2019 World Cup Preview

👤Ken Bestine 📁 Featured News, Slider, Sports 🕔08.May 2019

This year’s World Cup tour starts in Italy, and then travels to Belgium. After a little break World Championships in Holland then off to Canada. The Italian and Canadian courses will prove to be climber friendly courses while Belgium and Holland will have wind and pack riding to contend with. Nations will gather points from these events that will ultimately determine the number of riders they can bring to the Paralympics in Tokyo.

Preseason predictions from this prognosticator are not betting worthy but intended to give credit to all who participate.

Predictions for men H1 will lean towards Fabrizio CORNEGLIANI as the rabbit again this year. His TT performance at World Championships solidified his ability to win when it counts. Don’t discount the efforts of Pieter Nicolas DU PREEZ of South Africa. He is a proven winner and will be on the podium all year. The race for the third spot will be tight as many are within striking distance.

Men H2 will be a coin toss for the top three Luca Mazzone , Will Groulx and Sergio Garrotte. The flat courses will likely favor Will Groulx while the hilly Italian and Canadian terrain could give Mazzone and Garrotte an edge.

Men H3 is going to be a barn burner this year with a wild scramble for podium positions. The Canadians have 4 contenders for podium this year. Charles Moreau, Alex Hyndman, Joey Desjardins and a reconstituted Rico Morneau. The Italians also have a super trio that could be impossible to keep off the top three positions. Returning World Champion Federico Mestroni , Paolo Cecchetto and Vittorio Podesta. Road races will be unpredictable. A betting man will place his money on Deberg to be a dominant force and crowned World Champion again. New to H3 USA’s Ryan Pinney will have a wheel in the action and could make a splash into the top 5 on a regular basis. The men’s H3 class will be some of the closest racing para cycling has seen. Pack riding on flat courses will challenge officials to maintain order as racing etiquette could be less important to racers dodging to improve position.

Men H4 has seemingly a clear leader and after that a battle for second and third. Jetze Plat will again run away with any race he enters this year and be crowned double World Champion. BUT this would be not considering how good the competition is. The H4 class has athletes that are most able and with this have the greatest potential to improve performance and reach new heights. Rafal Wilk will be a contender to never overlook. Never count out a professional. Tom Davis, Geert Schipper, Thomas Fruhwirth, Vico Merklein and Bernd Jeffre are an all-star peloton that have no road boss. If from this group one develops Plat could be challenged in road races and be very entertaining for spectators to watch.

Men H5 is at the top of the food chain. Tim deVries is World Champion in RR and will be on his game. He could be crowned double World Champion in his home country later this year. The chess game that H5 has proven to be will be crowd pleasing as the H5 peloton grows in numbers with the build towards Tokyo. Who knows Ernst could return to mix things up a bit. deVries will not have it easy though, Oz Sanchez and Alfredo De Los Santos will be a dual that could crash the party in memorable fashion to control the field and earn podium spots at all World cup events this year.

Let us not forget the female contingent. Road racing can be pretty unpredictable due to mixed classification racing. If one of the women digs into a break away led by a few MH2’s they could survive to end up on the top step of the podium.

Womens H2 Carmen Koedood will likely repeat as World Champion in the smallest of fields.

Womens H3 will be a battle between Francesca Porcellato and Alicia Dana. Jady Malavazzi will continue her quest for higher podium positions while Renata Kazlua’s return could impose a threat to all the peloton leaders.

Womens H4 will likely be dominated by Jennette Jansen. Her 2^nd year as an H4 will prove to be better than her first. Svetlana Moshkovich will be in pursuit but be at a disadvantage when the road tilts up. Look for Jansen to repeat as World Champion but don’t look past Kara Douville as she will be making her world cup debut this Thursday in Italy.

Womens H5 Laura De Vann will battle it out with veteran Andrea Eskau in a small field of H5’s. DeVann will have the boost from a home field advantage to again be crowned World Champion.