Hand-cyclist Callum Russell was delighted to be nominated alongside one of his biggest heroes for a prestigious cycling award.
The 30-year-old will discover if he is named the National Champion of the Year at the 2026 British Cycling Awards, presented by Lloyds on 14 November, after a stunning year which saw him win a World Championship title amid a string of major medals.
Russell was a competitive mountain biker and idolised fellow nominee Tracy Moseley, but he broke his back in 2018 after misjudging a jump, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.
He said: “It's surreal. Some of those names, when I was racing before my accident, were names that I looked up to. It feels amazing.
“I always remember when I was mountain biking, Tracy was just winning everything. I still have a lot of friends that are into that and still watch it quite a lot.”
The Stockport native first turned to rowing after his accident, winning bronze on his GB para-rowing debut in 2022, but he made the decision to get back on the bike in 2023, and he hasn’t looked back.
In 2026, he clinched his first World Championship title in the road race H4 in Huntsville and took silver in the time trial H4 too. And he earned a bronze in the European Championships road race to boot.
“I've had a really good year this year,” Russell added. “And then to see that I'm supported in other ways is a really nice feeling.
“When you win international medals, that's all done off your own back and you put the time in, but to see that there are a lot of people around you and to see that people are voting for an award like this, it's a really nice thing to see.”
Despite being in just his third year of international competition as a hand cyclist, Russell came into this year with the confidence that he could perform at the highest level.
He said: “At the start of the year, the course came out for the World Championships and it always looked quite promising for me.
“Throughout the year, I always had in the back of my mind that I would like to achieve a medal that was better than my bronze last year.
“So to go and do that felt amazing. And gold wasn't massively expected. It was something that I wanted, but I would have snapped someone’s hand off to have anything above a bronze.
“I'm gaining more experience and I don't think I'm at my peak yet.”
The British Cycling Awards presented by Lloyds is celebrating those inspiring individuals who have brought the joy of cycling to communities across the country, through their performance on the global stage, to their tireless work at grassroots level. See how you can join the movement of cycling by visiting britishcycling.org.uk
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