David Stone Tackles World Trike Championships

 

Asse, Belgium, 14-15 June 2008

 

At the World Trike Championships in Asse Belgium on the 13th and 14TH June David Stone represented GB. The World Championships are an open competition with a large range of competitors from those who can do 21 minutes for a 10 mile TT on a trike through to tandem trike competitors. As part of David's preparation for Beijing this is one of his major goals of the year. With strong riders from Belgium, France and the UK, David knew that this would be a tough ride and was looking to improve on his 2006 top 10 performance.

Both events were held on the same course starting with the Time trial. Originally down as a 2 lap race the organizers decided to move it to a 1 lap (approx 4.8km) TT 1 hour before the start. The course was very technical with some good climbs and limited time for using aero bars. David clocked a good 8.42 and led for a long while until the latter riders came in. David finished 8th overall 20 seconds off a medal and 45 seconds from the clear leader, 2007 world champion Dave Keene from Bristol. This was a great improvement on previous years. David clearly won the handicap race where all riders submitted previous bests for 10 mile time trial performance.

With the time trail finishing at 12pm and the road race starting at 3.30pm there was limited time for recovery. However in between races there thunder rumbled through the village of Asse and lightning lit up the sodden streets. By the time the road race started the rain thankfully eased. The 8 lap race started with a 1 lap easy ride with all riders in together. Even in this slow ride tricyclists were slipping on the surface and former Paralympian champion 'Dirk Boon' took a nasty fall and was out of the competition.

 

Lap 2 opened up with around 12 riders in a led bunch and this time round World Champion Dave Keene crashed and for a moment it was feared he would be out of the race. However he jumped back on and caught the group on the next lap. Laps 3-7 saw the pack reduce down to 6 riders including our very own David Stone. David held on to the group and was in second position going into the last lap with a strong group of Belgium, French riders along with Dave Keene. Coming into the home sprint the power of the other riders was too much for David to hang onto and David finished a commendable 5th just 10 seconds behind the 4 racing for the medals.

Having been over 2 minutes down in the 2006 world trike championships, David was pleased with his overall performance and feels a podium position is possible in 2009. Technically David corners much better, he is a strong climber and held on to some very experienced trike racers.

Most of the top European Paralympic trike riders also competed at these championships and David clearly beat the opposition, giving him great confidence going into his build up for Beijing.

David is now targeting the Tour of Norway and training camps in Switzerland in his quest to become double Paralympic champion in Beijing.