Promise in Europe
The 2011 European Handcycle Circuit proved to be the most successful yet for British Handcyclists with a number of cyclists making top twenty finishes in fields of 50 plus riders. Marc Poolman, Ali Corpsbell, Jimmy Goddard, Brian Alldis and Andy Houghton were among the riders gaining valuable racing experience in the bigger events.
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Two of the UK's most experienced handcyclists, Chris Madden
and Rob Wickham placed well within the top ten in every race, with their best
performance being in Louny in the Czech Republic. Here Chris took
second and Rob third place in the road race. On a tough criterium circuit both riders
worked in the lead pack until a few laps to go when they both decided
it was time to make a tactical move. They had noticed the speed was dropping
each time the lead pack hit the main climb, so after deciding what to do,
Rob went off the front of the pack with Chris following. With two
laps to go they opened a substantial gap from the pack but they had no chance of
catching the leader who had gone off the front at the start of the race
and stayed away. Disappointingly they had to race each other for 2nd and
3rd place with Chris coming out the victor. A fantastic result for the
Brits in the toughest handcycle series in the world, where a number of
the worlds
best handcyclists were competing. This 2nd place place was enough to keep Chris in the yellow jersey as series leader until the final event where
he was unfortunately overtaken in the overall standings.
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In the female division another Briton stamped her authority in Europe
this year. Karen Darke has consistently been placed on the podium in all three races she entered in the WH2 division. With two bronze medals in
the world championship she is on target to perform well in the upcoming
London 2012 Olympics. This is also the case for Rachel Morris in the WH3
division who took second place in the only EHC race she entered. After a
dislocated shoulder later in the season she still managed a Bronze
medal in the world championships a few weeks later.
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The 2011 season ended with
Chris Madden in 5th and Rob Wickham in
6th place overall in their H2 category in the EHC series. Karen and Rachel also finished the season
in 6th place after missing a substantial number of the EHC races - a fantastic result none
the less for these four handcyclists.
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Results like these give the rest of us motivation and focus to keep training and progressing in the sport.
