Eoghan Clifford looking very strong in the winning breakaway, but his chain would come off when sprinting for Paralympic gold (Photo: Sportsfile)
Having already overcome a painful knee injury to take bronze in the pursuit on the track in Rio and gold in the TT, Eoghan Clifford had a more testing time today at the Paralympics.
The Galway man made all the right moves in the road; infiltrating the winning five-man breakaway and looking among the very strongest in it.
But when that group reached the end of the mixed C1 to C3 class 71km event, his chain slipped on the home straight.
The mishap took him completely out of the sprint and he would finish 10 seconds off the back of the others banging his handlebars in disgust.
Colin Lynch – already a silver medal winner in his C2 TT – was also in the event and rode to support Clifford, though still finished 24th.
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Clifford was understandably annoyed after the finish but said the ordeal he’d experience was a part of bike racing that everyone had to accept at one time or another.
Clifford drives the escape; he rode with great confidence and would surely have taken a third medal but he still comes home a hero with gold and bronze around his neck (Photo: Sportsfile)
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"The chain came off. I wasn't actually changing gears or anything. It just came off but it happens in bike racing.
“You can get a puncture, you can get a mechanical and it mightn't be anyone's fault," he said, although he admitted that he was disappointed.
"I really felt I had a medal there but it's been a great Paralympics. I've really enjoyed it.
“I felt good coming into the sprint; just unfortunately 200m to go my chain came off,” he said.
“Today I felt very good. I did everything I could do. These things happen, it’s disappointing.”
He paid tribute to team mate Lynch, himself a former double world champion, saying he had really aided his chances over the three-lap race on the relatively flat 23.7km course.
“Colin got in the early break and that was good. A couple of the other teams had to chase so when they pulled it back I went and about eight of us got away,” said Lynch of what were solid Irish tactics that may well have brought another medal, even gold, but for the errant chain.
“On the first lap there was a lot of attacking on the hills and it whittled it down to six,” explained Clifford.
“For the next lap and a half there were six of us, again there was a bit of attacking and there it got whittled a bit more. In the last lap we really let fly at each other, there was a volley of attacks on the hills.”
Steffen Warias of Germany won the sprint from the breakaway to claim the gold.
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