WAIS hand-cyclist Nigel Barley has given his Paralympic preparations a huge boost after taking out the UCI World Cup Time Trial gold medal in Spain recently.

Barley’s tour started back at the end of May with a World Cup event in Italy, where he recorded two top ten finishes in the Time Trial (fourth) and Road Race (sixth)

A week later the London Paralympic bound athlete was in Switzerland for a round of European Handcycling Tour, where he finishing third behind current World Champion Jeannott from France and Wilk from Poland. While Barley and his coach Jenni Banks were happy with the improvement, his best was yet to come.

As a part of the International Paracycling Tour, Barley then raced in France and continued to improve, beating Jeannott in the Time Trial and finishing second behind him in the Road Race.

Barley’s final event of a long tour was the World Cup event in Spain. The field of riders was as strong as anticipated Barley will face on the Paralympic course in London in September. Barley showed he will be in peak podium condition for London, putting in his best performance of the tour, taking out the Time Trial at an average speed of 41.62km per hour ahead of the top three ranked riders in the World.

Barley’s time-trial gold was followed up by a fourth place finish in the men’s road race, capping off a fantastic World Cup campaign in Spain, as he now finalises his preparations for London back home in Perth.

- Wheelchair Sports WA