Tag: Para-Cycling

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First Paralympics Medal for GB

ParalympicsGB have won their first medal of the 2012 Games with Mark Colbourne taking Silver in the Men’s C1-2-3 1km Time Trial in a time of 1:08.471. China’s Li Zhang Yu took the Gold in a thrilling velodrome final time of 1:05.021 (a C1 World Record), with Germany’s Thomas Graf setting a C2 World Record of 1:09.979 for Bronze. GB’s Darren Kenny was briefly in first place, after recording a time of 1:10.203 (0.792 seconds faster than the previous best), but finished proceedings in fourth. Despite a valiant effort Richard Waddon only managed ninth on 1:11.394

 

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Unstoppable Action at Paralympics

As if all the excitement and drama of the Paralympic Games isn’t going to be enough over the coming week-and-a-half, they will also be the backdrop for Director Dani Jariod’s latest documentary project ‘Unstoppables’, which follows the journey – begun more than two years ago – of Spanish Paralympic cyclists Juanjo Méndez and Raquel Acinas.

 

At 48, Méndez (who lost both an arm and leg to a motorcycle accident twenty years ago) is hotly-tipped for podium – quite possibly Gold – and says of his involvement in the film,  ‘I like being in this project because I think it can give more visibility to adaptive sports. Sometimes people don’t know what they are capable of.  They might worry that whatever happened to them that might seem to limit them. If I have reached this far, then anybody else can do it too.’ Unstoppables is produced by Black Train Films with part sponsorship by Cofidis – Cyclo will be following its progress, but for now further information is available from www.unstoppablesdocumentary.com

 

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Paralympic Track: Category Guide

Paralympic track cycling is now just two days away with all the action taking place between Thursday August 1 and Sunday September 2. The 2012 Track events are made up of: Men’s Individual Sprint (B), Individual Pursuit (B, C1-5), Men’s Individual 1km TT (B, C1-5), Women’s Individual Pursuit (B, C1-5), Women’s Individual 1km TT, Women’s Individual 500m TT (C1-5) and the Mixed Team Sprint (C1-5).

 

The classifications for Paralympians can initially seem complex, but they aim to group athletes by classes, ‘defined by the degree to which they are limited in their ability to perform activities within that sport’, a unique element of the Paralympics designed to level the playing field and ensure ‘fair competition’. With cycling (both track and road) these classes also define which type of cycle is used for competition: tricyle, handcycle, tandem. The six categories relevant to the track events for 2012 are B and C1-C5 which are defined as:

 

B – Athletes with a visual impairment who compete on a tandem with a sighted pilot on the front.

 

C1-C5 – Athletes with an impairment that affects their legs, arms and/or trunk but compete using a standard bicycle, with the lower the athlete’s class number, the greater the impact of their impairment on their ability to cycle.

 

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Team GB Fly at Paras

A stunning four days of competition (February 9-12) at the Para-Cycling Track World Championships in LA has seen Great Britain top the medals table and take every opportunity for last-minute Olympic qualifying points. Right from day one, when Sarah Storey hit gold with a PB (and British Record) in the Women’s C5 500mTT and Aileen McGlynn, piloted by Helen Scott, scored silver in the Women’s B/Vi 3km Pursuit, Team GB looked unstoppable as the medals kept on coming. Although the final day of competition failed to go completely as planned – including a disappointing silver to China’s gold for the new Team Sprint line-up of Darren Kenny, Sarah Storey and Jody Cundy – Britain still found themselves holding eight gold, eight silver and two bronze places.

 

Gold:

Sarah Storey (PB & British Record) – Women’s C5 500mTT

Mark Colbourne – Men’s C1 3km Pursuit

Anthony Kappes, piloted by Craig MacLean – Men’s B 1km Time Trial

Darren Kenny – Men’s C3 1km Time Trial

Jody Cundy – Men’s C4 1km Time Trial

Jon-Allan Butterworth – Men’s C5 1km Time Trial

Sarah Storey – Women’s C5 3km Pursuit

Anthony Kappes, piloted by Craig MacLean (WR in qualification) – Men’s B/Vi Sprint

Silver:

Aileen McGlynn, piloted by Helen Scott – Women’s B/Vi 3km Pursuit

Aileen McGlynn, piloted by Helen Scott – Women’s B 1km Time Trial

Neil Fachie, piloted by Barney Storey – Men’s B 1km Time Trial

Darren Kenny – Men’s C3 3km Pursuit

Mark Colbourne – Men’s C1 1km Time Trial

Darren Kenny, Sarah Storey, Jody Cundy – Mixed Team Sprint

Aileen McGlynn, piloted by Helen Scott – Women’s B/Vi Sprint

Bronze:

Jody Cundy – Men’s C4 4km Pursuit

Shaun McKeown – Men’s C1 1km Time Trial

 

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Storey Sprints Again

It has now been confirmed that Sarah Storey will ride for Great Britain in the team sprint at next month’s Para-Cycling Track World Championships, taking place in Los Angeles. The event is the final opportunity for countries to obtain points and earn qualification places for the London 2012 Paralympics; with international cycling rules now allowing mixed teams, Storey, who was born with a deformed left hand and switched to cycling after a successful career as a Paralympic swimmer (16 medals, including five gold) will line up with Jody Cundy and Darren Kenny.

 

The 34-year-old was part of the women’s Olympic team pursuit squad before being dropped last month, ending her hopes of becoming Britain’s first ever Paralympic and Olympic athlete. Writing on her website (www.teamstoreysport.com) at the time she said: ‘I have always said that London 2012 is about riding as many events as I am good enough for and so now it is important for me to concentrate on the other events I have at the Games…I always said the Team Pursuit was another opportunity to become the best athlete I could be and it would be a bonus if I was able to make the event work alongside the events in which I am Para-cycling World Champion…’

 

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Paralympics Brands Hatch a Plan

Here at Cyclo we’re busy filling up our jotter book as and when venues for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic are announced so we were delighted to be able to get out our sharpie and make a note that Brands Hatch has been unveiled as the site for the Paralympic cycling road races. More than 200 of the world’s elite will fight it out for 32 road race titles (17 male, 12 female, 3 mixed) on a course that will begin and end at the world famous venue which began life in 1928 as a grass track cycle circuit before establishing itself in motor sports including a long tenure as the British F1 venue.

 

With regards to the decision to stage the races at an out of Capital site, Lord Coe commented: “This will help us extend the Games outside London and will give spectators and athletes the chance to discover yet another stunning part of our country.”

 

The announcement was the final piece in the puzzle with all of the 2012 Game’s venues now confirmed. So I guess Cyclo can put away the jotter…

 

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Doubles All Round

Rachel Morris, Sarah Storey and David Stone have each scored double-Golds helping GB take a flying start at the first round of the 2011 UCI Para-cycling World Cup in Sydney, Australia (May 4-6). With a total tally of ten medals the British women dominated by bagging eight of them. The event, which this year saw more than 130 athletes from 18 countries battling it out, was only introduced last year by the UCI in order to bring the discipline in line with other cycling disciplines. But with the 2012 Games fast approaching far more than mere medals were at stake with everyone fighting for those valuable UCI Paralympic qualifying points. The World Cup’s next round will take place in Segovia, Spain (June 10-12) before moving on to Baie-Comeau, Canada from July 8-10.

 

GB’s First Round medal results were:

 

Gold
Rachel Morris – Women’s H3 Handbike Road Race
David Stone – Men’s T2 Trike Road Race
Sarah Storey – Women’s C5 Road Race
Rachel Morris – Women’s H3 Handbike Time Trial
Sarah Storey – Women’s C5 Time Trial
David Stone – Men’s T2 Trike Time Trial

Silver
Karen Darke – Women’s H2 Handbike Road Race
Lora Turnham (piloted by Fiona Duncan) – Women’s B/Vi Tandem Time Trial
Karen Darke – Women’s H2 Time Trial

Bronze
Lora Turnham (piloted by Fiona Duncan) – Women’s B/Vi Tandem Road Race

 

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Top Finish for Team GB Para-Cyclists

Para-CyclingThree days of staggeringly good competition drew to a close yesterday (Sunday March 13) at the Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Montichiari, Italy, with Great Britain ending top of the medal table with nine gold, eight silver and a bronze. Amongst the victors were service veterans Jon-Allen Butterworth and Terry Byrne both of whom were making their World Championship debuts having retrained through the “Battle Back” scheme for injured tri-service personnel. Butterworth set a new world record with a win in the 1km time-trial (C5 category) with a finish of 1’7.615”, whilst Byrne took silver in the C4 category 1km pursuit behind his team-mate Jody Cundy who set a new world-record with 1’05.144”

 

The final Team GB gold came in the Team Sprint (Darren Kenny, Tel Byrne, Jody Cundy) who, having set a new world record in the qualifiers, upped their game still further in the final to beat China. The stunning all-round results have not only boosted the confidence of the British team but also earned valuable qualify points towards the Paralympics for London 2012.

 

Full results list: www.uci.ch