The nominations
Hall and Turnham cap remarkable road season with para-cycling world crown
Event: UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships
When: 30 August 2013
Where: Baie Comeau, Canada
How it unfolded
Great Britain Para-Cycling Team duo Corrine Hall and Lora Turnham capped a remarkable year in August’s UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships in Baie Comeau.
London Paralympian Turnham, who has a hereditary sight loss condition, had only paired with former Great Britain Olympic Development Programme rider Hall to ride the tandem in March after a training camp in Mallorca.
The duet had already won two golds at June’s UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Sergovia, Spain as well as gold in the world cup round in Canada a week before the world championships.
Lining up in the women’s B time trial, a dropped chain on the start line cost them five seconds and put their world title aspirations in doubt.
But after the first lap of the 25.9-kilometre race, Turnham and pilot Hall had built a lead of over seven seconds on New Zealand pair Phillipa Gray and Laura Fairweather. By the end of the second lap of three their lead had been reduced to just 0.29 seconds.
A superb final lap though stretched their lead and they were crowned world champions – a first rainbow jersey for each respective rider - by over nine seconds ahead of New Zealand and confirmed their arrival as a major talent in para-cycling.
What they said
“World champions!!! Words can't describe how happy we both are,” Hall tweeted. “A massive thank you to everyone who has made this possible!”
Why should this be the British Cycling Ride of the Year 2013?
To win a world championship after less than six months of riding together highlighted the quality of both riders. More so in an event in which teamwork and understanding is vital and can often take time to develop.
The performance is made all the more special by the fact the the pair had to overturn a five second deficit in a world-class field.
