The French team, multi-medallists at the Paralympic Games (21 medals, including 7 gold), also continued its harvest at the world para-cycling road championships in Zurich (Switzerland).
Florian Bouziani won the C3 time trial on Tuesday 24 September, while in the C2 category, reigning Olympic champion Alexandre Léauté took silver. The French team’s total in this phase is nine medals, including three gold.
Florian Bouziani, who was 90% burned in a fire in 2013, won the fairly flat 18.8-kilometre course by 2.11 seconds over Briton Finley Graham and 4.75 seconds over Canadian Alexandre Hayward, at an average speed of 48 km/h. The Olympic champion in Paris, Thomas Peyroton Dartet, was unable to finish higher than seventh.
In the C2 category, reigning Olympic and world champion Alexandre Léauté missed out on gold by twenty seconds, beaten by Belgian Ewoud Vromant.
On Monday, during the C4 time trial (over 30 km), the French scored a hat-trick: Mattis Lebeau was more than sixteen seconds ahead of Kevin Le Cunff, the time trial winner at this summer’s Paralympic Games, and more than a minute ahead of Gatien Le Rousseau, who had received the prize money in Paris.
In the category B time trial, Alexandre Lloveras, accompanied by Yoann Paillot, won the silver medal behind the Dutch duo Tristan Bangma/Patrick Bos.
The French team began to make its mark on the World Championships on Saturday 21 September, the first day of the competition, with the handbike relay title (Joseph Fritsch, Florian Jouanny and Johan Quaile).
On Sunday, Heïdi Gaugain, as during the Games, won silver in the C5 category time trial behind Britain’s Sarah Storey, while Katell Alençon won the bronze medal in the C4 category.
The different categories
The World Para-cycling Road Championships feature several races depending on the handicap categories.
C – Bicycles: conventional bicycles with adaptations if necessary
T – Tricycle: three-wheeled bicycle
B – Tandem: athletes and visually impaired pilot
H – Handcycle
Categories C, T and H are divided into different sport classes (1-5, 1-2 and 1-5 respectively), with the lowest number indicating a greater disability.
