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Australia’s Paralympic Games medal ambitions were washed away on Thursday as torrential train and mixed classification races tested our road cyclists at the Fuji Speedway.
The first challenge for time trial silver medallist and track pursuit champion Emily Petricola and time trial bronze medallist Meg Lemon in the mixed C4-5 road race was finding the start line through the heavy fog and low cloud.
The 79 kilometre event was raced over a hilly circuit made more difficult by the wet, slippery conditions. Lemon, in eighth, was the first C4 rider to finish with Petricola crossing in 10th place. Dame Sarah Storey, C5, won the event and her 17th career gold to become Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian.
“It was absolutely horrific, I couldn’t see anything and my glasses kept fogging up,” said Petricola, who was contesting only the third road race of her short cycling career. “The rain was just coming straight at you all day. It wasn’t pretty out there. It was really just a war of attrition and survival today.”
Petricola was also battling her multiple sclerosis as the impact of a heavy racing program took its toll.
“My body started give me warning signs about three laps in and by lap four I was not sure I would make it to the end,” Petricola said. “I really just gritted my teeth to get there and once I got back to the pit my body just completely shut down and went into, I don’t know what sort of mode, but not a good one.
In the 79 kilometre men’s C1-3 road race, Darren Hicks finished 12th overall and was the third home of the C2 riders. He leaves Tokyo 2020 with gold in the road time trial and silver in the track pursuit.
“I’m over the moon,” Hicks said. “If we got medals for our class like we do at World Championships I’d be going home with a full set and that’s pretty damn amazing so I couldn’t be happier.”
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David Nicholas (C3) crossed the line in 18th place.
In the men’s T1-3 race Stuart Jones wasn’t prepared for the wild weather.
“It was brutal out there,” he said. “We trained for the heat and we were expecting the heat so I’m just grateful that I got around the course without crashing – it was a hard day at the office.”
In an inspiring display of Paralympic sportsmanship, Jones put his race on hold to support to South African Toni Mould who was trailing last in the women’s race held concurrently with the men’s.
Mould is coached by Jones’ teammate Carol Cooke, who unbeknown to him at the time had withdrawn due to her injuries after a heavy crash early in her race.
“On my last lap as I hit the bottom of the climb I came across Toni Mould and by that stage I knew wasn’t going to podium and it wasn’t going to matter whether I finished sixth, seventh or eighth – but here’s Toni, a true champion going up the climb and I thought well, if I can help her up the hill then my day here has been worthwhile.”
Jones rode alongside Mould encouraging her all the way to the finish line where she crossed in last place, 51 minutes behind the winner Jana Majunke of Germany.
“We got up the hill together and hopefully I made it a little bit easier for her,” he said.
When Jones got back to the team pit he was quick to check in on Cooke and deliver some gentle sledging.
“Usually it’s me crashing so I thought how cheeky she was to get out of riding in those conditions by crashing,” Jones said. “I told her ‘Why didn’t you tell me? I would have joined you’.
“Seriously though, Carol’s a great person, she’s a great teammate, but she’s a beautiful person regardless of her sporting prowess so I really hope it’s a quick recovery for her.”
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The final day of cycling will feature Paige Greco (C3) in the women’s C1-3 road race. The 24 year old already has a world record and gold medal from the track and a bronze from the road time trial.
In the men’s C4-5 road race Alistair Donohoe (C5) is chasing redemption for the race he lost in Rio where he was knocked of his bike mere metres from victory. He jumped up and ran across the line but without his bike which under the rules meant he had not finished the race. While Ukrainian rider Yehor Dementyev was later disqualified for causing the crash it did not change the race result.
“It’s not like I haven’t been thinking about it for the last five years and especially being out here for the last couple of days,” Donohoe said. “Every time I ride the road race course I just get goosebumps and I really truly don’t know what’s going to happen in the race.
“Honestly, this will be the hardest race I’ve ever done – the hardest to win, but I think that’s what I love,” Donohoe said. “To know that I can win but everything has to go right and whoever gets across the line deserves it.
“I just hope I can make the right decisions in the moment and put out a tactically good race, because that’s really what it’s going to come down to.”
By: Gennie Sheer, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 2 September 2021
