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Report from the Visa Paralympic Tandem World Track Cup

• 24/05/2006
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Report from the British Cycling Federation.
5th May 2006

It was a memorable night in many ways at the Manchester Velodrome on Friday night. On one hand, all the riders in the Great Britain Team performed brilliantly with either World or British Records to their name during the night.

On the other, all the riders from around the World showed yet again how doubly talented they are – not only for over coming a disability but also showing great athletic ability on the track. As Barney storey pointed out, their new world record is only a smidge away from the able bodied tandem record at Manchester.

Another example of the athletic abilities of these riders was the Scratch race where competitors with all types of disabilities raced aggressively in the same race, handling their bikes with aplomb and giving the small crowd a great race.

Looking for highlights it’s impossible to know where to start. World records to British and Chinese riders abounded and it shows how as each year goes by, the standard of the performances is rising dramatically as national federations work hard at developing their athletes ready to win medals at the Paralympic Games in 2008.

Well, some federations as it seems the Australians for one are still not giving their Paralympic athletes the same level of support as they give to their able bodied ones, something the Great Britain team does much to their credit.

The nights racing in front of a disappointingly small crowd consisted of a two types of races – time trials over various distances with many riders competing in multiple events and the match races on the tandems which as always proved to be very exciting as tandem racing always does especially when you have a brilliant duo such as Storey and Kappes thrilling the crowd with their explosive speed around the 250 metre track.

Evening Session
The night session started with the 3000 metre pursuit between Austria’s world record holder Wolfgang Eibeck and Britain’s Gary Rosbotham-Williams. The final began with Gary matching the Austrian lap for lap but then as the half distance mark approached, the Austrian started to open a gap that Gary, despite riding to a British record, couldn’t close and the Austrian took the Gold.

Event three of the evening saw Athens Gold medallist Darren Kenny, nursing a lower leg calf muscle injury, get out of the blocks quickly to try and catch his German opponent which he did in just over a minute and Darren had his first Gold of the night in the pursuit.

The tandems then took to the track and of the two Match Sprint finals, the closest was between the Spanish and the Polish riders for bronze, with the tussle for victory going all the way to the line. The final for Gold though was never in doubt and despite the German’s giving the British a good race tactically, the power of Barney Storey and Anthony Kappes was too much for them, and the British duo took their first Gold of the night.

There was a surprise in the next event, the Women’s tandem flying 200 metre time trial where the Aussies Lindy Hou and Jannelle Lindsay got the better of the British duo of Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter.

• Posted by Johnny
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