It’s all about cycle-ology.
A Paralympian and world-record holderwill make history this weekend when she becomes the first blind solo cyclist to complete the annual 100-mile Century Ride race around the Big Apple.
Shawn Cheshire is serving as this year’s NYC Century Bike Tour Grand Marshal — and described the physical feat itself as simply “empowering.”
“There’s no limitations. We do it to everybody, not just people with disabilities — we put people in boxes and we have these ideas of what people can and can’t do based on whatever ideas or thoughts that we have or fear we have,” the adventurer told The Post ahead of Saturday’s ride.
“Who knows, maybe after this ride, it’ll spark some other visually impaired or blind people to go do it!”
Athletic feats have been a form of healing for Cheshire, 51, who chronicled the first of her two cross-country cycling tours in the documentary, “Blind AF,” premiering Oct. 28.
The hardest part of riding a bike while blind isn’t balancing on two wheels, she tells The Post, but listening to the sounds of the road, the feel of the gravel and the directions from her guide — all while avoiding the cars she has to share the road with.
“The hardest part of being blind riding a single bike is the multitasking of doing all of that and following sound and forgetting how scared you are,” Cheshire, of Flagstaff, Arizona, said.
The mother of two lost her sight while working as an EMT in 2009, when she fell and hit her head while struggling with a combative patient.
The vision loss plunged Cheshire into severe depression — which she managed to claw her way out of by hopping on a bike.
The 13-time Paracycling National Champion represented the US at the inaugural Invictus Games in London and the 2016 Rio Paralympics before embarking on her cross-country journeys.
“Blind AF” follows her 3,600-mile ride from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean in 2021 — the longest day of which Cheshire clocked 126 miles through the mountainous terrain of Wyoming.
The following year, Cheshire, who earned the nickname Wonder Woman for her strength, rode 2,700 miles from Canada to Mexico and more recently became the first blind person to hike across the Grand Canyon without a sighted guide.
The Arizona resident has also partially climbed Mount Everest — and suffered hearing loss from the extreme altitude.
“These adventures are a place for me to put the pain and the sadness of all the loss I’ve experienced,” Cheshire explained, calling the feats “part of her grief process.”
By comparison, the small climbs around Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and through Manhattan will be much smoother than her cross-country journeys.
And while she’s “open to” feeling the same rush of emotions and tears that her previous travels brought on, Cheshire hopes to have a much more joyous experience.
“I’m expecting to have a lot of fun. Meeting new people and joking around, being very present in the moment and taking it in. I’m very excited,” Cheshire said.
“You can have hard times and still have fun. I have learned that.”
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