September 10, 2009(Bogogno, Italy) – The first day of the 2009 UCI Paracycling World Championships brought Canada’s first World Paracyclist Champion with the victory by Robert Labbé in the HC-A category. Labbé is competing at his first World Championships and surprised his opponents by winning with a clear 38 second gap. “I was hoping for a podium but the first place is a great surprise that I still can hardly believe,” commented Labbé. It’s filled with emotions that Robert wins the first medal for Canada at these Championships.

Fellow cyclists, Rico Morneau and Mark Beggs put up a good fight by respectively finishing 9th and 12th in the HC-B category.

Later in the day, Canada had four riders competing in the LC category – a first in the team’s history. Despite crashing on the opening lap, Mark Breton battled back to finish 19th in the LC-1 category while Eric Bourgault, returning from sickness, finished a respectable 10th in the LC-2. Two athletes in the LC-3 category, Mathieu Parent and Arnold Boldt were also competing at their first World Championships and finished 9th and 13th respectively.

Tomorrow, it’s the CP’s and the B&VI (Tandem) that will battle on the technical and challenging course of the Piemonte region. Keep an eye on Marie-Claude Molnar (CP-4) and her two fellow CP-3 riders, Jean Quévillon and Brayden McDougall, as well as our tandem teams Geneviève Ouellet et Mathilde Hupin, Daniel Chalifour et Alexandre Cloutier et Stéphane Côté et Pierre-Olivier Boily.

Team managers: Julie Hutsebaut and Jacques Landry
Head coach: Eric Van Den Eyde
Assistant coach: Sebastien Travers
Mechanic: Patrick Gauthier
Physiotherapist: Martin St-Laurent