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Last Updated: 15 Aug 2023 - 7:45:14 PM |
Ronan Grimes wins silver in the MC4 Road Race at the Para-Cycling Road World Championships
By Gavin Quinn, Communications Officer, Cycling ireland
13 Aug 2023,
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Ronan Grimes has won a silver medal in the MC4 Road Race at the Para-Cycling Road World Championships on Saturday, August 12th.
The Athenry man set out in Dumfries this morning in a bid to retain the World Championships title he won in Canada last year. Grimes was second best in a two-up sprint for the win with French rider Kevin le Cuff taking the win.
An early attack by Jozef Metelka was brought back to form a leading group of nine riders featuring the race favourites. Racing over six laps of the 15.6km circuit, the lead group extended their advantage with each lap.
A crash in the lead group in the fourth lap dwindled the group down to just six riders and on the final lap, Le Cuff attacked, and Grimes was the only rider in the lead group able to follow his wheel and the pair worked well together to extend their gap ensuring the win would be decided between the two of them.
Le Cuff outsprinted Grimes to take the win. Settling for silver, Grimes can be proud of his effort to defend his title and adding silver medal to the two bronze he won last week on track.
Ronan Grimes said:
“Yeah, it was a bit of a brutal race, the weather here a lot like home, very windy, rain all day. (It was a) Very aggressive race, it split up early on and then coming into the last lap myself and the French rider got away. So it was the two of us up for the sprint and you know in fairness he’s a very strong rider, very strong sprint and I really have to be happy with second place today.”
On Thursday, Grimes competed in the Time Trial where he finished in 6th place. After today’s race, Grimes spoke about the standard of riders in the MC4 category but is happy to have been able to put in a strong ride in the road race.
Ronan Grimes said:
“I was kind of a bit shocked with how far back I was in the Time Trial a couple of days ago but it just goes to show the standard that everyone I think in that top 10 is capable of winning any of these races on any day and I think to put in a good ride two days later, I’m really happy with that”
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