Britain has taken a commanding lead in the gold medals table at the end of Day 2 of the Road Cycling race after both David Stone (CP2) and Darren Kenny (CP3) won their respective events Saturday. The British team now has five golds to the three each for Spain, Germany and United States.
Stone was the first to add to the British gold tally when he became the first double gold medalist of the meeting. Kenny matched him just hours later with a pair of road cycling golds to take his overall cycling competition gold tally to an historic five.
From the very start of the Mixed Road Race (CP1/CP2) Stone led all the way, coming home over three minutes clear of his nearest opponents, Riaan Nel of South Africa (CP2) and Giorgio Farroni of Italy (CP2), with just a second separating the silver and bronze medalists.
Yesterday Kenny had to be content with silver in the Men's Individual Time Trial (CP3), suffering a rare defeat in blistering heat at the hands of long time rival Javier Ochoa of Spain (CP3). This afternoon he got his revenge. On a far cooler day, Kenny came home 1.74 seconds ahead of the Spanish rider in a storming sprint finish in the Men's Road Race (LC3/LC4/CP3) after the two had broken away from the pack towards the end of the 60.5km race.
Kenny's win not only redresses the balance between the two at this Paralympics but reverses the outcome of the Kenny/Ochoa race for second and third places in the CP3 road race at the 2007 Paracycling World Championships in Bordeaux, France - won by Maurice Far Eckhard of Spain who placed eighth today - and cemented the British rider firmly at the top of the CP3 world rankings.
A full minute after Kenny and Ochoa battled across the line, Tomas Kvasnicka of the Czech Republic (CP3) came home in an even closer finish with Tobias Graf of Germany (LC3), the Czech rider taking the bronze by just 0.43 second.
Earlier on in the day Andrea Eskau of Germany (HCC) grabbed a gold in one of Saturday's tightest finishes. Eskau slip-streamed Monique Van Der Vorst of the Netherlands (HCC) for much of the 36.3km course in the Women's Road Race (HCA/HCB/HCC), overtaking her on the line and snatching gold by just a wheel's length, 0.13 second ahead of the Dutch rider.
The crowd had not long recovered from the excitement of Eskau's finish when they were on their feet again. The blanket finish in the Men's Road Race (LC1/LC2/CP4) in which four riders crossed the line with just 0.49 seconds separating them, had them screaming in delight.
Jan Boyen of Belgium (LC2) must count himself the unluckiest man at the Cycling Road race, missing out on a medal in the event by just five thousandths of a second. He came home fourth in the stampede for the line a bicycle tire's width behind Michael Gallagher of Australia (LC1), who himself missed out on the silver by 0.13 seconds.
David Mercier of France (LC1) -- gold medalist at the 2007 World Championships -- took the runners-up medal just 0.23 seconds behind one of the surprises of the Paralympic Road Cycling meet. Fabio Triboli of Italy (LC1), who placed only 20th in the World Championships LC1 Road race, blasted over the line to take gold and leave the race pundits gawping.
(BOCOG September 13, 2008)