Cycling Australia

Tuesday, 12 September 2006

Victorian cyclist Michael Gallagher, 27, won his second gold medal and posted his second World Record in as many starts at the 2006 IPC Cycling World Championships being staged in Aigle, Switzerland while his team mates added two silver and two bronze to the Australian team total. Gallagher added the LC1 kilometre time trial gold to his pursuit victory on day one with a 1min09.216sec winning time, taking seven tenths of a second off the previous record set by fellow Australian Matthew Gray in Germany in 2002.

"I'm pretty happy because I did a World Record ride in training last week but I was a bit concerned about whether I'd be able to back up after two pursuit rides the day before," said Gallagher who had to wait for seven other riders to post a time before he knew he had the gold in the bag. "I was more worried about the last couple of starters and my heart rate was just as high during their rides as it was during mine."

Gallagher may yet add more medals to his collection as he is racing in Friday's road time trial and Sunday's road race.

"I don't think anyone will let me do anything in the road race now because I'm probably a marked man but in that (road race) and the time trial I'll do my best and see how it goes," said Gallagher who, as part of a deal with one of his training partners, is planning to paint the rainbow stripes of cycling World Champion on his little white van back when he gets back to Australia.

In the CP4 (Cerebral Palsy) 3km individual pursuit Tasmanian Trent Deacon, 26, added a silver medal to the time trial bronze he won yesterday pushing Czech rival Jiri Bouska all the way to the line. Bouska held on to win in a time of 3min43.168sec with Deacon hauling back Bouska's half way lead of almost three seconds to finish just under a second slower in 3min44.026sec.

"I rode to a schedule for the early laps then with ten laps (of 15) to go Kev (coach Kevin McIntosh) said go for it and that's what I did," said Deacon who then gained on his rival with every pedal stroke. "Not enough laps for me to get him though."

In the women's LC1 3km pursuit final Athens silver medallist, Claire McLean, 30 from West Australia, knew she had her work cut out for her against four time swimming Paralympic champion, Sarah Bailey who set a World Record to qualify fastest for the gold medal ride. Bailey didn't disappoint and knocked a further two seconds off the world mark to win gold in 3min51.666sec with McLean settling for silver in a time of 3min57.934sec.

"We expected she'd be strong and in yesterday's qualifying we though she might have been toying with me a bit and holding something back in reserve," said McLean. "I'm still pretty happy though because my goal was to come in under four minutes and I did that with both rides (qualifying and final).

"That's proved I can repeat (two rides in two days) and back up the time so now I'll do a bit more work to catch up to Sarah for next year," said McLean who began her cycling career on the road as a 13 year old but was forced to put her ambition on hold when a motorbike accident left her with nerve damage in one arm. "I came back to the sport in 1998 but it wasn't until 2002 that they announced individual women's cycling events had been added to the Paralympic program.

"I've come full circle from where I started as a junior although it might have been nice if it had happened when I was a bit younger," laughed the law graduate who will now focus on her favoured road events.

A bronze medal was added to the Australian tally through West Australian Jane Armstrong, 48, who again lowered her personal best time to post 4min32.221sec in the combined LC3-4 / CP3 3000m women's individual pursuit overtaking her Chinese rival Qi Tang in the final lap.

"I felt much better today (than in qualifying) and I got my nerves under control," said Armstrong whose LC3 division has this year been combined with the LC4 and CP3 divisions. "I had imagined taking a couple of seconds off the World Record I set last year and I did that both rides which is just fantastic.

"When I saw her ahead of me in the same straight it was (like a ) 'red rag to a bull', she explained. "Overtaking her with half a lap to go was thrilling."

Australia's ninth medal of the competition came in the men's B & VI (Blind and Visually Impaired) tandem pursuit competition when Leon Larkins and pilot Tyson Lawrence added a bronze medal to their time trial silver of day one. They finished the 4km race in a time of 4min33.839 almost five seconds faster than their Canadian opposition.

"This morning at breakfast the coaches said they might pull us out and save us for Wednesday's sprint but in the end we decided we'd ride it easy for the first two kilomatres and see how we were going," said Larkins. "But at the halfway mark the coach said keep going so we thought we'd better pedal harder and we ended up qualifying fourth fastest.

"It's a real bonus to pick up this one and I could get used to the podium."

"We've never really done specific pursuit training so we're really happy to get a medal," added Lawrence. "We might need to go home and do a bit of training for it and become real all rounders. "It's out first worlds and a we've already got a couple of medals so we're really happy."

Seven finals will be contested on the third and final day of the track competition with Australia so far leading on total medals won (nine) and sitting fourth on the table with two gold, three silver and four bronze. Great Britain tops the table with six gold and one bronze medal.

The complete team is listed below for reference.

• Peter ALLEN (15/3/1959 - Rivervale, WA - HCDivB) Road
  • Jane ARMSTRONG (9/7/1958 - Riverton, WA - LC3 Women ) Road and Track
  • Nigel BARLEY (27/9/1974 - Parkerville, WA - HCDivC) Road
  • Peter BROOKS (28/6/1970 - Souht Wentworthville , NSW - LC1 Men) Road and Track
  • Trent DEACON (25/11/1979 - Burnie, TAS - CPDiv4 men) Road and Track
  • Ben DEMERY (19/09/1986 Charlestown, NSW - B3 Men's Tandem - Pilot Shaun Hopkins) Track
  • Angela FLEMING (12/1/1968 - Echunga, SA - LC2 Women) Road and Track
  • Michael GALLAGHER (14/12/1978 - Roxburgh Park, VIC - LC1 Men) Road and Track
  • Lindy HOU (18/2/1960 - Beacon Hill, NSW - B2 Women's Tandem - Pilot Toireasa Gallagher) Road and Track
  • Leon LARKINS (25/12/1966 - St James, WA - B2 Men's Tandem - Pilot Tyson Lawrence) Road and Track
  • Mark LeFLOHIC (4/12/1970 - Eden Hill, WA - CPDiv2 Men - Tricycle) Road
  • Bryce LINDORES (12/9/1986 - Mermaid Beach, QLD - B1 Men's Tandem - Pilot Stephen Storer) Road and Track
  • Ben MacFIE (Mt Gravatt, QLD - B2 Men's Tandem - Pilot Ben Holmes) Track
  • Claire McLEAN (4/7/1973 - Carlisle, WA - LC1 Women) Road and Track
    

Cycling Australia website www.cycling.org.au

For further information (media only) please contact:
Gennie Sheer, Sheer Rhetoric - Communications Director, Cycling Australia
Tel: +61 (0) 418 863 533 (please note time difference in Europe is AEST -8hrs)
Email: gennie@compuserve.com