More Bling

It's been a good couple of days racing for the Canberra Connection.

On Wednesday, Jing finished with a silver medal in the women's C2 road race - her first international bling, but hopefully not her last.

Richo gained some more valuable experience in how to race this very different creature that is a hand cycle. The big difference is that in a racing chair the weight is all over the wheels but on a hand cycle, the weight is more to the middle, so cornering is a very different experience.

Today, Sue and Alex started their C4 race with the C5 women and stayed with them for a couple of laps before settling into a comfortable rhythm that saw them eventually lap the South African competitor in their category and secure the Gold (Sue) and Silver (Alex) for Australia.  OK, so Alex isn't from Canberra, but she's definitely part of this story.

Brandie and Kerry rode a blinder in their women's tandem event, competing against several world champions.  They stayed well in the bunch for 7 of the 9 laps of the Eastern Creek circuit, which incorporated not only the main racing circuit but the drag race circuit as well.  In lap 7 they weathered two withering attacks from two world champion teams, only to be dislodged by the third attack in a very short space of time.  They continued strongly to finish in 4th place, only 2 minutes down on the winners.

And since we're talking Australian success, mention should be made of the spectacular 1-2 result in the men's tandem race.  Our tandem pairings of Bryce Lyndores/Sean Finning and Kieran Modra/Scott McPhee were involved in a successful breakaway with the American tandem in the latter stages of the race.  Unfortunately for the Americans, they punctured with three laps to go, leaving our boys to fight it out for the gold medal.  Not surprisingly, the more sprint oriented Lindores/Finning tandem took the honours, with Kieran and Scott delighted to collect their own special piece of silver bling.

The time trials are on tomorrow, so more opportunities for World Cup medals and Paralympic points. Stay tuned for more results...