The Irish paracycling team has take two golds and a bronze from its campaign at the UCI Paracycling World Cup in Maniago, Italy. Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly, a new pairing on the tandem for Ireland, won road race gold today having also won the TT on Friday.
European TT champion Ronan Grimes who, like McCrystal during her career, has been at the pointy end of some of the hardest road races on the domestic scene of late, also medaled in the TT last Friday, taking bronze.
Today, Dunlevy and Kelly were clear winners on the TT gold, having a cushion of 1:13 on the next bike to finish. The second Irish tandem pairing, Josephine Healion and Eve McCrystal, finished in tenth place.
While Dunlevy has always ridden with McCrystal as tandem pilot, Cycling Ireland has shaken up the pairings of late in a bid to have two very competitive tandem pairings during the Paralympic qualification process towards the Paris Games next year.
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Other Irish riders in road race action at the World Cup meeting this weekend also put in solid performances in their categories. Chris Burns was 6th, some nine seconds down on the winner, finishing in a six-rider group sprinting for 5th.
TT medal winner Grimes finished 7th in his race, which came down to a sprint from an 18-rider group. Richael Timothy was 5th in her road race, a strong performance, while Declan Slevin was 29th.
Damien Vereker and Mitchell McLaughlin, a completely new tandem pairing, placed 14th in their road race, McLaughlin, who is enjoying s strong season so far on the domestic scene, is new to the paracycling team as a pilot.
In the TTs last Thursday and Friday, Healion and McCrystal were just outside the medals; placing 4th in the TT won by their team mates Dunlevy and Kelly.
While Grimes took the second medal of the TTs for Ireland - bronze, some 15 seconds off gold - Vereker and McLaughlin were 6th in their test. Burns finished 11th, Timothy was 5th in the C3 time trial and Slevin finished 21st in the men’s H3 time trial.
