Ronan Grimes continued Ireland’s strong cycling world championships campaign on Saturday, taking the silver medal in the paracycling MC4 road race.
He and the Frenchman Kevin le Cuff went clear of a six-man leading group on the final lap, with le Cuff then outsprinting him at the finish.
The French rider had refused to work in the closing stages, with Athenry competitor Grimes leading into the final kilometres and having less in the tank when the sprint unfolded.
“It was a bit of a brutal race, the weather here a lot like home, very windy, rain all day,” he said. “A very aggressive race, it split up early on and then coming into the last lap myself and the French rider got away. So it was the two of us up for the sprint. In fairness he’s a very strong rider, very strong sprint, and I really have to be happy with second place today.”
Grimes won the title last year and while he didn’t take gold this time around, was satisfied with his showing.
The medal is the sixth clocked up by the paracycling riders at the world championships, adding to the tandem time trial gold medal of Katie George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly, plus the bronze medals secured by Grimes himself in the track individual pursuit and the scratch race, the tandem pursuit bronze medal of Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal, and the third place finishes by Richael Timothy in the C3 scratch race and the C3 Omnium.
Grimes was also sixth in Thursday’s time trial and said that he drew motivation from that.
“I was kind of a bit shocked with how far back I was in the time trial a couple of days ago but it just goes to show the standard. Everyone I think in that top 10 is capable of winning any of these races on any day and I think to put in a good ride two days later, I’m really happy with that.”
Several Irish non-paracycling and paracycling riders are in action at the UCI’s combined world championships on Saturday. These include the under 23 road race, where Darren Rafferty will seek to build on his fifth place in the time trial, plus the tandem road race where George Dunlevy and Kelly are chasing a second gold, and Josephine Healion and Eve McCrystal are also aiming high.
