Great Britain Para-cycling Team heads to Italy as road world championships build-up begins

Great Britain Para-cycling Team heads to Italy as road world championships build-up begins

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The Great Britain Para-cycling Team will begin their preparations for the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships with back-to-back international events in northern Italy.

The two UCI C1 events in Verola (24-26 April) and Brixia (1-3 May) start the international road season for the squad, ahead of the first round of the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Maniago, Italy on 5 June.

Experienced competitors like current world road race champion Lora Turnham and Paralympic silver medallist Karen Darke will head a team featuring a number of Paralympic Development Programme riders making their international debuts.

Turnham will ride the first event in Verola with world championship winning partner Corrine Hall, while Lauryn Therin will pilot the Liverpool-born B athlete at Brixia.

Darke will return to competition in northern Italy in the H3 hand cycle class. The 43-year-old took silver in the road race and bronze in the time trial at the 2014 world championships in Greenville, USA before embarking upon an epic hand-cycle tour across the Tibetan plateau.

Riding in the H3 class with Darke is development rider Jen Browning, while academy athlete Brian Alldis will be joined by development riders Steve Arnold, Hannah Hunt and Caroline Wareing in the H4 class.

Simon Price and Sally Hurst will compete in the C2 events while Liz Saul will be Great Britain’s sole representative in C4, after the development programme rider impressed on the track at the Newport Para-cycling International earlier this year.

Scot Hannah Dines will ride in the T2 tricycle class, the 21-year-old physiology student making her first step towards her dream of Rio 2016 qualification.

British Cycling para-cycling head coach Jon Norfolk said: “The events in Verola and Brixia will provide the first opportunity to see where the riders are in terms of form and fitness against their international competitors as we start to build towards the road world championships in July in Switzerland.

“There is a real mixture of youth and experience in the squad with a number of new faces looking to prove themselves, alongside experienced riders such as Karen Darke back in the fold.

“It’s an important time in terms of securing qualifying points for Rio so we’ll be travelling there looking for some strong performances and results.”

How to follow the races

  • Reports and results will appear on the British Cycling website

The Great Britain Para-cycling Team

Verola Para-cycling Cup

Karen Darke H3
Brian Alldis H4
Simon Price C2
Lora Turnham B (piloted by Corrine Hall)
Liz Saul C4
Sally Hurst C2
Hannah Dines T2
Hannah Hunt H4
Caroline Wareing H4
Jen Browning H3
Steve Arnold H4

Brixia Para-cycling Cup

Brian Alldis H4
Simon Price C2
Lora Turnham B (piloted by Lauryn Therin)
Liz Saul C4
Sally Hurst C2
Hannah Dines T2
Hannah Hunt H4
Caroline Wareing H4
Jen Browning H3
Steve Arnold H4