On 9 January 2025, Neyland crossed the line at Bold Park in Perth thinking about the corners she had got wrong. She probably should have ridden the course again, she admitted afterwards. A few of its technical sections, including the bends into the finishing chute, had not been as clean as she wanted.

It was her first time trial. It was also her first para-cycling race, and she had just won the Australian C4 title by one minute and 29 seconds from Meg Lemon, an established international and two-time Paralympic medallist.

Neyland spoke then about the learning ahead: time trialling, para road racing and the track were all new. She wanted to keep racing off-road because that was where she had found her love of cycling, but otherwise intended to "do all the things if I can" and see where the next few years led.

The next 19 months took her to the top of road and track para-cycling. She won the C4 time trial and road race at her first World Championships in Ronse, then travelled to Rio de Janeiro seven weeks later and won the elimination, scratch race and kilometre on the track. Her first para season ended with five rainbow jerseys and a world record.

Glasgow brought a stage she had never experienced. On the final lap of the 4,000-metre individual pursuit, Neyland could hear the crowd building along the back straight of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. "They really pushed me to the end," she said. Her 4:49.648 in qualifying was a C4 world record; she returned to win the final by 19 seconds.

Three days later, she rode 1:09.667 in the kilometre, lowering her own C4 world record. Because C4 and C5 riders shared the event, the medal standings used times adjusted by classification. Neyland's became 1:08.761, still more than a second clear of the field.

Neyland also spoke about the importance of racing on a programme shared with Olympic riders and feeling part of one Australian team. By then she looked like an established champion, although she was still in only her second para-cycling season.

The years before Perth

Neyland did not arrive in para sport as a new athlete. She had competed seriously in swimming and triathlon when she was younger, later moving through road, gravel, cyclocross, mountain bike and track cycling. By the time of her para debut, she was the reigning women's winner of the Dirty Warrny, a 250-kilometre gravel race. She had also built a career as an osteopath.

The physical changes had begun years earlier. At 22, during what should have been an ordinary training run, Neyland felt pain in her right leg and began to limp. An assessment showed that her right calf had lost a noticeable amount of muscle. Later, she saw the movement of her upper body change during a gym session and filmed herself, revealing further muscle loss across her back.

There was muscular dystrophy in her family. Neyland knew something serious might be happening, but put off the medical assessment, frightened of the diagnosis and of being seen differently if it was confirmed.

The detail she remembers from the neurologist's clinic is the repeated ticking of the examination equipment as she lay on the table. She already understood that it meant trouble. The eventual diagnosis, in 2023, was facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD.

It gave a name to changes she had spent years trying not to face. Neyland has described the anger, fear and grief that followed. She needed time to come to terms with the diagnosis before telling her family.

Watching the Paris Paralympics in 2024 helped. Neyland was in what she has described as a dark place, but seeing those athletes compete allowed her to imagine a sporting future again. Within months, she was on the start line in Perth.

Learning at world-champion speed

Eight months after Perth, Neyland arrived at the Road World Championships in Belgium for her first appearance in Australian colours. She chose to ride the time trial without a radio or following car. When doubt arrived on the final lap, she thought of Grace Brown and kept telling herself she could become world champion. She won by 13 seconds. Two days later, she added the road race.

Rio asked something different again. In four days on the velodrome she had to read an elimination race, manage a scratch race and produce a standing-start kilometre. She won all three, setting a C4 world record of 1:10.806 in the kilometre. Ten months later in Glasgow, she lowered it by more than a second.

Neyland still races road, track and gravel, and continues to enter able-bodied competition. The engine and race instinct came from years across several sports; the demands of each para event, and where her best opportunities lie, are still being learnt.

Racing in a changing body

FSHD causes progressive muscle weakness, often around the face, shoulder blades and upper arms, although its course and severity differ greatly between people. Neyland says it has so far affected her shoulders, core, left hip and right calf. "I can't rebuild these muscles, only adapt and make the most of what I have."

Her times can continue to improve while particular muscles weaken. The balance may shift again before Los Angeles, affecting how she trains and which events best suit her, without anyone being able to put a reliable date on that change.

It also means classification is not a single administrative step completed at the start of her career. Neyland currently competes internationally as a C4 rider and expects further assessment as her body changes.

For an athlete accustomed to searching for capability, classification asks for the opposite. Neyland has to document weakness, describe movements she struggles to perform and show how her body differs from an able-bodied rider's. She has called classification day a tough and emotional one. Its role in fair competition does not make that experience less personal.

Los Angeles is a target, not a fixed medical deadline. FSHD does not progress to a common timetable, and Neyland has not spoken about LA28 as her final chance. She does know that the body with which she began this Paralympic cycle may continue to change before its end.

Building towards Los Angeles

Neyland's fundraising campaign says she is working part-time while trying to train full-time, with support needed for travel, equipment, maintenance and day-to-day living costs. Five world titles have not made the campaign fully funded.

Her career is still wider than the two events seen in Glasgow. Neyland's first love remains off-road, while her results have opened genuine possibilities on the road and track in Los Angeles. The next two seasons will help determine what she most wants to pursue, as well as what her body allows.

At Perth, Neyland said she would try everything and see what the next few years became. Los Angeles is now the target, and would be her first Paralympic Games less than four years after her first para race. She cannot know exactly how FSHD will shape the way there, but she is clear about why she keeps moving towards it.

"I have a fire in my belly to do as much as I can while my body is able."