Katie-George Dunlevy and Sandra Fitzgerald picking up their World Cup gold in Spain
Irish riders competing at the UCI Paracycling Road World Cup in Segovia, Spain, have taken two gold medals on the second day of competition.
The female tandem pairing of Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Sandra Fitzgerald pulled off a big upset in the road race when they took victory.
They took the bull by the horns early in the race, attacking hard at the start of the second of seven laps. With the other nations not committed to bringing them back, the Irish women had a gap of three minutes after one lap up the road. That stretched to five minutes by end of the fourth lap.
While the Canadians then set off in pursuit, Dunlevy and Fitzgerald still had 1:10 in hand on the Canadians by the finish, with the field some 6:42 in arrears.
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The other Irish tandem pairing of Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan sat in the bunch and came home in 11th place.
In the male tandem race, James Brown and pilot Damien Shaw took 11th, with Andy Fitzgerald and pilot Con Collis finishing in 17th position.
H1 handcyclist Mark Rohan added another World Cup gold medal to his impressive career haul, also winning his road race – all of which took place yesterday, Saturday.
Rohan did not have it all his own way though, being forced with a Belgian rider to close down a very strong early breakaway. That escaper, from Israel, was only overhauled by Rohan on the last lap, at which stage the Irishman dropped the Belgian rider to take victory.
There were other riders in action today, Sunday, including Colin Lynch, Enda Smyth and Cathal Miller. We’ll keep you posted when we have news of their progress.
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