The XII Paracycle Tour of Bizkaia
This weekend 2nd to 4th May sees the 12th running of the Paralinpiko Bizkaiko Bira for Paralympic Athletes with disabilities, in Bilbao on the North Coast of Spain.Great Britain are among 96 athletes from 15 nations taking part in the stage race as part of their final preparations for the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester on 8th and 9th of May.
Once more Wales are well represented in the GB squad of seven with three Welsh athletes Rachel Morris HCB (pictured), Russ White LC1 and Simon Richardson LC3 travelling with the GB Para-cycling team out to the famous Spanish port city for the traditional season opening Bizkaiko Bira Stage Race.The XII Paracycle tour of Bizkaia is composed of four stages: one “open race” and three timed events.- one takes place in a stadium, one on the road and the other one will be an ascent against the clock.
Russ and Simon have three days of competition ahead starting with an 18km Laida-Laga time trial on Friday, then the 3km Subida a Zollo time trial and a 52km Mungia road race on Saturday. The men’s events culminates in a 1.2km time trial in the Velodromo Fadura on the Sunday morning.
Whilst Rachel has two days of competition with kicking off with two time trials of 1.2km in Santurtzi and 18km Laida-Laga on Friday and the Mungia road race of 31km on Saturday.
Rachel will be keen to demonstrate her form that made her the present double World Champion, whilst Russ and Simon taking part in the event for the second year will be ready to build on their experiences from 2007 and achieve a podium finish.
Keep up to date with their progress on the event web site http://www.saiatu.org/
Report by: Neil Smith FDSW
