Eoghan Clifford finished a good weekend of Irish performances at the Para-Cycling Road World Cup in the Basque Country, Spain today when he secured gold in the C3 Road Race.
“Although Eoghan has been on the podium a number of times, that’s his first win in a road race since Worlds in 2014,” said Irish para-cycling coach, Neill Delahaye. “The conditions here are tough, the temperatures are in the mid-30s, but despite all of that, our bikes performed solidly. Eoghan’s race was a really tough contest, and he made the right moves to put his competition under pressure at the right times. It was a two up sprint in the end and he won it well – a brilliant performance.”
Earlier on in the day, Colin Lynch placed 12th in his road race following a tricky and difficult race.
Talking about Lynch’s race, Delahaye reflected: “Colin rode to the race tactics we discussed. A sprint was always going to be the most likely scenario given the quality of the field. Colin held his position strongly for the whole race, but a crash in the lead group with 4km to go fragmented the group and he was unlucky to be held up. Overall, a good performance.”
Also in action today were female tandem pairing Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal who finished fourth in their road race.
“It all came down to a sprint between five bikes,” Delahaye explained. “The girls did what they could for the win, but it didn’t quite work out. We’ve learned a lot from the performance.”
The male tandems were in action today as well and also placed fourth.
“It was very encouraging to see the lads get into that position fighting for a medal,” Delahaye stated. “All in all, we are happy with the World Cup. Three gold medals is a great indicator of the team’s potential. It has been a significant event for us in terms of process and strategy delivery. The riders are in good condition with some more hard work in training to come.”
You can read about the other action from the World Cup here.
