11 Golds Awarded on Day 1 of Para-Cycling Road Worlds

On Day 1 of the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships on Thursday (8 September), 11 gold medals were awarded in Roskilde, Denmark, with the USA grabbing three first-place finishes in the hand cycling individual time trials.

On the men’s side, American Oscar Sanchez (23:39.92) struck gold ahead of Italy’s former Formula 1 driver Alessandro Zanardi (24:00.15) in the H4 class. In the women’s division, the USA’s Cassie Mitchell (39:21.42) won the H1 class and Monica Bascio (28:26.87) cycled to gold in the H3 class.

Ireland’s Mark Rohan (31:03.50) won the men’s H1 class after winning the same event at last year’s World Championships, though he was challenged by Israel’s own Koby Lion (31:16.77) toward the finish.

Jean-Marc Berset of Switzerland (23:30.65) finished ahead of Italy’s Vittorio Podesta and Austria’s Walter Ablinger to take home the top prize in the H2 class, while France’s Joel Jeannot (23:14.51) took first in the H3 class.

In the individual time trial events, German Paralympic veteran Michael Teuber (23:08.228) won the C1 class, finishing just 34 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s up-and-coming para-cyclist, Mark Colbourne. Teuber defended his title in the event for the sixth time and grabbed his ninth gold medal on the road since 1998.

Ireland’s Colin Lynch (22:35.421), who finished second overall in the 2011 World Cup series earlier this year and is a Paralympic Games medal hopeful, took gold in the C2 time trial. He beat off the defending world champion, Fabrizio Macchi of Italy, by just 12 seconds.