Team South Africa achieved a four-medal haul in the third round of the UCI Para-cycling World Cup ahead of the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, which take place in Nottwil, Switzerland, from July 29 to August 2.
Goldy Fuchs with national team coach Elrick Kulsen after winning the silver medal in the T2 Men’s Time Trial event at the 2015 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Elzach, Germany from 24-26 July.
Team SA added one silver and three bronze medals to their already impressive tally when they took on the world’s best in Elzach, Germany, from July 24 to 26.
Goldy Fuchs was the first to ascend to the podium when he took silver in his T2 tricycle race during the time-trial events.
Six-time Paralympian Ernst van Dyk followed with bronze in the H5 hand cycle TT race and another in the road race, where he finished just 16 seconds behind the winner on a technical and demanding course.
George Rex rounded out the team’s medals with bronze in the T1 road race.
Fuchs said he was happy with his time-trial silver and said it boded well for the world champs.
Van Dyk agreed that the team had performed well.
“The numbers looked good and it seems we are where we wanted to be for world champs.”
Of his own two medals, he said he had taken a conservative approach, as he did not want to take any risks right before worlds.
“The TT went quite well in the end. I perhaps started a bit too slow but we had only been here three days at that point so I was still a bit sluggish from the long travel.”
He said the road race had been a typical criterium-style racing format, which South Africans did not do a lot of compared to the Europeans.
“So I stayed back and often had to play catch-up after every corner, so it was a great workout to sharpen up for next week. Worlds is a complete different type of course and we have worked for that.”
