more impressive.

“To win the first silver medal in the time trial was incredible and then the second one two days later in the road race was just really cool,” Greenan said.

“We couldn’t have asked for anything more from our first year together without having much time behind us on the bike together.”

Their success on the road has now encouraged Greenan to pursue a new challenge on the velodrome, but taking that next step requires a specialist track tandem.

She has already placed a deposit on the bike, but the custom-built machine is expected to take around nine months to manufacture. She must raise the remaining funds by next January.

“The ultimate aim will hopefully be to compete in August 2027 at the track World Championships,” she said.

“If I can have the bike before then, there would be other competitions on the calendar, which would be a bonus if I could get to those if I had the bike in time.”

Greenan currently trains between five and six days a week, with up to 15 hours spent training indoors on a turbo trainer.

Sinead does not generally cycle outdoors on her own, instead completing the bulk of her cycling training indoors.

She also completes a couple of gym sessions each week and gets out on the road when she has a pilot available to ride the tandem with her.

Training with Sharpe is not something the pair can do every week due to their schedules and locations, but they do meet every couple of months for intensive blocks of training.

Their first races together, the World Cup in April and the European Championships in June, actually came before they had completed any dedicated training together away from competition.

Their first training camp was in July, followed by another in August. Greenan says the relationship between a tandem pilot and rider is built heavily on trust.

“Luckily enough, we just really clicked when we met each other and three days later we were racing our first race together,” she said.

“I think we probably both learned quite early on that the other person will just give it their best no matter what. As long as you know the other person has given it their all, whether they’re having a bad day or a good day, that’s all you can do at the end of the day.

“That sort of trust that your partner is going to give it all is the most important thing on the tandem.”

The move from road racing to the velodrome will present a very different challenge. Greenan said track cycling is focused on speed, power and aerodynamics, with far less emphasis on the tactics and endurance associated with road racing.

“The speeds are incredibly high. You’re putting out really high power and it’s all about putting power into the bike and getting the bike up to speed, going as fast as you can, and also being aerodynamic,” she said.

“It’s sort of different to the road race where it’s a bit more about tactics and endurance and all that. The track is more pure. There’s less variables to it. The faster and stronger you are and the more aerodynamic you are, the better you do on the track.”

One of the biggest challenges facing Greenan is the cost and specialist nature of the equipment required. A performance tandem cannot simply be bought off the shelf, with the frame needing to be custom-built to accommodate both riders.

“First of all, tandems aren’t really something you can buy off the shelf anyway,” Greenan said. “They generally do tend to be made to order because you have varying heights.

“A pilot and a stoker, which is the person at the back, tend to be different heights, so you need to have a bike built that will fit the person at the front and the person at the back.”

For a high-performance carbon tandem, the frame is designed specifically around the riders’ measurements and geometry, including their height and leg length.

Greenan has therefore launched the ‘Road to LA28: Paralympics Sinead’s Track Tandem Campaign’ to help cover the cost of the bike and support her ambitions on the track.

The fundraising campaign was only established recently and Greenan is now hoping to build awareness locally.

She is contacting businesses in the area about potential sponsorship and corporate donations, while also hoping to organise fundraising events in both her native Cavan and her current home in Offaly.

“If I could get local backing from businesses, that would be amazing,” she said.

Greenan is currently based in Mountbolus but hopes to move into Tullamore in the coming months.

She has worked in Offaly for the past seven years as an animal physiotherapist, running a clinic room from her home. She said the local community has been hugely supportive of both her business and cycling career.

“I’ve worked here for the last seven years and people I work with have been super supportive and enthusiastic about my cycling career,” she said.

“I’ve been telling my clients anytime I’ve been away travelling why I’ve been away, and people are super interested in it, which has been really nice.”

Greenan says she has also appreciated the welcome she has received since moving to Offaly/

“Not being from here, being a total blow-in, and before the cycling even setting up my business and having people just being supportive of that and welcoming has been great,” she said.

“Now with the cycling, hopefully I can get some more local support, get my name out there and hopefully keep building on the support from the locality.”

To donate, go to Road to LA28: Paralympics Sinead’s Track Tandem Campaign on GoFundMe.