Two Cycling New Zealand riders, Nicole Murray and Rory Mead, will contest the UCI Para cycling Road World Championships in Huntsville, Alabama, USA this weekend.
It will be the closest thing to a “home” world championship for USA-based Mead, with the hand-cyclist based a day’s drive away in Ohio.
Mead, who trained and raced in New Zealand this summer, is in career-best form as he eyes the Los Angeles Paralympic Games. He won two bronze medals in the UCI Para cycling Road World Cup time trial in Belgium and Italy in May, along with a podium finish in the H2 road race in Gistel, Belgium.
Mead has experience racing on the Huntsville circuit.
“It’s a fun circuit around a business park that’s reasonably flat with quite a few turns. I think it will make for a good world championships course,” said Mead.
“The event is relatively close to me, and I can drive there in my van, which will make my travel much more straightforward.”
Additionally, organisers have resurfaced the circuit to improve the surface and make for faster racing conditions.
Mead will compete in the H2 time trial on the first morning on Friday (6am Saturday NZT) over a one lap 14.6km loop, with the H2 individual road race over 55.2km (four laps) from 2am Monday (NZT).
Waikato’s Murray is one of the country’s most celebrated Para cyclists, with medals at the Paris Paralympics, 13 medals including two titles at the Track World Championships, one medal at the recent Commonwealth Games and three medals at the Road World Championships. This includes a bronze medal in the C5 time trial at the 2025 Road World Championships in Ronse, Belgium for the 33-year-old, who is a left-hand amputee.
Murray will compete in the two-lap 29.2km C5 time trial at 7.15am on Sunday, followed by the C5 Women’s Road Race at 3.15am (NZT) next Tuesday.
The Para cycling tandem combination of Emma Foy and Jessie Hodges withdrew following illness and will now target the UCI Para Cycling Track World Championships in the Netherlands next month.
Mead in action in Italy earlier this year (SWpix)