Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal hoping to find perfect harmony on the track

It is less than three years since two complete strangers met, took a leap of faith and formed an unbreakable bond.

One was already a Paralympic cyclist, the other was a Dundalk garda based in Ballybay, Co Monaghan, who cycled and did Ironman triathlons in her spare time.

The setting could not have been more prosaic — the Swords road dual carriageway near Dublin Airport — with its succession of potentially hazardous roundabouts.