28 January 2001 started like any other day with a tandem ride in Parramatta Park. It was the last day we’d cycle together for almost two years.

At first Ross thought the tingling in his hand was from a tight cycling glove, until numbness swept up his arm and through his body.

When the ambulance arrived Ross was a nerveless jellyfish dying in the sun. He’d had a stroke – Ann asked ‘doesn’t that just happen to old people’ while the paramedic shook his head in slow motion. Ann held Ross’s hand while he fought for his life in hospital. For five months.

Ross beat the odds by surviving, and again by learning to talk. He learned to read as Ann read aloud from Lance Armstrong's biography 'It’s not about the bike’. Ross told the nurses his name was Lance Armstrong. He was making a comeback. He rode the fastest wheelchair in St Josephs rehabilitation hospital. We hired a personal trainer when Ross came home. Andrew taught Ross to walk in the water. Our living room became a gym, complete with treadmill and a bicycle on rollers.

In December 2002 we got back on the tandem, with Ann in front. In 2003 Ross took over and we decided to go for gold: cycle all the way around Australia in 2004. Because we can. Our journey is just beginning again.