More PBs on Day Three of the Para-cycling Track World Championships
Day three of the UCI 2016 Para-cycling Track World Championships in Montichiari, Italy saw the male and female tandems compete in the 1km Time Trials, with both bikes recording personal best times. Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal finished in tenth place in the WB 1km TT with a time of 1.12.778 which was a sea level PB for the pair. Peter Ryan and Sean Hahessy followed with a personal best time of 1.06.36, which was just outside the national record. This was the first major championship for the two Tipperary men who have been training together for the past six months. The championships run from the 17th March to the 20th March in the Montichiari Velodrome in Brescia, Northern Italy.
While the focus of the Para-cycling team has been on the endurance events, like the pursuit, the opportunity to race in a Velodrome doesn’t happen too orten, so both bikes grabbed the chance to race. Ahead of the event Dunlevy said “We’re aiming for national records. There’s no pressure on us, though, so we’ll try for the record and see where we come.” The tandem’s time of 1.12.778 was a sea level personal best time, and netted a top ten finish. Dunlevy and McCrystal narrowly missed out on the bronze medal in the WB 3km Pursuit yesterday.
In the Men’s Tandem Ryan and Hahessy were happy to get another PB, acknowledging that they are both endurance riders, so were happy with their performance. Ryan said “It was another PB so you have to be content with that. We’re never training for the kilo, so it really was fleshing out the weekend, so we’re happy going home.” Yesterday they rode a fantastic race in the MB 4km Pursuit, Ryan said “Yesterday was a tale of two stories, you’re never delighted with 9th, but then if you gave us 4.21 before the race, we’d have bitten our hand off for it. It would have got a silver medal last year! It’s just the year that’s in it. Myself and Sean are just 6-7 months together, and we just knocked 6-7 seconds off the last competition in November.”
Hahessy is a strong rider on the national road racing scene, so the past few months has brought with it a lot of change, he said “I’m new to tandem racing and to track racing. On the tandem it’s technically different (to the solo bike), but also you have to adjust to it being more than one person. On the road a time trial is 20-30 minutes long, but here you have to get all that effort out in 4 minutes, and you are governed by the bends on the track, so you have spikes and dips in power.”
On the opening day of these championships Colin Lynch and Eoghan Clifford won silver and bronze in their respective Pursuit competitions. Tomorrow they will both line up in the finals of the MC1-2-3 Scratch Race where reigning World Champion Clifford will be looking to defend his title. While he will be a marked man, it will be beneficial having two Irish riders in the race together. The tandems will also be in action in the Sprint events. The UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships take place from the 17-20 March in Montichiari, Italy.