Paralympic champions Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal added a silver medal on Sunday to the time trial gold they took on Friday, finishing a close second in the women’s tandem road race at the UCI Paracycling World Cup in Ostend, Belgium.
The Irish duo and British pairing Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl were the strongest competitors in the field, leaving all of the other tandems behind over the course of the nine lap, 91.8 kilometre event.
The medals were settled in a sprint to the line, with Unwin and Holl taking a narrow victory over Dunlevy and McCrystal.
The result follows the Irish duo’s success in Friday’s 20-kilometre time trial. They finished well clear of silver medallists Unwin and Holl in that event, winning the race against the clock by an impressive 46 seconds.
Both Irish riders noted that the time trial was their first competitive event in eight months, with the Tokyo Paralympics road race their last race back in early September.
The duo took gold medals in both the road race and time trial there and were also silver medallists in the tandem pursuit.
Dunlevy said on Friday that they are still building form and are aiming to peak for the Paracycling world championships. These are scheduled to take place between August 11th and 14th in Baie-Comeau in Canada. The track world championships will take place later in the season, being held in Montigny-le-Bretonneux in France between October 20th and 23rd.
A number of other Irish competitors are due to compete in other paracycling World Cup events on Sunday. These include Ronan Grimes, who took a silver medal in the MC4 time trial on Friday.
Men’s tandem competitors Damien Vereker and Marcin Mizgajski were eighth in Sunday’s road race.
UCI Paracycling road World Cup, Ostend, Belgium:
Women’s B (tandem) road race: 1 Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl (Great
Britain) 91.8 kilometres in 2 hours 28’18”, 2 KG Dunlevy and Eve
McCrystal (Ireland), 3 G Hoet and A Monsieur (Belgium) 29”
Other: 10 J Healion and C Ní Reachtagáin (Ireland) 16’34”
