Tandem duo Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl claimed their second silver medal at the 2024 UCI Road and Para-Cycling Road World Championships. The talented duo finished second to Irish tandem team Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly in Zurich.
Teammates Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall finished sixth, while Lizzi Jordan and Danni Khan unfortunately did not finish.
Women’s tandem B road race
The women’s road race started at pace, with the group staying together for the first few kilometres. Hitting the first climb, Jordan and Khan struggled and found themselves dropped from the lead group, 41 seconds down at the first time check, while the other riders stayed tight together.
During the second half of the lap, the pair managed to rejoin, while teammates Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall pushed the pace on the climbs in an attempt to break up the group.
Heading towards the end of the first lap, Holl and Unwin and Irish pair Josephine Healion and Eve McCrystal broke from the front, with the British pair quick to jump on their wheels and conserve energy.
Helion and McCrystal continued to lead and launched another successful attack, leading by 51 seconds at 28km.
The pressure was on for Holl and Unwin to pull back their lead. They kept the Irish pair in sight as they headed up the 15% climb. Helion and McCrystal continued to push the pac and increased their lead to 57 seconds as the women’s race hit the lakeside circuit.
Meanwhile, Jordan and Khan had slowly drifted further back from the peloton, and with less than half of the race to go, withdrew from the race.
Heading onto the first of five laps of the lakeside circuit, the pace increased considerably and the pairings of Unwin and Holl and Dunlevy and Kelly caught up to the leading Irish bike. Just 19 seconds separated them from the chase group of the Italian and Polish bikes.
Fachie and Hall continued to push hard through the course, but at almost two minutes back, looked unlikely to bridge the gap to the podium with just 30km to go.
The next three laps saw a fierce battle as the two Irish bikes worked together in an attempt to tire Unwin and Holl and push them out of contention for the win. With 15km to go, Dunlevy and Kelly launched a ferocious attack, catching the Brits by surprise and managing to break away from the group. They would continue to increase the gap.
The gap from Dunlevy to Unwin was initially 14 seconds, with another 14 seconds separating Unwin and the second Irish bike. With the chase group now over a minute behind, the podium was sealed, but it was a question as to whether Unwin and Holl could find one last push on the final six kilometre circuit and take the win.
Ultimately, the pairing of Dunlevy and Kelly proved too much for the Paralympic road race champions and Unwin and Holl settled for their second silver medal of the championships, crossing the finish line one minute and 23 seconds behind.
Fachie and Hall finished 6:47 down on the leaders, in sixth place overall.
