Australia's Para-cyclists have claimed maximum qualifying points in three events along with two gold medals and one silver on the first day of racing at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Los Angeles.

Championship debutant Simone Kennedy posted a personal best time of 44.747 to grab gold in the C3 women's 500m time trial while Bryce Lindores and pilot Scott McPhee combined for victory in the men's tandem pursuit final despite it being only their second race together.

Susan Powell was second in the C4 time trial and Jayme Paris claimed maximum qualification points in her ride in the C1 event.

Kennedy, who turned 18 last month, was the first to claim a medal for the team clipping a tenth of a second off her previous best time in the process and riding almost a second faster than second placed Denise Schindler of Germany.

"I'm pretty happy," said Kennedy after being presented with her world champion's rainbow jersey.

"My aim was to ride my own race and enjoy the experience because I'm young and not many people get the opportunity to represent Australia."

Kennedy switched from athletics to cycling after watching the Para-cycling events in Beijing and has her sights set on the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.

"But London would be a good experience, but we'll have to see if everything works out," said Kennedy who completed her HSC last year and next month will start studying for a degree in coaching and sports administration.

In the men's tandem 4km pursuit Queensland's Bryce Lindores jumped aboard with South Australia's Scott McPhee for their first competition together and despite a hiccup in the qualifying round, regrouped to defeat Ireland's James Brown and pilot Damien Shaw in the final.

At the 2011 championships in Italy Lindores was the bronze medallist with Sean Finning as his pilot while McPhee, with Kieran Modra on the back, won gold and set the world record. But Modra is recovering from three broken vertebrae he sustained in a crash in December and Finning has returned to single bike competition. Lindores has been training with former world champion, Mark Jamieson, but he was unable to travel to the US for the titles.

Lindores and McPhee went into the gold medal match up as the fastest qualifiers and completed the 16 laps in a time of 4.27.299 to finish more than three-and-a-half seconds faster than the Irish pair.

"It's a challenge adapting to a new rider but to make it easier Scott is a similar rider to me so it didn't take much at all," said Lindores.

"We've only been together for about seven days in Australia before we came over here so it did take some training to get the hang of it."

The pair's first outing in competition was in the sixth and last qualifying heat where they began strongly but faded in the closing laps.

"We were going out there to do a slightly better time in qualifying (than we did)," explained Lindores.

"We put on a bigger gear but in the end it sort of ate us away and we couldn't push it in the last kilometre but we still managed to qualify first and in the final the aim was just to beat them."

McPhee agrees the qualifying round was an opportunity to test themselves.

"We were a bit excited like Bryce said and although we are similar in riding styles we didn't know what to expect," said McPhee.

"It wasn't bad for us and it worked out but we learned we're not quite at that level.

"But bringing the gear down for the final we got on top of the smaller gear all the way and considering the little preparation we've had it was just a perfect result."

They will contest the kilometre time trial tomorrow.

Canberra's Sue Powell was a little disappointed to not ride under 39 seconds in the C4 time trial final where she claimed the silver medal for a second straight year.

"I missed the start, I was a bit anxious and went too early and that probably cost me the 39 today," said Powell who was beaten by world record holder and defending champion, Jianping Ruan of China who clocked 38.974.

"Realistically it might have cost me half a second but it (still) wouldn't have put me in her league so good on her, she's a great 500m rider."

Jayme Paris had been looking forward to racing against two rivals from China in the C1 500m event but a reclassification of the pair to C2 level earlier this week meant Paris again lined up as the sole C1 starter. But her ride earned maximum qualification points for Australia for the Paralympic Games.

In other results Brandie O'Connor and pilot Kerry Knowler finished fifth in the women's tandem pursuit, Alexandra Green was fourth in the C4 time trial and Claire McLean placed sixth.

Thirty three nations are contesting the championships in a bid to claim qualifying points to secure starting places at the Paralympic Games.

By Cycling Australia
Posted 10/2/2012

Photo: John Veage