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The fire is still burning for Alistair Donohoe to crack it for Paralympic road race success after the 29-year-old Australian grinded through the gears for a hard-fought sixth position in Paris.
Over nearly 100 kilometres of racing on the unrelenting street circuit at Clichy-sous-Bois on the outskirts of the French capital, Donohoe couldn’t make up the gap on the early pace-setters in the men’s C4-5 road race.
The early exit of Korey Boddington didn’t help his cause after his fellow Australian crashed out and was left with a “broken bike”, robbing Donohoe of the vital chance to work together.
Donohoe heartbreakingly missed a shot at gold in Rio eight years ago due to a sensational and controversial crash with Yehor Dementyev in the closing stages of the road race. Then in the same event at Tokyo 2020, Donohoe twice came off his bike and again missed a road race medal.
Dementyev (2:18.59) topped the podium in Paris on Friday after the Ukrainian stamped his authority amid a sprint finish between four racers.
“I came here for gold and it’s really disappointing,” said C5 competitor Donohoe, who finished six minutes and 59 seconds adrift in the chasing pack. However, he goes home with an individual time trial silver medal and a bronze in the team sprint at the velodrome.
“I also reflected [while racing] on the last few laps of that race and (thought) ‘you know what, this has been a really good Games’.
“I didn’t know what my form was like [beforehand]. Coming in and getting a silver and a bronze, it’s as good as I’ve ever done.
“It kind of gives me a bit of drive for LA [in 2028].”
Donohoe described his predicament as “brutal” when Boddington crashed and admitted he later seriously thought about pulling out of the race with two of the seven laps of the 14.2-kilometre circuit to come.
“The French [riders] were really quite tactical about using their energy very aggressively and not cooperating. We knew they were going to do that. I just got caught closing a few too many gaps in the end and they just whacked it [put the pressure on] when they knew I was hurting.
“It’s hard going in as the favourite having those tactics, but I would do the same to anyone else.”
On a slightly frustrating day for the green and gold in the road events, Australia’s Alana Forster finished seventh in 2:00.49, Emily Petricola (11th in 2:01.23) and Meg Lemon (12th in 2:07.48) weren’t in the mix for medals in the women’s C4-5 race.
“It was incredible. It was on from the gun,” said Forster, who spent most of the women’s 71km event in the chase group trying to reel in a four-rider lead break that included eventual winner, Sarah Storey of Great Britain.
“It was really tactical too. My impairment means that my top-end power is probably a bit lacking, so I have to work [harder] in terms of using my endurance more, a bit more skills.
“I’m always going to have that disadvantage. It’s not going to change.
“It splintered very early on [but] none of the girls worked with me, which is fair,” explained the time trial bronze medallist who spent a lot of time doing the heavy lifting on the front of the chase group.
“I’m not unhappy with that race at all. I love a good hard race. Twelve months ago I wouldn’t have been riding like I am now. I wouldn’t have been where I finished, so I’m stoked with that.”
Lemon, 34, felt the pinch after a gruelling Parisian campaign which included nabbing silver 48 hours earlier in the individual time trial and a sixth-place finish in the C4 3000m individual pursuit at the velodrome.
“I’m done, I’m pretty cooked now. That was pretty hard stuff from the first two kilometres [on],” Lemon said of Friday’s race.
“I just attacked and it went downhill. We spent the first lap and a bit doing a TT [time trial] and just didn’t have any legs from there.”
Had circumstances panned out differently for Donohoe at these Games in France, the Northern Territory-born racer would have been ready for retirement. But that’s not the case now.
“If I’d won this then I definitely wouldn’t have gone to LA [in four years],” Donohoe said.
“But now it’s still unfinished business. When people had asked me if I was going to retire, I’d say ‘it depends on how the Games go’.
“I still love cycling. I’m not exhausted. I’m not old. I might need a year to chill out, but I’ll still definitely have a burning fire for that [the ultimate Paralympics triumph].”
There was relief too for Donohoe after he avoided the temptation of pulling out.
“I’m glad I stuck it out there because I was pretty close to pulling in and having a beer. To get sixth in the end was pretty awesome,” he said.
“I think it was about two laps to go and I was like ‘there was the exit I was meant to take’. I’ve got friends and family here and if I roll around for a couple more laps then that’s half an hour I don’t get to spend with them.
“[But] once you get some legs back and realise I might be in the mix for fifth place, that’s still pretty respectable.”
By: Gennie Sheer, Paralympics Australia
Published: 6 September 2024
