The UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup Chronicle

May 1, 2018, 12:52 PM

The first round of the 2018 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup gets underway in Ostend, Belgium, on May 3rd. This will be the ninth edition of the World Cup series, which this year includes three rounds.

Thirty-eight nations will be represented in Ostend, which hosts the opening round for the first time after featuring second on the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup calendar in 2016 and 2017. After the Belgian stopover, the athletes will meet again in August in Emmen, Netherlands, which returns to the calendar for a second year. Emmen will also host the 2019 Para-cycling Road World Championships. The UCI World Cup will conclude mid-August in Baie-Comeau. The Canadian venue, hosts of the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships in 2010 and 2013, returns to the World Cup for the first time since 2012.

All three events will feature individual time trials, road races and the mixed team relay.

– What's next? –

UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup #1 : Ostend, Belgium, May 3-6

– Focus on Shelley Gautier –

Canadian Shelley Gautier is the most decorated athlete in the women's T1 category, with 12 UCI World Championship titles in the time trial and road race since 2010. Gautier, now 49, began her sports career in university, where she studied physical therapy. In 2001, she suffered a severe head injury while mountain biking and was in a coma for six weeks. Despite permanent impairment to her right side, she did not stop competing, first in para-sailing, winning the international Mobility Cup, before moving to para-cycling. In addition to her world titles, Gautier has multiple UCI World Cup victories, and won a bronze medal in the time trial at the Rio 2016 Paralympics in the combined T1-T2 category.

Follow Shelley on Twitter

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