A brisk wind and rain greeted early starters Saturday in the 2025 Paralympics Cycling Time Trial in Huntsville, leaving at least one top competitor unsatisfied with the number he clocked on an otherwise popular course.

“Not as well as I would like,’’ said Dennis Connors of Beaverton, Ore., a tri-cyclist who earned a silver medal at the 2024 Paralympics Games in Paris. “I think the rain on the course when I went (at 9:04) slowed us down a lot through the water. There were a lot of flooded corners as a general rule.

“Just like every corner, like where the apex was, a lot of them had standing water so you couldn’t see and there’s some kind of chunky pavement in there. There’s like a line through it, but you couldn’t see it. So I had to go wide on like three or four corners and so, well, I probably lost like 30 seconds for the race.’’

The time trial races unfolded at the Cummings Research Park course where the 2026 Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Para-Cycling Road World Championships will be held Sept. 4-7. The races marked the first time the UCI event has been held in the United States since 2014.

The paralympic time trials and races have proven profitable to the city. Saturday’s race alone brought in an estimated $141,596 based on past events, including 240 hotel rooms booked by riders and race associates.

Next comes the 2026 world championships. By comparison, the 2023 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Cup held in Huntsville generated an estimated $2.4 million. For that event, more than 350 athletes representing 41 different countries, including the United States, England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Canada, Mexico, Portugal, and many others, participated. A hefty 3,700 hotel rooms were booked for the races.

Saturday, despite the weather conditions, Connors took the MT2 gold medal ahead of silver winner Michael Davis (Canyon Lake, Calif.) and bronze finisher Jeffrey Peters (Fort Riley, Kan.). Connors was among the athletes who gave rave reviews for the circuit, which hosted the 2021 and 2022 U.S. Paralympics Cycling Open and the 2023 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Cup. That latter race was the first para-cycling world cup held in the United States.

“I love this course. It’s so fun,’’ said Connors, who like many of the athletes has previously competed here.

Times taken from the road races in men’s and women’s categories – (T) for tricycle, (H) for handcycles, (C) for conventional bikes with adaptations if necessary and (B) for tandem, in which a vision-impaired cyclist rides a double bike along with a sighted pilot. The number following the letter designation for the type of race is based on the severity of the competitor’s disability from 1-5. T2, for example, represents tricyclists with moderate impairment.

Clara Brown, a Maine native riding out of Cumberland, Md., fell during the WC3 race and finished second to Jamie Whitmore of Mount Aukum, Calif.

“My first time crashing in a time trial,’’ said Brown, a bronze medalist in Paris. “It was super slick, but also my judgment, you know, didn’t help things either. I’m not gonna blame it on the rain. It’s ultimately on me, but definitely a little disappointed with how things went.’’

However, the misstep didn’t lessen her opinion of the Huntsville layout nor of the city’s hospitality.

“Like I said, not a course error, it was a rider error,’’ said Brown, who joined a gravel (offroad) team this year. “But, yeah, it’s an interesting course. There are a lot of turns and things that keep you mentally very engaged and it’s a little bit more of a power course that is not necessarily suited toward me, but I always like to be challenged.’’

Brown has raced at all previous events at the Cummings Research Park course.

“It’s great to be here. It’s always a great event,’’ she said. “There’s a lot of work that goes into organizing and we can definitely feel it as participants, so we really appreciate it.’’

Like Brown, handcyclist Matt Tingley of Rochester Hills, Mich., is branching out to other disciplines. Tingley, a bronze medalist in Paris, would like some Top 5 finishes at future Cups and World Championships and to qualify for the Los Angeles Games.

“Definitely,’’ he said after taking gold in Saturday’s MH4 race. “But do some fun stuff there too. I started wheelchair racing last year, and I’ve been doing marathons in the race chair, so I wanna do some more of that.’’

The riders are currently focused on the 2025 World Cup in Ronse, Belgium, August 28-31. Beyond that is the 2026 Road World Championships to be held in the Rocket City, and beyond that preparation will begin for the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles.

“This is my rest year, so I’m taking it easy this year,’’ Connors said. “Next year I’ll ramp back up with my main goal over the next two years is the world championships here. I’d like to win both the time trial and the road race here. Then, in 2027, start the process for L.A.’’

The long-range forecast for the 2028 Paralympics, scheduled from August 15-21 in the City of Angels, predicts mostly clear and dry conditions.

For complete results, visit https://legacy.usacycling.org/results/index.