A MECHANICAL IN the final lap of the Men’s C4-5 Road Race denied Ronan Grimes a much deserved high to end his cycling career on.
Grimes had been in 11th place going into the final lap but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. He ultimately finished in 17th place.
Racing around the 99.4km circuit Clichy-Sous-Bois, Paris this morning was his final appearance for Team Ireland following a fantastic Para-cycling career.
Grimes has been a longstanding member of the Team Ireland Para-cycling squad. He has now competed in two Paralympic Games – Tokyo and Paris. Competing on both the track and the road. Grimes has multiple World Championship top ten placings to his name.
The race started at blistering speed as the attacks began on the first lap and continued throughout. Despite the speed Grimes was well positioned after Lap 1 as he crossed the line in 6th place, just 17 seconds behind the leader.
It wasn’t until the third lap that a gap started to open as the lead stretched to 2:48 after 4 laps. However, Grimes was maintaining his position in the top 10 comfortably and was well positioned to improve his position as he started the final lap.
The race was won by Ukrainian Yehor Dementyev followed in silver medal position by home favourite Kevin Le Cunff with Martin Van de Pol taking bronze for the Netherlands.
Speaking after the race Grimes said, “I’m finished now, and I’m retired. This is my last race. It was nice to finish my last race rather than finish it in the car.
“I’m happy, like I am, I’m a bit disappointed, like I would have liked to have finished top ten, that would have been a nice cherry on the cake, but overall, like I look back fondly on this, and yeah, like I think I can finish on it.”
Speaking about his mechanical issue, he said, “So I knew at that stage I was pinned on the road, which would have been a problem. You’re reliant on the official cars, and it was just unfortunate that we had a car in our group, and it just moved ahead of me when I was distanced there, and there didn’t seem to be another car in the group.
“My tenth position would have been a really good result in that C4, C5 race. Five minutes later I saw the group behind come by, and then the next group behind come by, and then the car was put into neutral service, and then eventually a wheel came, and I’d say the officials were upset with me wanting to finish it, but I really wanted to finish the race. I kept them waiting for a bit longer for me to finish.”
