Invacare Top End atheletes Ernst van DyK (RSA), Oz Sanchez (USA), Joel Joenoit (FR) and Monique van der Vorst (Netherlands) competed at the UCI Paracycling Championships September 8 - 13. The team was hoping for a good showing of medals and succeeded quite nicely.

The first race was the time trial, 12 miles for the men and 6 miles for the woman. Oz Sanchez, already the 2008 Paralympic Time Trial champion, set the bar very high averaging 25mph, and winning by over a minute. Ernst van DyK was third. In the woman's time trial, the top three times were separated by a mere 17 seconds. The race was won by Andrea Eskau of Germany. Monique van der Vorst came in third. Not a time trial specialist, she was happy with the bronze.

The course was in Bogogno Italy, a nice small town north of Milan. Next up was the road race on the same course  with the men going 6 laps totaling 36 miles and the Woman going 4 laps.

The men's race started fast and quickly weeded out the pretenders, all except Elmer Sternauth of Austria. The race became a bit tactical and the US team made some errors and allowed Sternauth to slip away. At one point, he had a thirty second lead. On the last lap, Ernst van DyK put the hammer down, but a little too late. He finished 3 seconds behind Sterauth for the silver. In third place was Johann Reekers who, although not on the team, rode a Top End Force. Joel Joenot came in a respectable 8th.

The woman's race was a rematch of the Paralympic Roadrace in Beijing. Van der Vorst was very aggressive and had the lead quite a bit, only to get edged at the line by half a handcyle.

In total, the team took home one gold, two silvers, and two bronze medals.