The two final para-cycling rainbow jerseys awarded at the 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships went to Dutchman Mitch Valize (Men H4) and Frenchman Joseph Fritsch (Men H5).
Both road races in Zurich, Switzerland, took place over a 57.8km course that comprised one tough city circuit, featuring gradients of 17%, followed by five flatter lakeside laps.
Valize lined up for the Men’s H4 road race as favourite after winning the time trial earlier in the competition. He lived up to that pre-race billing with a dominant victory. France’s Loïc Vergnaud outsprinted Ukraine’s Pavlo Bal to silver.
“The race and course were very hard,” said Valize. “But there were lots of people cheering, which was nice. I saw my name on the road, which gave me wings. I lost my teammate [Tim de Vries] and knew I had to ride my own race and go for the win. I attacked on the uphill parts of the lakeside laps. I was exhausted at the finish but happy to win my fourth world title in a row, as the level of H5 cycling is improving every year.”
Vergnaud led Bal and Valize through the first checkpoint. The trio extended its advantage by the second checkpoint to more than 90 seconds over Poland’s Krzysztof Plewa.
The leading three remained together until Valize shifted up a gear with three laps remaining. Vergnaud and Bal tried to close down the gap, but Valize attacked again, stretching the lead to nearly 30 seconds with two laps to go. He did not let up and kept his lead to the finish.
Valize, 29, has won both the time trial and road race UCI world titles at every UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships since 2021. He also won both the time trial and road race at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, repeating that double feat at the recent Paris 2024 Games.
The secret to his success, according to an interview with the UCI, is his mindset. “I was raised with the mentality that if something looks impossible or somebody said, ‘No, you cannot do it’, then just look around, search for a solution, try it in your own way and then eventually you can do it,” Valize said.
In the Men’s H5 road race, Austrian Thomas Frühwirth was arguably the pre-race favourite after winning the individual time trial earlier in the week. But it was Fritsch – gold medallist in the mixed handbike team relay on the opening day of competition and winner of the bronze in the time trial -, who went hard from the start to take an early lead. And a substantial one of more than 90 seconds following the two main climbs, the Zurichbergstrasse and Binz. Frühwirth was in second with Poland’s Rafal Wiłk and Switzerland’s Fabian Recher a further 30 seconds back.
By the second checkpoint that lead had grown to nearly two and a half minutes over Frühwirth, and he eventually won by more than four minutes. Recher outsprinted Wilk to win bronze.
“It was a hard race but perfect for me,” said Fritsch. “There was a steep section on the first climb, so I worked hard. I made a gap and pushed hard to keep the pace. I knew I had a two-minute lead as we hit the lakeside laps. From there it was a time trial, so I gave it my all.”
This is Fritsch’s first major individual global victory after winning UCI world titles in the mixed H1-H5 team relay in Zurich and last year in Glasgow, Scotland (Great Britain), as well as the mixed team relay at the recent Paralympics in Paris, France.
The Netherlands finished top of the para-cycling medals table in Zurich, with 11 gold medals, one silver and two bronze. France finished second with eight gold medals, nine silver and eight bronze. Great Britain finished third with six gold medals, nine silver and three bronze.
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.