2024 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup: final showdown in Maniago

The third and final round

The third and final round of the 2024 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, in Maniago, Italy, was the last major international competition for para-cyclists before the road events at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and the 2024 UCI Road and Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland. –

Four months out from these flagship events, some of the stars of para-cycling put down the markers of double podiums and even double victories. Here are some of the standout performances.

Tandems: the pursuit of dominance

In Friday’s 18.8km MB individual time trial (ITT) the Netherlands’ Tristan Bangma and pilot Patrick Bos beat Frenchmen Elie De Carvalho and pilot Mickaël Guichard by 22 seconds. The Dutch pairing followed up two days later with bronze in the 101.4km road race. De Carvalho and Guichard took silver again, behind the victorious Italian tandem of Federico Andreoli and Paolo Totò.

Bangma, 27, claimed the road and ITT double at Round 1 in Adelaide, Australia, but lost out to his countryman Vincent Ten Schure in the road race in Round 2 (Ostend, Belgium). Bangma also did the road and ITT double at the 2022 Para-cycling Road World Championships in Baie-Comeau, Canada, and while he’s a double Paralympic gold medalist on the track, his silver medal in the B road race at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics is one he’d surely love to turn gold.

In Friday’s 18.8km WB ITT, Great Britain’s Lora Fachie and pilot Corrine Hall won from Ireland’s Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Eve McCrystal, with another British duo, Sophie Unwin with Jenny Holl, third. Two days later, in the 78km road race, Unwin and Holl got the better of Fachie and Hall.

Back in Round 2, it was the double for Unwin, with Dunlevy and Fachie also on the podium in both races. It is an interesting battle that looks to continue in Paris and Zurich in September.

USA’s Bosco and Brim double up!

The women’s C, H and T sport classes saw gold medals awarded in Round 3 to riders from many nations: Great Britain, China, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and the USA. But there were performances by two American women who caught the eye in Italy.

Samantha Bosco won both the C4 ITT and 70.2km road race. Switzerland’s Franziska Matile-Dörig took silver in the ITT and bronze on the road.

In Round 2, the 37-year-old took the ITT by more than 20-seconds, but missed out on road gold to Matile-Dörig. Like Bangma, Bosco achieved the road race - ITT double at the 2022 UCI Para-cycling Road Worlds, and backed it up last year with another double victory in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland (Great Britain). She’s a Paralympic bronze medalist in both disciplines (in the C5 classification) – can she change the colour of her medal in Paris?

Another American to shine in Maniago was Katerina Brim, who won the WH2 ITT from Roberta Amadeo (ITA) and Gilmara Sol Do Rosario (BRA). The podium was replicated in the 46.8km road race.

The 26-year-old – adopted from Ukraine at the age of four – has won every UCI World Cup race this year, and topped off her campaign as part of the USA’s victorious mixed relay team in Italy.

“Here’s to the 2024 World Cup season!” Brim said on her social media. “Was an incredible season that highlighted a lot of truly amazing talent across the world!”

Double wins for Graham and Le Cunff

There was a series of double wins across the men’s H classifications, including Spain’s Muñoz Sergio Garrote (MH2), France’s Mathieu Bosredon (MH3), and a double-Dutch-double in the shape of Netherlands’ Jetze Plat (MH4) and Mitch Valize (MH5). China’s T athlete Jianxin Chen secured a double win in MT1, while in MT2 it was Dennis Connors with another opportunity to wave the Stars and Stripes of Team USA.

Both the 18.8km TT and 70.2km MC3 road races went to Britain’s Finlay Graham. At the age of 24 Fin is already a Tokyo 2020 Paralympian, winning silvers in the road race as well as on the track, and is two-time UCI World Champion in the C3 road race. His road rainbow from Dumfries and Galloway was paired with a silver in the ITT… could he possibly go one better?

It’s a not dissimilar situation with France’s Kevin Le Cunff, who won both the MC4 ITT and road races in Maniago. The 36-year-old is the reigning road race Paralympic Champion and UCI World Champion in both the road race and ITT.

Para-cycling sport classes

  • C – Cycle: conventional bike with adaptations if necessary

  • T – Tricycle: three-wheeled bike

  • B – Tandem: for visually impaired athletes with sighted pilot

  • H – Handcycle

Groups C (1-5), T (1-2) and H (1-5) are divided into different sport classes, with the lower the number indicating a higher level of impairment.