Day 1, Paralympic Track

2006 UCI/IPC Paralympic World Cycling Championships

World Cycling Centre, Aigle (Switzerland)

11th to 18th of September 2006

Report and Photos from Larry Hickmott

Track, Day 1

Riders in the Great Britain Cycling team have yet again done their country proud by not only setting three World Records today but also stepping up to receive Gold medals and Rainbow jerseys.

Here in Aigle, the UCI are holding the World Disability Championships for Cycling at their headquarters and the first ever Paralympic cyclists to be presented with the 'stripes' were GB's Anthony Kappes and Barney Storey watched by the other World record breaker of the day, Sarah Bailey. Then, a few minutes later, Darren Kenny, the third of the British World record breakers, stepped up on to the podium to be presented with his Rainbow jersey and Gold medal.

It had been quite a day, an up and down one for the British, glory for some and bitter disappointment for others. The World Championships are being held in Aigle (Switzerland), home to the World Governing body, the UCI, on a 200 metre indoor track which at first glance, doesn't seem a lot different to Manchester but at speed, the loss of 50 metres makes the two tracks ride like chalk and cheese.

LC1, Men's Pursuit

The first GB rider to go for Gold on day 1 of the championships was Gary Rosbotham-Williams (pictured above during his event) but his promising ride was to end in huge disappointment despite setting a British Record and new personal best. He started his 4000 metre pursuit in great style and his opening kilometre was the second fastest.

Then, he started to lose ground and had dropped to the third fastest for the second and third kilometre splits. But worse was too come, much worse, as he died a death over the final kilometre and a certain medal was lost to be replaced by 5th place, a British Record and a personal best.

That was small comfort to a rider who had been doing well in training and expected to have been in the ride off for Gold. Afterwards he started our post race interview by saying that he started on schedule but doesn't know what wrong over the last two kilometres. "That time was 11 seconds slower than we planned and I'm pretty disappointed to say the least. We were on a 4.48 schedule, all of the training over the last three weeks has pointed to that and for whatever reason today, I was way below par."

Gary still has the Kilometre, Time Trial and Road Race to come but it was the Pursuit he expected to medal in and had things gone to schedule, he would have done that. "I was hoping for a medal in this event so I could go into the other events this week with confidence and treat them as a bonus to enjoy. I could not have done anything better in the run up but for whatever reason did not have it today. I felt like I rode the track well and had the line okay. The first 2k I could see Chris was stood where he was meant to be stood on the side of the track but could feel myself tiring a bit. Normally if I'm going to tire, it would be the last K but it was the last 2k where something just wasn't there."

"Now is not the time to make rash decisions but I don't do this to make the numbers up. I have a full time job and this places quite a stress on my family life but I can cope with that if I am winning medals but not to come 5th. I'll sleep on this tonight and then tomorrow's another day and we never know what may happen in the kilometre. This I have to remember is only my second competitive 4K pursuit." Looking back at the ride, Gary did improve his PB by 3 seconds and in training has shown he has a lot more in the tank and I'm sure he'll bounce back from this set back and go pursuing medals in the future as he travels the road to Beijing.

Result (Qualifying)
1. GALLAGHER Michael, AUS 4:46.234
2. EIBECK Wolfgang, AUT 4:50.888
3. TRIBOLI Fabio, ITA 4:54.917
4. SACHER Wolfgang, GER 4:55.565
5. ROSBOTHAM WILLIAMS, Gary GBR 4:59.683
6. BRECHTEL Guenter, GER 5:02.136
7. RENGGLI Ivan, SUI 5:03.310
8. MILLER Cathal, IRL 5:03.619
9. BRETON Mark, CAN 5:03.972
10. VIGNATI Pierangelo, ITA 5:05.275

Women's LC1 Pursuit
'Bails', that's former champion swimmer turned champion cyclist Sarah Bailey from the GB team, rode a brilliant qualifying race for her 3,000 pursuit, not only breaking the World Record, but beating her nearest opponent by more than three and a half seconds. Unfortunately for us watching her in Aigle, which includes her parents and future parents in law, waiting to see her crowned champion, we have to wait until tomorrow as her final is being held over.

Sarah though was happy to talk to us about the ride today, starting by saying "I'm ecstatic after the morning I have had. I didn't really think I was going to make it to the track after feeling a bit off this morning but in the ride, I was in control and felt really good".

"I am delighted to be in the final with Claire, the Aussie, because she's a great girl The Chinese are such an unknown, its nice to give them a wake up call. I now have until tomorrow night which feels quite strange as in swimming we would have heats in the morning and finals at night. So I now have to go through the next 24 hours keeping my fingers crossed and my head down. I have been training so hard that a 3.53 is a good marker to put down."

Asked how she felt when the Chinese girt Ju Fang Zhou came out and broke her World record, Sarah replied "I was really calm because I had already pictured that moment that I knew she was going to do that at some time. But I had so many things in the bag, so I was kind of confident and quite looking forward to that challenge."

Talking about her heat against the Aussie she will face again in the final, Sarah explained that she expected to catch her and when should couldn't, that gave her the drive to push on and dig deeper. From the moment she left the starting gate, Sarah had the look of determination on her face and a very deep determination at that.

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Sarah Bailey

Qualifying
1. BAILEY Sarah, GBR, 3:53.107 WR
2. MCLEAN Claire, AUS 3:56.753
3. ZHOU Ju Fang, CHN 3:57.233
4. SOUTHORN Fiona, NZL 4:05.518
5. AN Feng Zhen, CHN 4:09.615
6. NEIMANAS Greta, USA 4:21.308
7. STOWE Lisa, CAN 4:24.806

Mens B & VI 1 kilometre Time Trial

Barney Storey pilot's the tandem with Anthony Kappes to a World record and Gold medal.

Gold and a World record came Great Britain's way thanks to the awesome efforts of Anthony Kappes and Barney Storey in this difficult event. Riding a tandem at top speed around a 250 track takes a lot of bottle but to do it on a 200 metre track also takes a lot of skill and the two British lads had both in abundance.

There were 31 tandems taking part in the Time Trial, a huge number and from the word go, it was clear that getting a tandem to race around the black line was going to be no simple task. They were all over the track with one going so wide as he came out of the final bend, he missed the timing strip and had to have a manual time awarded.

The British riders were off 21st, 10th from the end, hardly fitting for the World Record holders but they didn't disappoint as they scorched the Aigle track in 1.04.259, almost a second clear of the Aussies who filled three of the next four places behind the British duo. But the Gold and World Record belonged to the Brits and they had to hang around in the pits waiting for the next ten teams to go through their runs before they could at last celebrate a glorious win.

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Barney and Anthony do two standing starts outside before going inside to do the business on the Track.

As they were declared winners, a steady stream of riders and managers from other countries came into the British pit to shake their hands and congratulate them on their success. Once the hand shaking had died down, I spoke first to Anthony Kappes who is the rider on the back of the tandem. "We came here to do our best because it's a time trial and nobody can influence what we do. We went out to blow our doors off after 999 metres as that's what we needed to do."

On the track and riding behind Barney on the tandem, he said the 200 metre time trial will be far more interesting. "We were worried about the start and the tight corners but they weren't as bad as we expected. You notice the G forces more than you do Manchester though and Barney is great as he can keep the bike down so you don't need to think about anything else but turning the pedals."

Asked did having the carrot of winning the first UCI rainbow jersey for the sport add extra pressure, Anthony replied, "no because I know nothing about the sport so I don't feel the pressure from that. Nobody puts more pressure on me than I put on myself so the fact it's a UCI jersey is not the point. The point is to do your best. Our whole year one way or another has been focused on today and Wednesday and it all came together today with a PB by a long way. So I'm happy with that." Anthony then admitted it hadn't sunk in"

His partner on the tandem, Barney Storey, is the Pilot and one who has the job of not only pedalling the thing but keeping it from launching the riders skyward and into the very attractive ceiling the velodrome has. Barney has been a sprint cyclist for a long time and was clearly pleased he at last had those rainbow stripes. "I've wanted one of these since going on club ones since I was little so I'm really happy. Anthony has put in so much work this year and we have done more work on the tandem than we have ever done and that's helped a great deal. There is also a great confidence in this team, but we've also had a lot of changes this year and sometimes it can take squads time a while to get used to those changes but everything has gelled so well. It couldn't be better really."

Confirming this is one of, if not the biggest moment in his career so far, he goes on to add "Unfortunately in sport, you can lose more than you win and what you have to do is make sure you enjoy the bits you do win and this is brilliant. Anthony's parents are here, my mum and day and my future inlaws are also here so its really brilliant."

On the ride, "the shortest way round the track is on the black line and there is no way I was going to be too far above the red. It is a really difficult track to ride on the tandem and if we'd been on a 250, the time would have been a '3' which is a big step forward for both of us. As you go into the bend on this track you think its not too dissimilar to Manchester and as you get halfway round the bend, there is a massive compression and anyone who has ridden at Calshot will know what I'm talking about. But this is on a tandem and you're going twice as quick so its incredibly difficult."

"I'm quite pleased when people say we made that look easy when it's not at all. There were times when I had to concentrate more on steering than pedalling"

Result
1. KAPPES Anthony; STOREY Richard; GBR 1.04.259
2. LARKINS Leon, LAWRWENCE Tyson, AUS 1.05.152
3. DEMERY Benjamen, HOPKINS Shaun, AUS 1.05.577
4. LORO Oscar SANCHEZ Fernando ESP, 1.06.868
5. LINDORES Bryce, STORER Stephen, AUS 1.07.516

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Men's CP3 Kilometre
20060911_Disability_TR1_009 More Gold and World records for Great Britain as Darren Kenny added to his growing collection of trophies with a Rainbow jersey and Gold medal. Kenny (pictured right) beat Tour de France hero Javier Ochoa whilst a delighted Fernando Lopez of Argentina took the bronze medal. Since arriving at the team hotel the night before competition began, Kenny has been the picture of a relaxed athlete larking about like nobodies business but as he admitted after this Gold medal winning ride, the bravado hides the nerves he felt going into the event.

Ever the joker, when I said does winning get any easier, Darren replied "yes, to be honest I only do this now so I can shave my legs and dress in lycra!" We then managed to get him serious for a short while and give us a run down on the race with Darren explaining that "I hadn't done a standing start on this track because I hurt my knee on Monday so the first banking was a bit steeper than I had imagined but after that it's the worlds, so you're just panicking the whole time. This is so important; it probably feels a lot worse than it actually is."

"A rainbow jersey, I've wanted one since I was 11. I'm not sure though if this win takes the pressure off or adds to it. It is always nice to beat Javier but I get more pleasure from seeing him going much faster than he has done even though it adds to the pressure. I wasn't that relaxed coming into this, on the outside perhaps but not the inside. Today I probably had the most doubt I have ever had but you try not to show it because you don't want anyone to see you're thinking like that".

"When I got on the bike, I thought this is just a training ride, I know I can do this in training. I did a '13.4' in training at Manchester last week and didn't expect to drop four and half seconds or whatever the gap was." Asked was he surprised he got the World Record here on such a tight track, he admitted "no, its fast and really throws you out of the corners and racing it is a lot of fun as you're trying to kick harder out of the corners."

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Result
1. KENNY Darren, GBR 1.13.109
2. OCHOA Javier, ESP
3. LOPEZ Rodrigo Fernando, ARG

CP4 Mens Kilometre
20060911_Disability_TR1_017 After all the success of the team leading up to this final event of the day for us, we can only imagine the pressure on Rik Waddon as he started his effort in the Kilometre Time Trial. Riding out of his skin on the 200 metre track, Rik did a personal best with his 1.13.300, taking him to the silver medal position with five riders yet to go. On the verge of a great result, Rik sat and watched as first a Frenchman came and went, then a South African who got close but was unable to over take the British rider on the result table.

Right: Rik Waddon

Then an Aussie, Deacon Trent, came out and not unexpectedly put in a great ride to beat Rik by less than three tenths to drop Rik to the bronze medal position. The first of two Czech riders failed to make an impression but the final one dashed Rik's hopes of a medal as Jiri Bouska blasted round the track to win the race by a few hundreths from Japans Ishi Masashi. Rik had finished fourth, a great result for sure but when he had a medal almost in his grasp, to have lost it like that was cruel but Rik is bound to bounce back in other events.

PHOTOS
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