Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly does the double at the Paracycling Road Word Cup
It was another successful Paracycling Road World Cup for Ireland. After a short break to recover from the opening round of the Paracycling World Cup, Ireland added two gold medals to their tally in the women’s tandem road race and time trial.
On their international debut together, Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly powered to victory in both the time trial and road race. A challenging uphill course faced the riders in the time trial which lended itself perfectly to the combined attributes of Dunlevy and Kelly, dominating the 18 kilometre course finishing three minutes 54 seconds ahead of silver medallists Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl of Great Britain.
Speaking after the time trial Dunley said:
It was really tough. I am not going to lie. It was definitely a challenging course and a course for a time trial that I have never done before. We have had rolling time trials but never had a hill climb. Linda is a good hill climber and I am not so bad at it, so I thought we would have a really good shot at it. We just did our own race and gave it everything. We are delighted with that win.”
Kelly added:
“I am absolutely buzzing about my first time trial, my first race abroad as well. It was a hilly one as a bonus, so my usual terrain. I am delighted.”
The duo went on to claim gold in the 74 kilometre road race beating the British pair by one minute 57 seconds. Ireland have now secured the World Cup leaders jersey going into the 3rd and final round in Québec from August 4-7.
Dunlevy commented after the road race:
“We didn’t want it to come to a sprint in the finish, so we wanted to make it aggressive and really come away from GB (Great Britain) and the Polish who are the strongest bikes. Every time we made a move, they were bringing us back. We just kept on attacking and eventually in the with 2 laps to go we got a big gap and came into the end so we’re absolutely delighted with that.”
Next up for the Irish National Team is the UEC Road Para-Cycling European Championships in Austria from May 25-29.
Ronan Grimes had an impressive performance in the time trial finishing in 4th place. Declan Slevin put in a strong ride in both the time trial and road race to finish 7th and 6th respectively. There was a great display from all of the Irish riders throughout the weekend with many great results. Full results from the competition are as follows:
Time Trial
Katie-George & Linda (WB) - 1st
Damien & Marcin (MB) - 9th
Richael Timothy (WC3) - 8th
Chris Burns (MC2) - 8th
Ronan Grimes (MC4) - 4th
Declan Slevin (MH3) - 7th
Gary O'Reily (MH5) - 9th
Allister McSorley (MH4) - 20th*
Road Race
Katie-George & Linda (WB) - 1st
Damien & Marcin (MB) - 11th
Richael Timothy (WC3) - 7th
Chris Burns (MC2) - 6th
Ronan Grimes (MC4) - 7th
Declan Slevin (MH3) - 6th
Gary O'Reily (MH5) - 7th
Allister McSorley (MH4) - 20th*
*Para Commission Development Squad