Vereker finishes seventh in road race time trial
Pictured after the Men’s B Individual Time Trial are Ireland’s Mitchell McLaughlin and Damien Vereker at the Paris Paralympic games.
It was a seventh-placed finish for Waterford cyclist Damien Vereker in the men's B time trial alongside pilot Mitchell McLaughlin at the Paris Paralympics this afternoon.
After the pair finished ninth at the 2023 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, this was much improved performance for both men in the French capital in their penultimate event of the 2024 games.
It was a solid and steady performance from the pair, who were seventh after the first check point and remained there throughout until the finish.
Their final time of 36:31.09 was +2:20.07 behind race winners Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos of the Netherlands. Silver went to Elie de Carvalho and Mickael Guichard of France, with Vincent Schure and Timo Franse, also of the Netherlands, taking bronze.
Speaking to RTÉ after the race, Vereker said: "I thought that we paced it well first lap and tried to up in the second lap, but the second hill was just hard. It was really hot, and a tough day out there.
"We didn't want to give everything on the first hill, we wanted to reserve something for the second lap."
Mitchell said: "The road race on Friday is our main event so it was good to get out today and get a look at the course."
The two riders will be out again on Friday for their main event of the games and we wish them well.
