Day 2 of the UCI Paracycling Road World Cup in Segovia saw the Irish Squad back to their winning ways. A big surprise was the performance of the Female Tandem pairing of Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Sandra Fitzgerald in the Road Race. At the start of lap 2 of the 7 lap race the girls made a race winning attack and the main bunch failed to react and left them up the road on their own. They opened up a 3 minute lead by the end of that lap and were up to 5 minutes by the end of lap 4. The Canadian tandem were first to try and pull the girls back but were unable to make sufficient inroads into their lead pulling back just 1 min and 10 seconds by the time the girls crossed the finish line to take the Gold Medal. The main bunch were 6 minutes and 42 seconds behind our winners with the Spanish Tandem taking the Bronze Medal. With Katie & Sandra away, Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan had to sit in the bunch and came home in 11th place.

In the Male tandem race James Brown and pilot Damien Shaw finished just outside the Top 10, taking 11th place with Andy Fitzgerald and pilot Con Collis finishing in 17th position.

H1 Handcyclist Mark Rohan added another World Cup Gold Medal to his World Cup haul, winning his Road Race also today. It was not an easy task as the Israeli rider had opened up a good lead on lap 1. At the end of lap 2 Mark and the Belgian rider had closed the gap on the Israeli to just 1 minute and on the final lap they caught and passed him with Mark pulling away to win the Gold Medal by 17 seconds from the Belgian with the Israeli a further 7 seconds behind taking the Bronze Medal but also moving into the lead in the World Cup overall competition.

Tomorrow sees the Solo Bikes back in action with Colin Lynch and Enda Smyth off first in the combined C1-C3 Road Race. In the afternoon session Cathal Miller will be racing in the combined C4-C5 Road Race.

----

Mixed Fortunes for Irish Paracyclists at day 1 of UCI Road World Cup in Segovia Spain.

silver Medal for Catherine & Fran in TT in Segovia

Female Tandem duo of Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan repeated their Silver Medal performance in Rome 2 weeks ago finishing a great 2nd in today’s Time Trial in the heat in Segovia.

Ireland’s second female tandem also put in a great performance to claim 7th place in the Time Trial.

James Brown and pilot Damien Shaw secured Ireland’s best ever Male Tandem World Cup finish taking a fine 4th place in their category. Andrew Fitzgerald and pilot Con Collis finished in 15th place.

Current Time Trial World Champions Mark Rohan and Colin Lynch were a little disappointed with their 4th and 5th place respectively in the H1 and C2 categories. It just goes to show how far Irish Paracycling has come that athletes are not satisfied with 4th and 5th place finishes.

Cathal Miller was just outside the Top 10 in the C5 Time Trial finishing in 11th place and Enda Smyth was one place behind in 12th place in the C3 Category.

The Road Race takes place tomorrow and Sunday with the Tandem and Handcycles racing tomorrow and the Solo Bikes race on Sunday.