Irish duo Katie-George Dunlevy and her pilot Eve McCrystal have won nearly every race in the UCI Para-cycling Road Word Cup this season. Last year, they collected a gold and a silver medal from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. We caught up with them in Marjorca where they were fine-tuning their training prior to the main event of the season: the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, starting August 31st in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Get to know the dynamic duo in this tandem interview. Katie, tell us about meeting Eve I’m a former rower, and the para-cycling coaches approached me to see if I had any interest in cycling. To be honest, I didn’t even know it existed! They convinced me to give it a try, so in 2011 I began para-cycling. Right away the speed and the teamwork appealed to me, and a year later I was at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Eve and I were paired up at a training camp, and have ridden together since 2014. Right after we were paired, we competed at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Mexico, and we quickly realised that we made a great team. I just knew we were going to be strong together! I trusted her instinctively as a pilot, and it didn’t take long for our teamwork to bear fruit – we earned our first medal at a UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup that same year. What qualities were you looking for in a pilot, and that you have with Eve? Since we are each one part of a twosome, I needed someone who had the same passion for cycling that I did, who was driven, and ready to work as hard as I was. Above all, I needed someone that I would and could trust to be my eyes steering the bike. Eve, what do you recall about first riding with Katie? Being a tandem pilot wasn’t necessarily a goal for me, but after we did our first race together, I actually really enjoyed it and wanted to keep going. Both of us had the same goal: a gold at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. We never once gave up on that goal, and we worked incredibly hard to make that dream a reality last year.
Katie, what are Eve’s greatest strengths? Eve never gives up! She has fierce determination and believes just as fiercely in us. Eve, what do you think are Katie’s greatest strengths? Katie is an incredible athlete; she’s always driven, and she never, ever gives up. She’s always ready to push herself and work harder. As a duo, what’s your greatest strength? Katie: Communication. In order to ride as one person on a tandem, communication is the essential element – regardless of whether you’re training or racing.
Tell us about a memorable moment you’ve shared since you started riding together Katie: There are so many! But I’ll always remember the road and track training camp we had right before the Paralympics last year. One day we had to replicate the time trial we were going to do in Rio – the same distance, the same effort, everything. It was so unbelievably hot that day, and we were so exhausted, but we gave it everything we had because we knew it would pay off. Once we got to the start line in Rio, we knew that we had done everything in our power to get that gold medal – and that’s exactly what we did.
Eve, was that a memorable moment for you too? That training session was pretty much the worst we'd done, but we still completed it. As a pilot, I know that I would never abandon Katie, and that she’d never abandon me. I think the fact that we both knew how much the other was suffering really gave us the strength to push through ‘til the end.
Our Paralympic gold is the culmination of all those efforts - even when we were so very exhausted - and that’s THE thing that I’ll always remember. We had worked so hard to get there, and we felt gratified when we finally got to the top of the podium.
Do you have a pre-race ritual? Eve: We do, we give each other a pat on the back, just to remind each other that we’re a team, we’re in this together.
Will this be your first time in South Africa? Katie: Yes! We’re in the final stages of our prep, and we’re in great shape. I can’t wait to race at the World Championships, and get to discover South Africa!
What do you want to achieve in Pietermaritzburg? Katie: There’s no question that the gold is the goal in the time trial, and to earn a medal in the road race.
Eve: We don’t have any other goals than to win gold! We’re in the best shape we’ve ever been in, and all we have to do is make sure everything goes as planned on the right day!