Galway man Eoghan Clifford being crowned World Champion for the second time after blasting to victory in the men's MC3 time-trial in Switzerland. It was a stunning performance by him as he beat his nearest challenger, Steffan Warias, by 48 seconds over the 31-kilometre course.
By Brian Canty
Eoghan Clifford was crowned world champion at the UCI Paracycling World Championships in Switzerland yesterday; the Galway Bay CC rider blitzing the field over the course of the 31-kilometre test.
Clifford, a relative newcomer to the paracycling programme having only joined last year, dominated the opposition to win by a significant margin of 48 seconds in the MC3 time-trial.
Having led throughout the two-lap hilly 15.5km circuit, Clifford extended his 40 second advantage at the halfway point by a further eight seconds by the finish.
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"It couldn't have gone any better," he said afterwards.
"The course was very hard and that's the hardest time trial I've ever done.
“In hindsight I probably went out a bit too hard and I caught my minute man after about 10 kilometres.
"On the second lap I was hanging on for dear life. I was absolutely on the rivet on the final hill.
“But I managed to still put some time into the second placed rider and thankfully I managed to hang on.
"I'm absolutely delighted to defend the title,” he continued in reference to his maiden World Championships win in South Carolina last year.
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“Last year it was much flatter but this year it was hilly and it's nice to win on both types of course.
"I probably put myself under a bit more pressure this year to defend the title and I'm happy that I really left it all out there.
“When you cross the line it's a great feeling to know it's all been worthwhile.”
Elsewhere yesterday, Colin Lynch was 9th in the MC2 time-trial after clocking 33:37 over the 21-kilometre course.
He was just over two minutes slower than winner Arslan Gilmutdinov of Russia.
In the men’s tandem, Peter Ryan and pilot Dermot Radford were 15th of 21 bikes but it was their first championships as a pairing.
They were around six minutes off the winning time over the 31-kilometre course.
And finally, Katie George Dunleavy and Eve McCrystal were 5th out of 12 bikes in the female equivalent on the same course.
All Irish riders are back in action tomorrow for the respective road races.
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