After victories in the mixed H team relay and the individual time trial (ITT), Frenchman Mathieu Bosredon claimed his third gold medal of the 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships by winning the Men’s H3 road race on Saturday. The 33-year-old dominated from the start to beat Martino Pini of Italy by nearly six minutes. Norway’s Christian Gyldenhør won bronze.
“It was a really tough race,” said Bosredon, who was runner-up in the ITT and road race at last year’s UCI Cycling World Championships. “Pini was very strong in the first part. I held on until the course flattened out a bit and then I knew I had a chance.”
His three medals in Zurich, Switzerland, this week cap off a season that also saw him win gold in the ITT and road race at the Paris 2024 Paralympics. His Paralympic performance came after 14 years of chasing his Paralympic dream: he missed selection for the London 2012 Paralympics, just missed out on the podium at Rio 2016 (fourth in the road race), missed selection for Tokyo 2020, before taking double gold in Paris 2024.
The Women’s C2 road race was eagerly awaited, with a number of current and former road and track Paralympic and UCI World Champions in the field including America’s Allison Jones, Great Britain’s Daphne Schrager and Switzerland’s Flurina Rigling, who won C2 time trial gold earlier in the week.
And it was the Swiss rider who came through again, winning gold after a truly dominant performance. It was a close affair for several laps until Rigling eased into time trial mode to break clear and beat second-placed Schrager by just over three minutes. Colombia’s Daniela Carolina Munévar Flórez took bronze.
Samantha Bosco of the USA exacted revenge on ITT winner Franziska Matile-Dörig as she clawed back a near-minute deficit to the Swiss rider to win gold in the Women’s C4 road race.
Sarah Storey won her 20th para-cycling road UCI world title and 39th overall UCI world title (road and track combined) in the Women’s C5 road race. The British rider was the favourite - her fiercest rival, Heïdi Gaugain, was a non-starter - and took charge of the race from the outset, winning by over seven minutes from countrywoman Morgan Newberry. Australia’s Alana Forster won bronze.
The Netherlands’ Aniek van den Aarssen unleashed an incredible sprint to win the Women’s C3 road race. Paula Caballeros Pérez of Colombia took silver with Jamie Whitmore of the USA winning bronze.
Great Britain’s Frances Brown won the Women’s C1 road race, the ninth UCI world title of her career.
Para-cycling sport classes
C – Cycle: conventional bike with adaptations if necessary
T – Tricycle: three-wheeled bike
B – Tandem: for visually impaired athletes with sighted pilot
H – Handcycle
Groups C (1-5), T (1-2) and H (1-5) are divided into different sport classes, with the lower the number indicating a higher level of impairment.