Home crowd inspires its riders to more medal-winning performances at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Glasgow.
Jaco van Gass won his second gold medal of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships to top a stellar day for the British team as they racked up another three gold medals. Team GB now heads the para-cycling track medal table with 16 medals, half of them gold.
The Men C3 scratch race concluded the day’s programme at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, Scotland. Great Britain fielded a strong team that included Van Gass (winner of Friday’s 1km time trial), and defending UCI World Champion in the C3 scratch race Fin Graham, who won time trial silver behind Van Gass on Friday.
After a fine effort by Colombia’s Alejandro Perea, the two Brits got away and forged a half-lap lead with 20 laps to go. The chasing group seemed deflated, mentally conceding the battle was for bronze.
With 13 laps to go, Van Gass and Graham had lapped their competition and it was an out-and-out fight for gold. Graham put the power down on the bell but Van Gass showed his sprint prowess by surging around the final corner for a memorable victory. Graham collected silver with New Zealand’s Devon Briggs winning bronze.
Earlier in the evening, Great Britain got off to a brilliant start to the session as Sam Ruddock defended his Men C1 1km time trial rainbow jersey. Spain’s Ricardo Ten Argiles had taken the lead but seemed disappointed with his time. With China’s Weicong Liang, Ruddock and Liang’s Chinese teammate Zhangyu Li still to race, he suspected he hadn’t done enough. And he was soon proved right as Liang, who had already won bronze in the individual pursuit on Thursday, took the lead in a time of 1:12.529.
It was a tough target and one that current UCI World Champion Ruddock looked like missing as he lay nearly one-and-a-half seconds down at the halfway stage. Ruddock needed to find the strength that used to propel him to 100m and shot-put glory in para-athletics. And he did find it as he delivered a startling finish to take the lead with a 1:12.210.
Gold was within his grasp but world record holder Li (1:08.37), winner of Thursday’s individual pursuit, looked fatigued as he had to settle for bronze.
A delighted Ruddock said afterwards: “I didn’t expect to come here and defend my UCI World title as the Chinese weren’t (at the UCI World Championships) in France last year. I just don’t know where that came from.”
Blaine Hunt then took gold in the Men C5 1km time trial. The fastest qualifier looked super composed and smooth to go half a second faster than qualifying to take the win in 1:03.341. America’s Christopher Murphy won silver, meaning the top two were a photocopy of the 2022 result in Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. Belgium’s Niels Verschaeren won bronze.
“I could hear the crowd cheering and couldn’t let them down,” Hunt said after the race. “I could sense the atmosphere building as I hit positive splits.”
Rising star of women’s cycling
The Women C5 individual pursuit final was one of the most eagerly awaited of the day as France’s Heidi Gaugain faced New Zealand’s Nicole Murray. Gaugain is only 18 years old but is already carving herself quite a reputation. She’s a double Junior UCI World Champion whose dream is to win the title of both Olympic and Paralympic Champion. And she’s making inroads as this season she’s competed for Basque UCI Women’s Continental team Bizkaia-Durango. Twenty-nine-year-old Murray’s one of the leading lights of the Kiwi team and won two gold medals and a bronze at last year’s UCI Para-cycling Track Worlds. She’d also won a bronze in Glasgow on day one in the Women C5 500m time trial.
From the gun, both athletes were neck-and-neck but from the midway point, Gaugain slowly turned the screw, gaining time on her opponent with every passing lap to take a tremendous victory, just under two seconds ahead of Murray.
In the bronze final, Italy’s Claudia Cretti got the better of Great Britain’s Morgan Newberry by around three seconds.
France dominated the Men C2 scratch race with Florian Chapeau taking the victory and Alexandre Léauté winning bronze. Spain’s Maurice Far Eckhard Tio split the two French riders, finishing in second.
Results and live timing on the UCI website.
Brief explanation of para-cycling sport classes for the track
C – Cycle: conventional bike with adaptations if necessary
B – Tandem: for blind or visually impaired athlete with sighted pilot