Aaron Pope Named as James Ball's New Pilot Ahead of Apeldoorn Worlds

British para-cyclist James Ball has a new pilot for the Para-cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. He will ride with Aaron Pope, according to BBC Sport.

A pilot is the sighted rider who sits at the front of a tandem bike, steering and driving the pair along. Ball is a visually impaired rider, and his pilot is his partner in every race. Pope is the sixth pilot of Ball's career. The earlier ones were Craig McLean, Matt Rotherham, Pete Mitchell, Lewis Stewart and Steffan Lloyd.

Ball, 35, will aim to keep the world titles he won with Lloyd in 2025. He is set to ride at his 10th Para-cycling Track World Championships. The event is a series of short races on an indoor track, and the tandem events are run over a single fast effort rather than a long course.

Pope has a strong recent record. He rode as pilot for Neil Fachie at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer, and the pair won the men's tandem sprint and the men's tandem 1km time trial golds, according to British Cycling. The 1km time trial is a rider against the clock over one kilometre, with no one to race wheel to wheel.

Ball has been a regular medal winner himself. At the same Glasgow Games, he and Rotherham took silver in the men's tandem B 1,000m time trial and the men's sprint. The "B" in that event name marks the class for visually impaired riders. Ball and Rotherham were also world champions in Los Angeles in 2017, winning the 1km time trial and the sprint.

British Cycling named its squad for the Apeldoorn championships on 23 October. The governing body's announcement described the group as a wealth of champions, and Ball's name is among those selected.

For Ball, the change of pilot is the latest step in a long career that has seen many partnerships. Each new pairing needs time on the bike to find a shared rhythm, including how they brake, corner and sprint together. The championships will show how quickly that partnership comes together.