Magic: Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal celebrate their silver in the road race to add to their TT gold. Their missing out on the pursuit medal ride-offs is happily a just a distant memory now!
By Brian Canty
Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal have added another medal to the Irish Paralympic team’s tally by taking silver in the women’s tandem B road race in Brazil today.
After taking gold in the time-trial on Wednesday the pair rode a superb race on a day medals were very much put into perspective by the tragic death of Iranian paracyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad.
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With the races shortened by 15 kilometres and delayed by over half an hour because of a lack of ambulance cover after the fatal crash, Dunlevy and McCrystal got down to business early.
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They broke clear with the Polish tandem in a two-team breakaway but had no match for them on a late descent, perhaps fatigue playing a factor after what has been a really hectic week of racing.
Sean Hahessy and Damien Vereker were in blistering form at the Paralympics today when they stormed almost two minutes clear of the bunch before being forced to retire, with reports suggesting they did so because of fatigue.
Iwona Podkoscielna and her pilot won in a time of 1:58:02 with the Irish pair a minute back.
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The silver brings to an end a fabulous week for them that saw them take the gold medal in the time-trial just four days ago.
New Zealand took the bronze medal this afternoon.
Meanwhile, Seán Hahessy and Damien Vereker were listed as non-finishers while Peter Ryan and Marcin Mizgajski finished 12th in the men’s road race.
Peter Ryan and Marcin Mizgajski finishing their men's B road race at the Rio Games.
The former pair were the main animators of the race and they took off on a solo break early on and built a very commanding advantage of 1’40” at the halfway (45-kilometres) mark.
And with Ryan and Mizgajski sitting comfortably in the bunch they were allowed a free ride with their teammates up the road.
But the Dutch and Spanish teams began to assert their authority on proceedings as the kilometres ticked down.
They jumped clear of the field and would contest a tow-up sprint, with the Dutch getting the verdict and the Irish pair crossing the line around 13 minutes back.
It was unclear at the time of writing why Hahessy and Vereker were forced out of the race. Some reports suggested they did so because of fatigue, though that was unconfirmed.
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