By Mike Burnett
BBC Sport in Manchester |
 Hunter and McGlynn enjoyed gold medal success in Athens |
Track cyclist Aileen McGlynn refuses to let an injury setback get in the way of success at the Velodrome on Friday. McGlynn, competing at the Visa Paralympic World Cup with sighted pilot Ellen Hunter, suffered a nasty fall in training three weeks ago.
"I fell off my bike, nearly broke my collar bone and had a few stitches in my head," said the Paralympic champion.
"I've still got a sore shoulder but it's not going to stop me competing, I'm just going to block out the pain."
McGlynn and Hunter won Britain's first gold medal of the Paralympics in Athens last year.
The Glasgow-based athlete, who is partially sighted, is hoping for more glory as she takes part in only her second international competition.
The duo will compete in the 200m tandem time trial, 1000m time trial and the tandem sprint, but McGlynn knows it will be tough condensing three events into one evening of competition.
"It's going to have a big effect really," the 31-year-old told BBC Sport.
"Our events were spread over three days in Athens, whereas on Friday we're going to have to do all these events in the space of three-and-a-half hours."
One particularly gruelling event could be the sprint, which is a head-to-head race between pairs of riders - or tandems - decided over the best-of-three races.
 |  We train in Manchester every fortnight so it's like home ground |
"We're really hoping we can get through the sprint in the least number of races. It'll be quite tough if each sprint goes to three races."
One advantage for McGlynn is that she will be competing on a very familiar track.
She makes the long journey down from Scotland every two weeks to train with Wrexham-based Hunter at the Velodrome in Manchester.
"We train here every fortnight so it's like home ground," added the Scot.
"But when I was out in Athens I got used to the track out there, so it won't make too much of a difference."
For McGlynn and Hunter, Friday will also be as much a training session as a competition.
"This is not the event we're peaking for," she said. "The European Championships in August are our main event this year, so we're training through this."
MMIX
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