2007 World Disability Cycling Championships

Bordeaux, France; August 24, 2007

Day 5; First day of the Time Trials

Gold for GB on Day 1 of Time Trials

It was another Golden day for Great Britain in France at the Disability World Championships as the team took to the road for the Time Trials. Rachel Morris was the victor for GB on a day which started sunny but by the end, the athletes were having to deal with heavy rain.

Handcycling B, Women
The Gold medal for Rachel came in the Hand Cycling event and is an important one looking ahead to Beijing even though it causes the team tricky selection problems if the IPC do not increase the number of female athletes we’re allowed to take.

We caught up with the GB manager Dave Mellor as he washed the team cars after a mucky day in Bordeaux. He explained that Rachel’s World Title is the culmination of a difficult road for her. “Rachel is very happy with the Gold” he started by saying. “Hopefully she can go on from this and win the road race as well.”

Rachel’s presence in GB colours started a few years when the GB Paralympic Programme manager Dave Mellor met Linda Norfolk, wife of well known Paralympic tennis player Peter Norfolk. The couple, who have a shop for the disabled had met Rachel and rang Dave making him aware that she was a special athlete. A hand bike was soon borrowed for her and Dave got her into a race. At the time she had one leg after losing one due to a nervous problem.

After this race, the team started working with her and the team looked at a Fast track plan the BPA have. The grant from this was used to buy her a hand bike and the team kept in touch with her until Rachel suffered another set back and lost her other leg, a traumatic experience I am sure everyone will identify with. After a period away from the team, Rachel came back into the fold nine months ago and the GB coaches Gary Brickley and Chris Furber have been helping her move forward as the team took her to a number of races in Europe.

“At this time, we had not had her classified in a set category” the manager explained, adding, “we had her classified here at the Worlds and she was placed in the B division which is the division the team had entered her into for these Worlds.”

Rachel’s win though does compound the team’s selection problem for Beijing as Dave Mellor explained. “We now have another athlete who may come away from here with Two gold medals and because the hand cycling category is quite small at international level, her place may well be ring fenced which means that to make the event viable in Beijing, the IPC will say to us we have to bring that athlete which takes a place away from the numbers we qualify as a nation.”

“So if we qualify two spots, one of them will have to be hers. So its great to win Gold but it compounds the selection issue for the other girls. We have spoken to the BPA and will be trying to get some wild card places because we are likely to have four females who have Podium, Gold medal, potential and if we are only allowed to take two or three, that will be disaster for us.”

1. MORRIS Rachel GBR 00:21:52.30
2. LECKIE Melissa AUS 00:23:52.74
3. SCHWALLER Ursula SUI 00:25:01.15

Men LC Categories
Also in action today were the riders in the LC categories. In LC1, Gary Rosbotham- Williams rode out of his skin, averaging 25 miles an hour and finishing 16th. “That was a fantastic ride” the manager told us. “I was following them in the car and the onboard computer was reading 40 to 41 kilometres an hour so it was a good ride on a trick and testing course. He was beaten by Eibeck who is an Elite road rider in Austria who only has one hand.”

In the LC3 category, Simon Richardson was 5th which again, says the manager, was a fantastic ride.  “He pulled that out of the bag which is brilliant.”

LC1
1. EIBECK Wolfgang AUT 00:26:24.31
2. SACHER Wolfgang GER 00:26:56.11
3. TRIBOLI Fabio ITA 00:27:07.46

16. ROSBOTHAM-WILLIAM Gary GBR 00:29:26.49
21. WHITE Russell GBR 00:29:47.80

LC 3
1. THIRIONNET Laurent FRA 00:29:18.26
2. MACCHI Fabrizo ITA 00:30:19.48
3. GARCIA Antonio ESP 00:30:24.53

5. RICHARDSON Simon GBR 00:31:26.28

Men’s Handcycling
In this category, GB took to Bordeaux the best B category rider in the UK which is  Chris Maddon and the best C category hand cyclist which is Ian Marsden. In the B category event, Chris was 16th  whilst in the C category Time trial, Ian was 26th.

HC B  Mens 9.9km TT
1. PODESTA Vittorio ITA 00:16:56.77
2. FREI Heinz SUI 00:17:10.38
3. LEE David USA 00:17:25.34

16. MADDEN Christopher GBR 00:19:00.31

HC C  Mens 9.9km TT
C Category
1. VAN DYK Ernst RSA 00:15:21.16
2. ALBOR Alejandro USA 00:15:50.80
3. DIAGO Vicente ESP 00:16:06.75

26. MARSDEN Ian GBR 00:18:53.04

Looking  Ahead
With one more day of time trials to come, Sarah Bailey’s broken collarbone has finally dealt the team a major blow after testing today. “Unfortunately we have had to pull Sarah out of the competition. We had a trial on the ramp and on the course and she was in too much pain.”

“As a favourite for the race, losing her loses the team a load of road points for Beijing”.

The team however are looking to Darren Kenny and David Stone for more success on day 2 of the road events and Iain Dawson/Bobby De'Ath too if they have recovered from their eventful trip from the UK to Bordeaux. Meanwhile, Rebecca Rimington  is still suffering from an ear problem she had at the end of the track competition and the team are also unsure if she will ride”.

Looking ahead, the manager says that the team are expecting more medals from the road events, enough to keep their place at the top of the table and we wish them lots of luck for the coming three days.