Ivan Romeo, world champion in the U-23 time trial

Imanol Arriortua and Fran Rus take bronze in the men’s Paralympic category B

Spanish cyclist Iván Romeo was crowned world champion in the U-23 time trial at the World Championships in this discipline, which is being held in Zurich (Switzerland), while the tandem formed by Imanol Arriortua and Fran García Rus took the bronze medal in the men’s Paralympic B category.

The Valladolid native, a Movistar Team rider, completed the 29.9-kilometre route between Gossau and Zurich in spectacular fashion, stopping the clock at 36:42.70, a time that put him 32 seconds ahead of Sweden’s Jakob Soderqvist and 41 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Jan Christen, who also finished on the podium.

At the finish, Romeo managed to beat the record set up to that point, that of Christen (37:23.38), who had previously displaced Mexican Isaac del Toro (38:06.53) at the top of the timesheets. None of the favourites managed to overtake the Spaniard, the only one capable of going under 37 minutes and who subsequently took the gold medal.

In this way, Romeo wins the first gold for Spain in the time trial event and in the Under-23 category since Iván Gutiérrez won it in 1999.

“I’ve been dreaming about this for the last two months, it’s been one of the goals of the season. It’s always very difficult, there are times when it just doesn’t work out for you. Today I knew that the course was very good for me, I came here ten days before with my father, seeing everything, learning all the curves by heart. It’s crazy,” Romeo admitted after the race in statements to the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC).

In this sense, he acknowledged that the sensations during the last few days were “very good”. “Since I came here I felt very well and I told my family and friends about it all day long. We have managed to arrive in a good moment, I want to thank my coach Alexis, who has to be very patient to put up with me,” he indicated.

“I knew that the last 12 kilometres were super important, that I had to save a little bit for that. I was seeing that the times were good, I already knew that I had one more bullet and the last 10 kilometres were about putting my head down, concentrating, knowing that they were the most important 10 kilometres of my life. Luckily, the strength was also on my side,” he added.

Meanwhile, among the Spanish Paralympic delegation, the tandem formed by Imanol Arriortua and Fran García Rus added another bronze to the one achieved on Saturday by the relay team. Arriortua and Rus were marking the second best time in the two intermediate steps, 8 and 11 seconds, respectively, behind the Dutch Bangma and Bos, big favourites.

Finally, the duo formed by the Basque and the Murcian won bronze after being overtaken by the French duo Lloveras-Paillot in the last section, finishing 51 seconds behind the first place of the Dutch. Fourth place went to the also Spanish Joan Sansó and Eloy Teruel, 1:32 behind the winners. Meanwhile, Damián Ramos, bronze at the Paralympic Games in Paris, was fifth in the C4 category.