Aileen does it again!

[Darryl Gunson]

New Scottish Institute of Sport cyclist Aileen McGlynn together with tandem partner Ellen Hunter grabbed two wins as Britain notched up 11 golds at the Velodrome as Britain's track cyclists enjoyed an impressive night at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

 

McGlynn and Hunter claimed back-to-back wins against Lindy Hou and Janelle Lindsay in the tandem sprint and then beat the Australians again in the 1km time trial.

 

Meanwhile, partially-sighted cyclist McGlynn and pilot Ellen Hunter were delighted to have got revenge on Australia in the tandem sprint final after the Australians triumphed in Athens last year.

 

"It was a more even race than in Athens and it was great to beat the Australians," said McGlynn. "We had some fantastic support at the Velodrome and that put a bit more pressure on us. They did a good qualifying time but we learnt from our mistakes and worked hard," added Hunter.

[Darryl Gunson]

New Scottish Institute of Sport cyclist Aileen McGlynn together with tandem partner Ellen Hunter grabbed two wins as Britain notched up 11 golds at the Velodrome as Britain's track cyclists enjoyed an impressive night at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

 

McGlynn and Hunter claimed back-to-back wins against Lindy Hou and Janelle Lindsay in the tandem sprint and then beat the Australians again in the 1km time trial.

 

Meanwhile, partially-sighted cyclist McGlynn and pilot Ellen Hunter were delighted to have got revenge on Australia in the tandem sprint final after the Australians triumphed in Athens last year.

 

"It was a more even race than in Athens and it was great to beat the Australians," said McGlynn. "We had some fantastic support at the Velodrome and that put a bit more pressure on us. They did a good qualifying time but we learnt from our mistakes and worked hard," added Hunter.

 

check out :http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/gallery/2005/LarryH/May/ParalympicWCup/Part_2/index.htm

 

[Darryl Gunson]

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/galler ... /index.htm

[Darryl Gunson]

It doesn't mention it in the article just quoted, but for all those of you who don't know Aileen, she is a member of the club!

[Aileen McGlynn]

McGlynn keeps pedal to metal

RICHARD MOORE

 

 

ON FRIDAY evening in Manchester Aileen McGlynn competed in only her second international event. But she had quite a record to maintain. On her first outing, at the Paralympics in Athens last year, she won a gold medal, but it carried extra significance.

 

Her’s was the first gold medal for the GB team; the first ever gold medal for either a male or female British cyclist in the Paralympics; it was also the first cycling gold medal won by a British woman in the Olympics or Paralympics.

 

So on Friday, at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, the partially-sighted McGlynn, as she partnered Ellen Hunter to the start line in the velodrome, knew that the only way was down.

 

That was one possibility; but another scenario had the 31-year-old from Paisley retaining her new-found aura of invincibility. And, in the event, or events, she didn’t retain it - she reinforced it. The McGlynn-Hunter tandem sprinted to back-to-back victories against the Australian partnership of Lindy Hou and Janelle Lindsay in the sprint and kilometre, the event in which the British pair hold the world record, established en route to victory in Athens.

 

The sprint, meanwhile, counted as revenge for Athens, where the Australians pipped the British pair in the final. "It was a more even race than in Athens," commented McGlynn after the final. "It was great to beat the Australians at our home track and we had fantastic support, which put a bit more pressure on us."

 

The support in the velodrome for McGlynn was indeed remarkable. In scenes reminiscent of Chris Hoy’s Commonwealth Games gold at the same venue in 2002, the Saltire flew from the stands and it was accompanied by powerful vocal support; little wonder that McGlynn refers to Manchester as her "home" track.

 

Yet her build-up to the World Cup was hardly smooth. In Athens, it was Hunter, McGlynn’s partner, who was coming back from a serious injury, after breaking her back the year before the games. This time it was McGlynn who was recovering from injury. Three weeks ago she crashed, landed on her collar bone and banged her head. Stitched up and nursing a sore shoulder, she competed in Manchester having decided to "block out the pain".

 

The crash happened after one of the numerous public engagements McGlynn has fulfilled since returning from Athens as a gold medallist. "I was coming back from doing an interview at Bellahouston Park and it was pretty muddy," she explained. "I must have had mud on the bottom of my shoe and when I stopped at lights and went to go again my foot slipped off the pedal, went into my front wheel and down I went, quite heavily.

 

"It was pretty scary. I was lying on the ground and I turned round and a car was about a metre away. But luckily the girl driving the car behind worked for the NHS and she’d always been told to give cyclists a wide berth. But I was so lucky not to be run over, so it could have been a lot worse.

 

"I was having a bit of bother with my shoulder in the week before the World Cup but I got it strapped up and it was okay. I had no problems on the night. But we just didn’t know how we’d go, so we were really pleased to get within a tenth of a second of our world record in the kilo."

 

Yesterday morning, McGlynn was up early and back at the velodrome to help run an open day for children with disabilities. As well as her day job - she is an actuarial trainee for Hymans Robertson in Glasgow - engagements such as this have consumed much of her time recently. Not that she minds.

 

Frustration does bubble to the surface, however, over the lack of training facilities in Scotland. McGlynn travels to Manchester, her "local" indoor track, every fortnight to train, as do all other aspiring Scottish track cyclists.

 

So while she says that she enjoys going to talk to schools and other groups about cycling and cycle racing, she does so hoping that the facilities can be provided to allow the young people she is addressing to actually try the sport; as they do in their thousands at Manchester. The track there is the busiest velodrome in the world and McGlynn sees no reason why a facility in Scotland wouldn’t be just as popular.

 

"We’ve got a lot of very good cyclists in Scotland," says McGlynn. "All the top sprinters are Scottish, and think how many more there could be if we had the facilities. There is a big push to get an indoor velodrome built in Scotland and I really hope it can happen sooner rather than later. But it’s been good to go out and talk to kids because I love my sport and I’d love there to be more kids out cycling."

 

McGlynn started cycling aged eight. Ten years later she joined a local club, but didn’t tell them that she was registered blind. "I just didn’t want that to stop me going out on my bike," she explains. "I felt capable enough as a cyclist to know where I was. So I didn’t tell them.

 

"I can ride on my own out on the road," she continues. "I can see enough to cycle at a slowish pace, but when I’m cycling with the bunch now I cycle with people who do know that I have limited vision and they can watch out for me a bit." She admits, though, that she has started cycling in a tandem when in the company of other riders. Otherwise, she says, "it can be a bit hairy".

 

McGlynn admits that the high profile she has enjoyed since Athens has taken her by surprise, and it has whetted her appetite for more of the same at Beijing in three years. Before that there are the European championships in August, and a world championships next year. Then there will be other World Cup meetings, too, to break up the routine of the fortnightly trek down to Manchester.

 

For McGlynn the level of commitment is not a problem. And with a return of three gold medals from two international competitions, she is hardly likely to question it.

[Stephen Hickey]

Fantastic Aileen Another sensational week for the club.

 

Stephen H

[Aileen McGlynn]

Hi All,

 

Just to let you know that BBC2 are showing highlights of the Paralymipc World Cup on Sunday 22 May from 3pm.

 

Cheers

 

Aileen

[Peter Abraham]

Nice one Aileen. Knew you would well.