Racing Starts Tomorrow For Irish Paracyclists At Track Worlds In Holland

Racing kicks off with the 1km Time Trial events for the Irish Paracycling Team tomorrow (Thursday) at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. First on the track for Ireland will be Colin Lynch in the Men's C2 1km TT, followed by Eoghan Clifford in the Men's C3 1km race. In the afternoon the two tandems will be in action, with Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal competing in the Women's B 1km TT and the new pairing of Peter Ryan and Damien Shaw competing in the Men's B 1km TT. This year Ireland's six person team will be a competitive one, competing in four bikes across ten events. The Championships run from Thursday 26th March until Sunday 29th March.

The 1km Time Trial is a race against the clock over 4 laps of the 250m track. There are no qualification rounds in this event, and the fastest three bikes in a category win the medals. On Friday Lynch and Clifford will then compete in the Individual Pursuit, a focus event for all riders. For this there will be qualification rounds, with the fastest two contesting the gold medal in the finals, and the next fastest two contesting bronze. Saturday will see the tandems compete in the Individual Pursuit, and on Sunday Lynch and Clifford will round up the World Championships competing in the Men's C1-2-3 Scratch Race.

The Irish Para-cycling team is a progressive squad on the cycling scene, with new competitors breaking through each year, and competition to make the team for the major events tough. Coach Neill Delahaye is looking forward to next week's Championships saying "The team selection this year was more competitive than ever, a lot of hard work was put in during training camps since December and we are in a strong position now to deliver our best performance. Everyone has the work done and we are looking forward to the competition."

Competition begins in the Apeldoorn Velodrome on Thursday 26th March and will continue until Sunday the 29th March, with all competitions taking place during the day.