Gold Medal Success for Lynch and Clifford in Switzerland

Time Trial Wins for Irish Duo at Paracycling Road World Cup

Colin Lynch and Eoghan Clifford have won time trial gold on another day of medal winning success for the Ireland squad at the UCI Paracycling Road World Cup in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland today.

Double world championship winner Lynch made it back-to-back successes in world cup time trials with victory in the MC2 time trial following his success at the first round of the series in Maniago, Italy last week.
 
In a dominant performance on a mainly flat 14.15km course that suited strong riders, Lynch had 63.72 seconds in hand over Arslan Gilmutdinov of Russia with Israel Hilario Rimas of Peru a further ten seconds in arrears.
 
The victory continues Lynch’s unbeaten time trial start to the World Road Cup season and, as well as garnering more important Paralympic qualification points towards Rio de Janeiro next summer, continues his preparation for the world championships in Nottwil, Switzerland at the end of July.
 
Meanwhile, reigning world champion Clifford got his World Cup campaign off to the perfect start with a strong performance that resulted in a hard won victory in the MC3 time trial over 28.3km.

Clifford’s first paracycling road outing of the year resulted in a 38.77 second win for the Galway-native over Japanese racer, Masaki Fujita and Belgium’s Diederick Schelfhout.
 
James Brown and Bryan McCrystal were in action in the Men’s B tandem, the pairing renewing their association with 12^th fastest time over the two-lap, 28.3km distance.
 
Katie-George Dunlevy put the crash which blighted her road race in Italy last week behind her to finish 8^th in the Women’s B tandem time trial piloted on this occasion by Fiona Guihen.
 
Mark Rohan began the Irish campaign at Yverdon, finishing 27^th in the time trial having been forced to start in the much more competitive H3 category.

Neill Delahaye: “Today was a great day for the team. We have put in the graft and the whole team has delivered their best on the day…to hear Amhrán na bhFiann twice in one day has been very special.

“Colin showed once again that he is world class against the clock. We were quietly confident the course could suit him and he showed his strength and really delivered it on the day with an exceptional time.

“Eoghan worked really hard for the win. He was down after the first lap but never deviated from the plan and dug very deep in the second half of the race, with a negative split, to turn it around.

“Every bike committed fully and we are looking forward to the road races over the next two days.”

For full results from all races at round two of the UCI Paracycling Road Word Cup in Yverdon –les-Bains see http://www.uci.ch/para-cycling/ucievents/2015-para-cycling-uci-para-cycling-world-cup/374847015/widgets/start-lists-results-standings/