PARIS – The U.S. sent five cyclists to the track at the National Velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines for Para Cycling on Friday, while none made it to the podium, the USA left with some new personal records and a high level of preparedness for their target events.

The day started with the men’s C4-5 1000M time trial. The United States had two riders competing in the first set of time trials, 18-year-old Elouan Gardon and 34-year-old Bryan Larsen, neither made it past the qualifying round. Both were first-time Paralympians and had members of their families in attendance. This was especially true for Gardon, who is part French and has family living in the country.

Gardon wasn’t even aware of Para-cycling before being invited to a Team USA Para camp almost a year ago. USA Para Cycling’s youngest rider finished his four laps in 1:08.006, good for 15th out of 24 participants. He’s focused on his next opportunity, the Men’s C5 4000M Individual Pursuit, which he races at 11:58 a.m. French time.

“Definitely had some jitters coming in, and I thought the pace was pretty good for what we were aiming for,” Gardon remarked. “I was just trying to ease into the effort a bit, get ready for tomorrow; tomorrow is longer, and make sure the pacing is all right.”

Larsen, who has been cycling since he was 12 and once dreamed of representing the U.S. on the world stage in non Para cycling, switched over to Para cycling after a brachial plexus injury in 2019. He raced in the sixth heat and finished with a time of 1:07.245, slotting into 14th place. The atmosphere wowed the first-timer.

“It was kind of an out-of-body experience. A little weird feeling to hear the crowd,” uttered Larsen. “It was a good ride though; I’m happy with it.”

The women’s C4 3000M came next. The first Team USA competitor was Shawn Morelli. The 48-year-old is a three-time Paralympian as well as a veteran of the U.S. Army.

Morelli raced on Thursday, the first day of the games, and came in 13th place in the women’s C4-5 500M time trial. In this outing, she placed in 7th out of 8, with a time of 3:54.843.

Directly following Morelli was Samantha Bosco. The Alaska native missed the Tokyo games three years ago after crashing in a group training session earlier in the year. Bosco, like Morelli, competed in the game’s opening day 500-meter race, placing 12th.

In this qualifier, she showed definitive improvement, scoring 4th place clocking in at 3:46.413 and a pace of 47.7 kilometers per hour. Her score topped fifth-place finisher Franziska Matile-Doerig of Switzerland by less than a second. The close finish set up a bronze match with Canada’s Keely Shaw.

Shaw and Bosco started on opposite sides of the track and competed head-to-head for Bronze hardware. Early on, things were extremely close; after 1000 meters, Bosco was down by less than seven-tenths of a second. Shaw pulled away in the end, beating Bosco by less than two seconds. The 2nd time Paralympian commended her opponents while confirming her focus on her target race, the C4 individual time trial, which switches her from the track to the road. She will compete in that race on September 4th.

“I thought I had a good chance, but there are a lot of strong girls here, and they had better legs on the day than I did,” mentioned Bosco. “All in for the time trial, that’s my race; that’s my baby. I’m all in. I’ve been all in since 2021 for this time trial; its the biggest race of the games for me.”

Women’s B 1000M was the final qualifier of the day. In this time trial, a visually impaired cyclist rides a tandem bike with a pilot. For the U.S., the duo was cyclist Hannah Chadwick and pilot Skyler Espinoza. At the 2023 Parapan American Games, Chadwick placed first in the 1000-meter. Chadwick and her pilot raced to a time of 1:09.581 and qualified for the medal round, placing sixth out of ten. The round also saw Chadwick beat a personal record in the 1000-meter.

Chadwick and her pilot led off the final round and finished at 1:10.187, with an average speed of 51.292 kilometers per hour. The mark was topped by all five other competing racers, leaving Chadwick in sixth place for the round. Still, Chadwick was happy with how the day went.

“I think everything went well for me; I think we beat our PR (personal record) by two seconds, so that was really big for us,” said Chadwick.