Canadian paracyclists own the podium in the tandem B time trial at the 2015 Parapan Am Games

Thursday’s paracycling time trials at the 2015 Parapan Am Games brought a mixed bag of Canadian excellence to the podium, with B-classification competition, specifically, seeing a one-two-three sweep from Canadian riders. Later in the day, the H1-5 time trial resulted in Charles Moreau taking bronze with a time of 18:43.56. Shelley Gautier, meanwhile, took silver in the T1-2 time trial finals.

After three medals in track cycling earlier in the week, with Daniel Chalifour and Alexandre Cloutier taking gold in mixed B classification and Mike Sametz taking silver in Men’s C1-3, it was a great finish to an equally great Parapan Am Games for Canada’s paracycling team.

In the B-classification time trial, the team of Chalifour and Cloutier took the gold medal spot on the podium, while the duo of Robbi Weldon and Audrey Lemieux finished in second, eleven seconds behind Chalifour’s and Cloutier’s time of 26:47.11. Speaking to Lemieux, with competition looming, Canadian Cycling Magazine got a look at how event preparation was going from the pilot’s seat — and the unique challenges involved in competing as a team in paracycling.

At the beginning of the Parapan Am Games, Lemieux and Weldon had only been paired together for a short while, with Lemieux in the pilot’s saddle. Still, the impression Lemieux gave was that, in the tandem class, it doesn’t take long for two riders to work out a rhythm together. For the 30-year-old cyclist from Alma, Que., with a string of strong performances under her belt from European competitions about five years ago, teaming up with Weldon became a matter of quickly finding that all-important sense of sympatico. Once found, it’s proven to be a dynamic bearing results for both of them.

“Three weeks, something like that?” Lemieux answered when asked how long she and Weldon had been a team. “Just a little bit before the world championships, so almost three weeks now.” Despite being a fresh pairing, confidence in that newfound duo came quickly, she said.

“We had good communication at the world championships,” Lemieux recalled. “It’s been a long time that she’s been riding tandem, and I know a little bit more than last year as well, so we can combine pretty well with what we have. So this is a good thing, a real positive for that point.”

Riding competitively in tandem, of course, involves a bit of a different approach than riding solo, particularly when one rider is sighted and the other is visually impaired. There’s more of an emphasis on communication, Lemieux said, both spoken and unspoken. Knowing one another’s strengths and weaknesses before rolling out, and adapting the ride accordingly, can make as much of a difference in competition as anything related to leg power or stamina — perhaps more. And while the difference between events is considerable, those requirements are equally important in a road race or during a time trial, as Lemieux and Weldon exhibited today.

“For example, in the road race, it’s important for me to let Robbi know the land, mostly, if there’s a big hill or a turn or a flat,” she said, “just so she can push as much as me. The most important thing is to always have the best power together. It’s my role to let her know when she needs to push more or less.” In the road race, she said, that means letting Weldon know when the pair need to attack; in the time trial, of course, it’s a bit more straight forward.

In both events, though, pitted against a mixed field of male and female riders, Lemieux’s focus and priority in the pilot’s seat has been on being a part of the field as much as possible, and turning up the heat on competitors in both races. “In the time trial,” she said, outlining those priorities, “it’s the same thing: to race very well together, with good communication, fast average speed, and pace ourselves and be proud of the force we’ve poured on. We also want to use [the time trial] to get some race experience together, because we don’t have a lot.”

Next up for para-cycling athletes after the Parapan Am Games is the 2015 UCI para road world cup in South Africa, and while any news about qualification is not yet known, the powerful — now with the silver medal to prove it — duo is ready, Lemieux says.

“It’s mostly the coach who will decide,” she said, “but I think we’re a good pair right now.”

The team of Shawna Ryan and pilot Joanie Caron, meanwhile, rounded out Canada’s 1-2-3 in the B-classification time trial with a bronze-winning time of 27:47.62. “It was an amazing race, a dream finish for Canada,” Ryan said after the bronze medal finish. “I’m so excited. It was hard but it was great to be back on the road today, pushing against the pavement, getting a rhythm, staying with it and pushing with all you’ve got.”