Wins for GB in Spanish ParaCycling Races

Event: May 2, 2010; Paracycling Bizkaiko Bira 1, thanks to Jayne Ellis

Riders in the Great Britain Paracycling Team travelled to a competition based in Bilbao (Spain) which comprised of three events run over two days. The first day included a hilly 11km Time Trial in the morning and a rolling 13km TT in the afternoon. The event finished with a Road Race of 62km around Mungia on Sunday morning. The team consisted of current Podium Riders; Rik Waddon, David Stone, Rachel Morris as well as Academy riders; Russell White, Shaun Mckeown, Rebecca Rimington and Lora Turnham. Guest riders were Simon Richardson and Tom Staniford.

Hill Time Trial
The first TT took place over a climb in Artxander and overnight rainfall continued to fall during the morning leaving the fast descent on the climb for the brave hearted only. The Academy tandem pairing of Rebecca Rimington and Lora Turnham ( Bex and Lora) set the day up with a great performance on the time trial coming second, just one second down on the American paring. GB Academy rider Shaun Mckeown put in a really strong effort with a finish time of 19.05 to give him a placing of 5th overall. The rest of the team put in strong performances and with no falls on what was turning out to be a treacherous course the morning finished with wins for Rachel Morris (HC3) and David Stone (T1).

GB Times:
Russ White (C5) 19.53.
Shaun Mckeown (C4) 19.05
Simon Richardson (C4) 19.18
Tom Staniford  (C4) 22.11
Rik Waddon (C3) 20.23
Rachel Morris (HC3) 29.09
David Stone (T1)( 22.31)

Town Center Time Trial
The weather cleared up for the afternoon Time Trial around the area of Mungia, a rolling course of 13.6 kilometres for Solo’s and Tandems and 10.1 kilometres for Handbikes and Trikes. After riding on the side of caution in the mornings TT, all the nations were out to prove their form on this circuit. All our team put in great performances with a win for Rachel Morris and David Stone in their classifications. Rik Waddon took 2nd place behind the Spanish rider Gutierrez and put 13 seconds into his long time rival Javier Ochoa. Simon Richardson came in 3rd in his race with a speedy time of 21.08 in the C4’s and Russ White took 5th with a strong time of 21.24.

Russ White (C5) 21.24
Shaun Mckeown (C4) 24.01
Simon Richardson (C4) 21.08
Tom Staniford (C4)  24.23
Rik Waddon (C3) 22.00
Rachel Morris (HC3) 23.29
David Stone (T1) 19.56

Road Race
The road race was 62km for Tandems, 52km for Solo riders, 32km for Handbikes and 22km for Trikes. After a delayed start, the tandem girls went off together with the male tandems and despite a fast start, Bex and Lora managed to keep up with the male  bunch for the first lap which allowed them to drop the American World Champions and the rest of the female field. By the 4th lap, the British women had opened up a lead of 4 minutes on the rest of the female tandems and eventually took the win by 3 minutes 56 seconds. This put the girls in first place on General Classification, a fantastic start to the season.

Russ White took the win in the C5 category after a breakaway on the second lap saw him open up a gap on the rest of 1 minute 47 second. This put Russ into 3rd place on General Classification, a significant improvement on last years 8th place. Rik Waddon had a strong start and was well placed on GC until a crash on the second lap brought him down heavily. Nothing broken but some nice bruises! Tom Staniford, Simon Richardson and Shaun Mckeown all finished in the bunch.

In the Handbike race Rachel Morris led from the front, keeping up with the male handcyclists before taking a win that put her at the top of General Classification. After missing a lot of the 2009 season Rachel has come back stronger than ever. David Stone dominated his classification winning all three events and taking the GC. Dave also missed a lot of last season but his dedication to his training and to racing again in 2010, has paid off and he is currently head and shoulders above the rest of the field.

The team will transfer to Bayonne on Monday ready for the URT Bayonne Stage Race starting on Friday.