Gold Medal Success for Lynch and Clifford in Switzerland
Time Trial Wins for Irish Duo at Paracycling Road World Cup
Colin Lynch and Eoghan Clifford have won time trial gold on another day of medal winning success for the Ireland squad at the UCI Paracycling Road World Cup in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland today.
Double world championship winner Lynch made it back-to-back successes in world cup time trials with victory in the MC2 time trial following his success at the first round of the series in Maniago, Italy last week.
In a dominant performance on a mainly flat 14.15km course that suited strong riders, Lynch had 63.72 seconds in hand over Arslan Gilmutdinov of Russia with Israel Hilario Rimas of Peru a further ten seconds in arrears.
The victory continues Lynch’s unbeaten time trial start to the World Road Cup season and, as well as garnering more important Paralympic qualification points towards Rio de Janeiro next summer, continues his preparation for the world championships in Nottwil, Switzerland at the end of July.
Meanwhile, reigning world champion Clifford got his World Cup campaign off to the perfect start with a strong performance that resulted in a hard won victory in the MC3 time trial over 28.3km.
Clifford’s first paracycling road outing of the year resulted in a 38.77 second win for the Galway-native over Japanese racer, Masaki Fujita and Belgium’s Diederick Schelfhout.
James Brown and Bryan McCrystal were in action in the Men’s B tandem, the pairing renewing their association with 12th fastest time over the two-lap, 28.3km distance.
Katie-George Dunlevy put the crash which blighted her road race in Italy last week behind her to finish 8th in the Women’s B tandem time trial piloted on this occasion by Fiona Guihen.
Mark Rohan began the Irish campaign at Yverdon, finishing 27th in the time trial having been forced to start in the much more competitive H3 category.
Neill Delahaye: “Today was a great day for the team. We have put in the graft and the whole team has delivered their best on the day...to hear Amhrán na bhFiann twice in one day has been very special.
"Colin showed once again that he is world class against the clock. We were quietly confident the course could suit him and he showed his strength and really delivered it on the day with an exceptional time.
"Eoghan worked really hard for the win. He was down after the first lap but never deviated from the plan and dug very deep in the second half of the race, with a negative split, to turn it around.
"Every bike committed fully and we are looking forward to the road races over the next two days.”
Mark Rohan is next up for the Irish squad with an early start in the H3 road race tomorrow while Clifford is back in action tomorrow afternoon in his bid for a second medal in the 58.12km MC3 road race.
For full results from all races at round two of the UCI Paracycling Road Word Cup in Yverdon –les-Bains see http://www.uci.ch/para-cycling/ucievents/2015-para-cycling-uci-para-cycling-world-cup/374847015/widgets/start-lists-results-standings/
| Day 1 – Sunday 14th June 2015 | Results | ||
| 8am-5pm | Mark Rohan | M H2 Time Trial 14.15km | 27th |
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| Colin Lynch | M C2 Time Trial 14.15km | 1st |
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| Brown & McCrystal | M B Time Trial 28.30km | 12th |
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| Dunlevy & Guihen | W B Time Trial 28.30km | 8th |
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| Eoghan Clifford | M C3 Time Trial 28.30km | 1st |
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| Day 2 –Monday 15th June 2015 |
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| 9.02am | Mark Rohan | H3 Road Race 29.06km |
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| 4pm | Eoghan Clifford | M C3 Time Trial 58.12km |
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| Day 3 – Tuesday 16th June 2015 |
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| 8am | Colin Lynch | M C2 Road Race 43.59km |
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| 1.17pm | Dunlevy & Guihen | W B Road Race 72.65km |
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Irish Team for 2015 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Cup Round Two
Mark Rohan, MH2 Time Trial, MH1 Road Race, from Ballinahown, Co. Westmeath
Colin Lynch, MC2 Time Trial, MC2 Road Race, from Cheshire in England
James Brown & Bryan McCrystal, MB Time Trial, MB Road Race, Brown from Stonehouse in England, McCrystal from Dundalk, Co. Louth
Katie-George Dunlevy & Fiona Guihen, WB Time Trial, WB Road Race, Dunlevy from Maidenhead in England, Guihen from Navan, Co. Meath
Eoghan Clifford, MC3 Time Trial, MC3 Road Race, from Galway Bay CC, Co. Galway
Coach
Neill Delahaye
Manager
Tommy McGowan
Mechanic
Gerry Beggs
About Classification in Paralympic Sport: Classification is a unique and integral part of Paralympic sport. It provides the structure to separate athletes with similar levels of impairments into groups, or classes as they are commonly known, so they can compete in fair and equal competitions against one another, and ensure that winning is determined by skill, fitness, power, endurance, tactical ability and mental focus. This same principle exists in non-Paralympic sports where athletes are classified according to age, gender or weight divisions to allow for as fair competition as possible.
In para-cycling there are fourteen classifications based on functional disability type. B refers to the tandems, where the stoker is blind or visually impaired, and the pilot is sighted. H represents the handcycling events, and C refers to cyclists on regular and also adapted, solo bikes, who may have cerebral palsy, limb impairments and amputations. In these events the categories have numbers denoting the level of impairment, the lower numbers the more severe the impairments and the higher less so.
For more information on Para-cycling visit:
http://www.uci.ch/para-cycling/about/