Lat month, South African Ernst Van Dyk showed up in Alaska to challenge Alejandro Albor at the toughest race in the world. Although Albor got the better of him up North, there were signs of a not-so-far-away form in Van Dyk, who ended up winning 4 stages, including the final time trial. Van Dyk does not exclusively focus on handcycling, but since the race in Alaska he has put in some quality training in a brand new custom bike made by Chris Peterson at Invacare. It all paid off today, as Van Dyk blasted the hilly, 10 kilometer time trial course at the Worrld Championships in Bordeaux, France averaging 24+mph in the process. He beat his closest rival, 2nd-placed “yank” Alejandro Albor by almost 30 seconds, which is a big margin in a short, 10k time trial. This is Van Dyk’s first world title for cycling, and it looks like his form is good for Sunday’s 50 kilometer road race. Find out more about Ernst through his website.
Albor — the favorite headed in to today’s race — still managed a respectable silver medal with a time of 15:50. It’s never a bad thing to wind up your worst day in the last 12 months with a silver medal. The surprise of the day was Albor’s HCB teammate, David Lee. Lee squeaked out a bronze medal at his first-ever international competition. The U.S. hope for an HCB medal was Matt Updike, who had a “not-so-good” day today, so it’s good to see that Lee - not known at all for his time trialling abilitiy - was able to pick-up his teammate and grab some hardware….great ride David!
All things considered, the U.S. guys had a pretty good showing today, with Oz Sanchez pulling out a 6th-place — his highest international finish to date — just in front of teammate Scott McNeice, who finished 8th, showing some of his best form in years. Todd Richardson is still battling a virus and was not able to race today’s time trial.
It is noteworthy that Updike is indeed showing great form this season, and that his luck is due for a change: he had a flat tire today and has had many mechanical problems and/or crashes at international races in the last two seasons. With Updike back on track, Richardson healthy, and three fast HCC racers in the form of Albor, McNeice and Sanchez, there is a possibility that we’ll see a lot of stars ‘n stripes on the podium on Sunday.
And don’t forget…Albor won the road race at last year’s Worlds in the *POURING* rain…and it is forecast for rain again on Sunday….hmmmmmm.
Stay tuned…
Full results are posted HERE
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