While the partnership is in its relative infancy, Ball says there have been some nerves as they ready themselves for action.
“I think he (Pope) was quite nervous at the start as well and obviously he wanted to prove that he was good enough sort of thing,” Ball said.
“But if you’re on the programme, you’re good enough. Training’s been good and it’s completely different with every pilot, the way they approach training and how we gel together.
“It doesn’t take me very long to realise if it’s working or not so it’s really good to see. I feel like I’m teaching him some things even though he’s way better than me power-wise, but it’s nice to show some of my experience to him.”
Ball, 35, has embraced the positivity that can come with change.
“Paris (Paralympics 2024) was the crowning moment of what I’ve achieved and I was like, how can this get any better?” he said.
“Changing pilots all the time keeps it fresh though, especially for me.
“If we had the same tandem partnership, I feel like you’d find it hard to always progress those goals. I feel like every (new) pilot is like fresh air and a reset.”
James Ball’s pilots
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Craig McLean
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Matt Rotherham
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Pete Mitchell
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Lewis Stewart
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Steffan Lloyd
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Aaron Pope
A new cycle brings fresh competition for Ball and Pope.
While the duo develop their chemistry on the bike, Ball says he has not put too much pressure on results in the Netherlands.
“If there’s any mistakes and stuff, then brush them off,” he said.
“We know a lot of learning is going to be done at this world championships because we’ve got a lot of the big, heavy-hitting bikes coming as well, some we’ve never even seen before.”
Ball, however, says competition is good for the growth of the sport.
“We’ve looked and there’s so many more tandems on the start list now, which is great,” he added.
“There’s two Australian bikes now, two German bikes, the French as well.
“We’ve got a lot who we’ve raced before, but obviously that was two years ago. We don’t know what everyone’s form is like but this year will be the year that everyone’s going to put a time down, just to show what they can do, and then build on that over the next two years.”