2013 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup ends in Matane

The USA topped the medals table in Matane with 14 gold, four silver and seven bronze. They were followed by Italy (six golds) and Germany (five golds).

Competition was particularly fierce in the last round of the 2013 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Cup with sprint finishes deciding the winners in a large number of sport classes.

It was not only the road races that saw the athletes register the same times on the roads of Matane, Canada: in the H1 time trial, it was impossible to declare a winner between Italy’s Luca Mazzone and the American William Groulx. Both stopped the clock at 29:53.80 after the 16.6km course and were classed first equal. In the 49.8km road race two days later, it was Mazzone who took the honours, a narrow four seconds in front of his American opponent.

Mazzone wins the 2013 World Cup title in his sport class in front of Ireland’s Mark Rohan. Groulx, absent from the first round in Merano, finishes the World Cup season in third place overall.

Eckhard Tio makes the break

The road race for the sport classes C1-2 and C4-5 saw only one athlete, Spain’s Maurice Eckhard Tio (C2) manage to make the break, finishing the 66.4km course 52 seconds ahead of the peloton. The sprint behind the Spanish athlete saw 20 athletes record the same time of 1:43.01, with wins going to German Pierre Senska (C1), Australian Susan Powell (C4) and American Samantha Heinrich (C5).

Sprint finishes were also order of the day in several other sport classes, with narrow wins going to French men's H3 athlete Joel Jeannot, Austrian Walter Ablinger (MH2), German Andrea Eskau (H4), Australia’s Carol Cooke (T2) and South African Ernst Van Dyk (H4). Van Dyk took first place in front of Italy’s Alex Zanardi, winner of the time trial two days earlier. It was Zanardi’s first defeat in this year’s World Cup, with wins in both the time trials and road races of the two previous rounds his overall title was never in danger.

Stone unchallenged

The much awaited duel in the men's T2 class between Great Britain's Paralympic champion David Stone and Germany’s Hans-Peter Durst was not to be as Durst did not take the start in the road race due to illness. Stone was victorious in both the time trial and road race, taking the overall World Cup title into the bargain.

The B class was missing local favourite and Canadian Paralympic champion Robbi Weldon and pilot Emilie Roy, who had an accident in training and who were both still recovering in hospital. British World Cup leaders Lora Turnham and Corrine Hall won the time trial and, with a fourth place in the road race (won by Spain’s Josefa Benitez Guzman and Judit Masdeu Cort), managed to hold onto their lead and take the overall World Cup title.

Despite a return to winning form for the Italian Pizzi brothers Ivano and Lucca (MB) in the time trial, it was not enough to earn them overall honours, which went to Spain’s Ignacio Avila Rodriguez and pilot Joan Font Bertoli. The Italians did, however, move up from fourth to second in the rankings, in front of fellow Italians Emanuele Bersini and Riccardo Panizza.

The USA topped the medals table in Matane with 14 gold, four silver and seven bronze. They were followed by Italy (six golds) and Germany (five golds).

The athletes will now cross the St-Lawrence River to Baie-Comeau for the 2013 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, which get underway on 29 August and run through 1 September.