Irish riders dominate paracycling World Cup as Dunlevy and McCrystal secure overall win

Irish riders dominated the paracycling World Cup road race in Quebec, Montreal, taking the first two places just as they did in Friday’s time trial.

Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal triumphed in the race late on Sunday, beating fellow Irishwomen Josephine Healion and Linda Kelly by one minute 51 seconds.

The third-placed riders were a distant 12 minutes 59 seconds behind, showing the dominance of the Irish.

Dunlevy and McCrystal ended up the overall winner of the 2022 paracycling World Cup for tandem riders. They won the time trial and took silver in the road race in the opening round in Ostend in Belgium in May.

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Dunlevy paired with Kelly for the second round in Elzach in Germany, also in May. They won both the time trial and road race there.

With time trial and road race victories with McCrystal in Canada, Dunlevy won five of the six events. She and McCrystal were named overall winners in the World Cup.

The duo are the standout paralympic competitors from this country across all sports. They took paralympic gold medals in the road race and time trial during last year’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo, as well as silver in the points race on the track.

Dunlevy is also the European paralympic champion in time trial, having won while pairing with Kelly in that championship event in Upper Austria in May. The duo took silver in the road race after a mechanical problem cost them the chance of a gold medal.

Attention now turns to the paracycling world championships in Baie-Comeau, Canada. This runs from Thursday until Sunday, and will see both tandem pairings (Dunlevy and McCrystal, Healion and Kelly) chasing gold.

European champion Ronan Grimes will likewise be aiming for the top step of the podium in the MC4 events, having taken silver in the time trial and road race in Quebec.

They will be joined by Damien Vereker and Dillon Corkery, who were fifth in the men’s World Cup tandem time trial on Friday, but were non-finishers in the race due to a broken chain.

Gary O’Reilly (MH5) and Declan Slevin (MH3) complete the team. MH5 competitor O’Reilly was seventh in the time trial and fifth in the road race. Slevin was 14th in the MH3 time trial and road race.

Paracycling head coach Neill Delahaye laid out the goals for the upcoming world championships.

“The primary objective for the team in Canada will be to deliver performance consistency across both time trial and road race in each competition, ensuring we secure adequate nations ranking points to keep Ireland on track with our Paris 2024 qualification ambitions.

“Most of the team are experienced campaigners, and they have been working very hard since the last races in May to be at their best for August. Preparation has gone well, and I know everyone travelling harbours ambition to push for podiums.”