The trio of Vittorio Podesta, Luca Mazzone and Alessandro Zanardi dominated the hand cycling team relay, completing the 18 kilometres race in a time of 28min 11sec.

Brian Sheridan, Matthew Updike and Oscar Sanchez of the United States finished second, 29 seconds off the pace, while France’s Ludovic Narce, Mathieu Bosredon and Rodolph Cecillon were a further 26 seconds back.

In the men’s tandem race, the Italian pairing of Emanuele Bersini and pilot Panizza Riccardo crossed the line 16 seconds quicker than Great Britain’s Stephen Bate and Adam Duggleby, who were followed onto the podium by Poland’s Marcin Polak and Michal Ladosz.

Italy’s Andrea Tarlao and Pierpaolo Addesi took the first two steps of the podium in the C5 category, finishing with a cumulative 55 second lead on The Netherlands’ Daniel Abraham Gebru.

Compatriot Andrea Pusateri crossed the line in the C1 class with a time of 1 hour 46min 12sec after a sprint finish, fending off the challenge of Germany’s Erich Winkler and Michael Teuber, the silver and bronze medallists respectively.

Fabio Anobile was the fastest of the first 12 cyclists who formed part of the C3 category sprint final, followed initially by Germany’s Steffan Warias and then Russia’s Sergey Batukov.

Elsewhere on the men’s side, C4 class time-trial gold medallist, Jozef Metelka of Slovakia, got the better of Romania’s Carol-Eduard Novak and France’s Jérémy Crépelière after 85.2km.

In the women’s racing, Poland’s Anna Harkowska was the quickest cyclist in the C5 class once more, just as she was in the time-trial on Friday (June 5).

Harkowska beat Germany’s Kerstin Brachtendorf in a sprint across the line, while Canada’s Nicole Clermont was five minutes behind in third.

The same three medallists from the time trial made the podium again in the C4, with the US’s Shawn Morelli at the top, and Italy’s Jenny Narcisi, time-trial bronze medallist, and Canada’s Marie-Claude Molnar, second in the time-trial, changing positions.

The C2 category saw the US’s Allison Jones go one better than her silver medal in the time-trial, condemning her conqueror in that event, The Netherlands’ Alyda Norbruis, to second place, with Czech Republic’s Tereza Diepoldova claiming her second bronze medal of the weekend.

It was the same story in the C3 class as Germany’s Denise Schindler won gold at the expense of the US’s Jamie Whitmore, who she lost out to in the time-trial, while Britain’s Megan Giglia earned her second bronze medal of the meet. 

Italy finished the event with a grand total of 19 medals, including 11 golds, four silvers, and four bronzes.

Germany earned six golds, 10 silvers, and four bronzes to take second place, while The Netherlands finished third with five golds, seven silvers, and three bronzes.

The Para-cycling Road World Cup series is due to continue in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, from June 14 to 16.


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