UCI Para-cyling Road World Cup
Location: Marlengo Italy
Event: 7 - 9 June 2013
Results |
Great Britain’s David Stone took silver and Crystal Lane bronze in the third and final day of the first round of the 2013 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Italy.
Day three started with the Women’s combined C4-5 road race. Crystal Lane was looking to build on her result in the time trial with another strong performance in the road race. Kerstin Brachtendorf from Germany immediately went on the attack and gained an initial lead of 30 seconds, which she held for the majority of the race.
Anna Hawkoska and Crystal managed to bridge the gap with 2 of the laps 10 laps remaining, leaving the 3 riders to contest the finish. Kerstin kicked initially to take the lead into the last corner with 150 metres to go, and managed to just hold off Anna and Crystal taking it to a photo finish. Anna placed second, with Crystal taking her 2nd bronze of the event.
The T1-2 road race was always going to be hotly contested with 25 trikes taking to the start line. The fast pace from the gun strung the field out over the initial two laps, with a lead group of five breaking away from the bunch. These included world road race champion Farroni, time trial champion Durst and Paralympic road race champion David Stone.
An attack from Stone whittled the group down to the three champions and he led them up the final drag to the finish, but Durst kicked first to take the lead into the final corner. Drama ensued and Farroni overshot the final corner and clipped the barrier, opening the door for Stone to come through to take silver behind Hans-Peter Durst.
The final race of the day for the Great Britain team was the Women’s Tandem race. Heavy rain and humid conditions made the conditions tricky from the off and the tight corners meant that there were a number of crashes. The Canadian pairing of Robbi Weldon and Emilie Roy were the first to crash heavily and had to withdraw from the race after only two laps. British pairing of Lora Turnham and Fiona Duncan made most of the racing, but were unfortunate to be brought down by one of the men’s tandems which were racing on the course at the same time. This crash also took down Dutch pairing of Larissa Klaassan and Kim van Dijk. In the confusion a group of four tandems got away. This was narrowed down to two on the final lap, with the Polish pairing of Iowna Podkoscielna and Alexandra Wnucnek taking the sprint from the Irish pairing of Catherine Walsh and Francine Meehan.
The British pairing, however, recovered well by climbing back up the field and take 5th spot 3.10 down on the winners.
“We had a mixed bag of results but we are pleased with the medal haul, and some strong individual performances" British Cycling Paralympic Performance Manager Gareth Sheppard said "Some of the guys will be looking to really step up in Spain and put themselves in the mix for selection for the world championships in August in Canada.
The British Team finished with seven medals from the world cup, and now move onto the next round in Segovia, Spain on the 14-16 June, where Corrine Hall and Rhiannon Henry join the squad and trade team Para-T also field a four-strong British team including Darren Kenny and Simon Price.
