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Last Updated: 2 Apr 2018 - 8:45:17 PM |
Irish Para-cycling Team Start Road Season in Style in Italy
By Heather Boyle, Communications Officer
13 May 2017,
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The Irish Para-cycling Team has started their 2017 Road season in style with Colin Lynch (C2) and the tandem of Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal (B Tandem) winning gold in the Time Trial events at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Maniago, Italy today. Dunlevy and McCrystal are the reigning Paralympic Champions in this event, with Lynch adding this gold to the silver medal he won in Rio last September.
Also in action, today were Declan Slevin and Ciara Staunton in the Handcycling Time Trials – Staunton rode well in the Time Trial, winning her event, as the sole competitor in H2, with Slevin racing impressively to 7th in the H3 event, less than a minute off a podium place.
In the Men’s Tandem Ireland fielded two bikes; Damien Vereker and Ian Inglis powered to 6th place in a time of 30.27.15, within 20 seconds of bronze. Hot on their heels, a further 20 seconds back, were Peter Ryan and Dermot Radfield.
Speaking after the race Cycling Ireland Performance Coach Neill Delahaye was happy with the results of the team saying “This was a really positive start to our season. It’s great to see the riders so motivated and enthusiastic to not just pick up where they left off in Rio, but to progress event further. Our support staff have really dug deep to ensure a smooth delivery on a particularly busy day. Seper teamwork all round, and we never tire of hearing ‘Amhrán na bhFiann on TT Day.”
Today marked the first of the Para-cycling Road World Cups, and for most of the team the first international test since their successful medal haul at the Paralympic Games in Rio last year. Next weekend Eoghan Clifford joins the team for the second World Cup of the season in Belgium. The World Cup in Maniago runs from the 12-14 May, with the focus for the riders moving to the Road Race over the weekend.
TEAM FOR MANIAGO
Colin Lynch
Katie-George Dunlevy & Eve McCrystal
Declan Slevin
Ciara Staunton
Damien Vereker & Ian Inglis
Peter Ryan & Dermot Radford
Issued by Cycling Ireland in partnership with Paralympics Ireland
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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, but 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/
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