Great Britain Cycling Team’s Crystal Lane-Wright won bronze in the women’s C5 road race at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships.
The British rider pipped Poland’s Anna Harkowska on the line to take third place - matching her result of six years ago in her previous road world championships appearance.
It was a fiercely contested race on the roads of South Africa with six of the eight riders in the field refusing to attack each other until the final stages.
Lane-Wright worked hard throughout, taking her fair share of turns at the front of the peloton, as the group steadied themselves for a sprint finish.
Germany’s Kersten Brachtendorf took the victory by the smallest of margins, beating Marcela Analia Delgado of Argentina by just 0.033 seconds.
Lane-Wright was 0.333 seconds further back to secure the bronze medal.
Will Bjergfelt missed out on the medals in the C5 race after a sensational ride from Brazil’s Lauro Cesar Chaman to take the gold.
The Brazilian broke away from the peloton after just 3km, working alongside Italy’s C4 rider Michele Pittacolo.
Chaman urged Pittacolo to work harder before dropping him and staying over two and a half minutes clear of the field before crossing the line to claim the world title.
Bjergfelt, in his debut world championships, seemed to take control of the peloton and while they were unable to reel in the Brazilian, set themselves up for a sprint finish for silver and bronze.
Austria’s Wolfgang Eibeck attacked late on and built up a 30 second gap over the chasers before riding solo to silver, while France’s Dorian Foulon escaped the pack to take bronze Bjergfelt settling for eighth.
Tandem races
The tandem duo of Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall couldn’t add to their time trial silver medal in the road race.
The women’s B race was an attritional affair, with all seven pairs staying together for the entire race.
The Belgian team of Griet Host and Anneleen Monsieur briefly attacked, but the stage seemed set for a final sprint finish.
In the end, it was the Irish duo of Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal who came out on top to take the gold, with silver going to Iwona Podkoscienla and Aleksandra Teclaw of Poland.
Eleni Kalatzi and Argyro Milaki of Greece took bronze with the British duo finishing seventh.
It was the same result for Steve Bate and Adam Duggleby, who also missed out on a medal in a sprint finish.
The pair briefly held a 30 second advantage over the rest of the field, but were reeled in after two laps out in front alone.
That move then inspired Colombia’s Nelson Javier Serna Moreno and Marlon Perez Arango to attack themselves and the South Americans were over a minute clear at one point.
The peloton worked to reel in the leaders, getting the gap down to 30 seconds before realising on the final lap that they wouldn’t catch the new world champions.
It came down to a battle for silver and bronze with Netherlands’ Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bfs finishing second and Marcin Polak and Michal Ladosz of Poland finishing third.
In the men’s C3 race, Ben Watson was caught in a crash on the fourth lap and found himself some distance behind the peloton.
The British rider - who claimed silver in the time trial on Friday - rode bravely to recover, finding himself in the chasing group with one lap remaining, 43 seconds behind the leaders.
The group worked hard and caught the leaders in the closing stages, but the effort proved too much for Watson who was unable to contest the final sprint crossing the line in 10th place.
Sweden’s Henrik Marvig took the world title in a sprint finish, beating Germany’s Steffan Warias on the line.
Italy’s Fabio Anobile took bronze.
In the C2 race, Simon Price was forced to abandon his effort on lap six of 10 after suffering a puncture - with the British rider already over two minutes behind the race leaders.
Gold went to Canada’s Tristen Chernove, with New Zealand’s Darren Hicks winning silver and bronze going to Francois Lacroix of France.
