Sizzling Silver medals for Para-Cyclists at Road World Cup

In temperatures that soared over 40 degrees the New Zealand Para-Cycling team showed they had the goods by winning two Silver medals at the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Cup in Germany over night.

Handcyclist Tim Williams won Silver in the Men’s MH1 Time Trial, while the tandem pairing of Emma Foy and Laura Fairweather (sighted pilot) won Silver in the Women’s BW Time Trial.

On a challenging hilly 9km course Williams was narrowly beaten by less than one minute by Australian rival Grant Nickels.

The Kiwi tandem of Emma Foy and Laura Thompson also won Silver in the 18.2km Time Trial.  Where less than 3 minutes separated the medal winners.  Gold was won by the Polish tandem (Podkoscielna and Wnuczek) and Bronze went to the Dutch tandem (Van Deudekom and Van Dijk).


Emma Foy and Laura Fairweather Silver at UCI Para-Cycling Road World Cup 2015. Photo courtesy of Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ).

Emma Foy said, “Today was as expected - a very very hard race.  In the last month we have done a lot of hill work as part of our training and it put us in the best place in terms of preparation  and it paid off.  Going into next week at the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships that has a slightly different course I feel we have a good chance.”

Laura Thompson (sighted pilot) said, “The heat was a challenging element we had to contend with today. The heat made the time trial very much a mental battle.  Going into next week in Switzerland it could also be very hot but I feel we have become accustomed and conditioned to it now  and we are feeling fairly confident.”

Going into the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships next week the pair are hoping to improve upon the Silver medal they landed in last year’s edition.

Other Kiwi Para-Cyclists in action included Stephen Hills in the Men’s T2 Time Trial placing 8th and Fraser Sharp in the Men’s MC3 Time Trial placing 6th.

The team will now look towards the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Nottwil, Switzerland.  This event starts Friday 31 July NZT.