Lara Gillespie and Alice Sharpe of Team Ireland both crashed, in separate crashes during their madison ride at the UCI World Championships in Glasgow yesterday, though they remounted and battled on to finish the event.
However, while it was a bruising affair for the two Irish women - both of whom have ridden very strongly on the road this year for their trade teams - they were upbeat afterwards., Sharpe said when they had ridden the madison before at the Worlds they were comprehensively beaten, yet this time around - despite the crashes - they had been much better able to handle the level of racing.
Frustratingly, both Irish women were brought down by crashes that occurred in front of them, caused by other riders, though thankfully they were able to continue and secured a result.
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“Lara’s crash was really unlucky there, she got smashed down onto so there was nowhere (to go) and then I just got caught by a resting rider, whether to go left or right and I picked the wrong way and then I crashed," said Sharpe after their 12th place finish.
“But on the whole, it was quite a positive race. Worlds is always a level up from the Nations Cups so whilst we did lose a lap, I think we can be pleased with our performance as a whole and there’s something to work on moving forwards.
“Last year at worlds we were just totally outclassed and yeah it was quite demoralising, but I think we’ve taken a big step forward here so it’s something positive to work on for the next lot of Nations Cups and hopefully to take into the Olympics because that was still a good performance and we’ll still have good points there for qualification.
“That is the way the Madison is, you have to be super aggressive and the race was just getting more and more physical. As well as dodging bodies and there’s so much to look at, you have to be assertive and throw your weight around a bit and make sure you’re not getting pushed out of the way and hold your position.”
In other Irish news, Ronan Grimes has taken his second medal of the Worlds, adding Men’s C4 scratch race bronze to the bronze medal he took last week in the individual pursuit.
Grimes was understandably very pleased with his second medal and with those two medals in the bag, he now still has the road world title races to come, where he is an even stronger prospect having won European and Worlds gold already in his career.
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“I won’t be doing too many World Championships so just going to these championships and having these experiences is really what it’s all about," said Grimes. "To win a medal is extra special, I’m really delighted and to come away with two medals from the track campaign is the icing on the cake.”
In the Para-cycling World Championships, Martin Gordon and Eoin Mullen competed in the tandem sprint earlier today. In the 200m time trial this morning, they recorded the 5th quickest time which saw them qualify for the quarter finals for the first of the match sprints.
They faced off against Australia, who won the first two rounds and therefore progressing to the semi-finals. Gordon and Mullen will race tomorrow against USA for 5th place.
William Clifford concluded his Para-Cycling Track World Championship campaign today competing in the MC3 200m time trial as he placed in 9th. This event forms part of the Omnium which ranks riders based on their results in four events, 1km Time Trial, Scratch race, 200m Time Trial and Individual Pursuit.
After the four events, Clifford finished 7th on 98 points in the Omnium, a really positive result for his first competition on track.
Chris Burns set a new national record on his way to finishing 6th in the MC2 1km Time Trial today on track. Earlier in qualifying, Burns set a new record to qualify in 6th place with a blistering time of 1:14.377.
In the final, the man from Banbridge matched his qualifying performance. After four events on track, Burns placed 6th overall in the Omnium rankings, consistent with his performance in Paris at the 2022 World Championships.
Racing in their final event of the Para-Cycling Track World Championships, tandem duo Martin Gordon and Eoin Mullen competed in the Sprint final to determine 5th and 6th place.
Racing against USA, Ireland duo made a decisive early attack which they held right until the line to finish 5th.
Richael Timothy was in action today competing in the WC3 500m time trial setting a time of 42.354. Timothy has one event left – Tuesday's scratch race.
