The Great Britain Cycling Team’s female para-cyclists stormed to more glory on the road, with Dame Sarah Storey securing her 19th Paralympic gold in the C4-5 road race, Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl taking the win in the tandem B road race and Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall taking bronze.
Women’s C4-5 road race
Dame Sarah Storey proved once again that she is the undisputed greatest of all time, taking an incredible 19th Paralympic gold medal in the women’s C4-5 road race in a thrilling sprint finish.
The race was active from the off, with Storey aiming to animate and break it up immediately. Storey got ahead in an early breakaway, followed by three other riders; 19-year-old Heidi Gaugain (France), Paula Andrea Ossa Veloza (Colombia) and Samantha Bosco (USA). This would be the lead group through to the finality of the race.
By the second lap, the quartet’s lead had widened to 57 seconds but the front four still stuck together, with Storey doing a lot of work on the front to control the pace. With three laps to go, Storey continued to ride strongly with no sign of the front group splitting up, while the peloton posed no threat, 1:33 seconds behind.
In the final laps, the gap between the lead and main groups grew ever bigger, reaching 2:25 minutes before Bosco was dropped from the lead group.
The final stretch of the race was lit up as Gaugain made an attack on the final climb, forcing Storey to respond to keep in contention of the win. Initially, it looked like Gaugain had got away, but a calm and collected Storey reeled her back in as they approached the final straight, both gearing up for the sprint.
The race went down to the wire, with Storey lunging for the line to take the win by a tyre’s width, claiming her 19th Paralympic gold. Gaugain took the silver while Ossa Veloza came in third for the bronze medal.
On her incredible success, Storey said: “It’s amazing. Really amazing, it has not sunk at all, I’m just thankful that my wheel was in front at the finish.”
On Gaugain’s attack: “The key is not to be afraid to lose a bike race. I’m not afraid to lose a bike race, I have to trust myself and not overthink things and just go on instinct sometimes, that’s about racing. I just wanted to see what I had to respond. You put yourself out there every time you get on the start line, and I keep doing that and keep finding ways to win a bike race so long may that continue.”
On her potential to compete at LA 2028: “Who knows? I need to enjoy this first. Never say never to anything. This just needs to sink in because it was one of the most exciting races that we’ve had and from the word go it was full gas.”
Women’s tandem B road race
Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl won their second gold medal of this Paralympic Games, storming to the tandem B road race win, as Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall secured the bronze.
The first half of the race saw a breakaway group of six bikes; Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly, Josephine Helion and Eve McCrystal (Ireland), Anne-Sophie Centis and pilot Elise Delzenne (France), Louise Jannering and Catrin Nilsson (Sweden), Unwin and Holl, and Fachie and Hall (Great Britian). The six put down a 42 second lead on individual chasers Malaysia - a break which would not be caught for the rest of the race.
Sweden made a number of attacks, regularly being brought back by the group, and leading to a split two laps in, dropping the group down to the two British bikes, Dunlevy and Kelly, and the French bike.
By the halfway mark, only Dunlevy and Kelly and Unwin and Holl remained as leaders, in a cat and mouse fight that showed no signs of breaking. Although dropped from the front two, Fachie and Hall maintained a 25 second gap in third place.
Heading towards the 70km mark, Fachie and Hall made an incredible attack, managing to catch the lead two bikes and get into the rhythm working together. Eventually overtaking, the Irish bike was put under pressure to respond and pick up the pace to stay with the Brits. Unfortunately, the effort of the attack took a huge amount out of Fachie and Hall, and by the start of the sixth lap, they had dropped 27 seconds back, with the Dunlevy/Unwin fight back on.
The British pair rode cleverly, allowing the Irish duo to push from the front, and saving it all to a final sprint. Unwin and Holl launched for the line and looked unstoppable as they secured their second gold medal of the Games. Fachie and Hall took a brilliant third place.
On their hopes coming into the Games, Unwin said: “I would say we hoped for that, we came in knowing we have medalled in every world championship event this cycle so we knew we could do it, but you never know how other people are going to turn up. Everyone always ups the standard for the Games. It feels amazing to actually manage it.”
An unfortunate early mechanical saw Lizzi Jordan and Danni Khan lose time that they just couldn’t make up again, and after a valiant effort to make it through the course, the debutants crossed the finish line in seventh place.
Men’s C4-5 road race
It was a disappointing day for Great Britan’s C4-5 men as both Archie Atkinson and Blaine Hunt did not cross the finish line, unable to complete the 99.4km race.
The race got off to a fiery start with attacks from the off. Hunt and Atkinson worked together to place Atkinson in the second group of 11 riders, which would hold a 58 second gap being the leaders, Gatien le Rousseau (France) and Martin van der Pol (Netherlands) after two laps.
Halfway through the second lap, Atkinson had a bike issue and reverted to his spare bike, putting him 1:35 behind the leaders, working hard to get back into the group. By the third lap, disaster struck again and Atkinson was forced to revert to a third bike. Before the end of the second lap, a mixture of mechanical issues and fatigue had put Atkinson almost four minutes behind and he withdrew from the race.
After supporting his teammate through the initial lap of the race, Blaine Hunt withdrew early on in the second lap and was DNF.
It was a ferocious race, with Kevin le Cunff (France) and Yehor Dementyev (Ukraine) bridging over halfway through the race to challenge van der Pol and le Rouseau’s lead. Overall, Dementyev took the win, with le Cunff and van der Pol in second and third.
Men’s tandem B road race
Unfortunately, in the 24 hours preceding the race, Chris Latham developed signs and symptoms of illness and was withdrawn from the road race on medical grounds, meaning he and tandem partner Steve Bate did not start.
Tomorrow will be the final day of competition at the Paralympic Games for the British para-cyclists. You can see Fran Brown and Daphne Schrager compete in the women’s C1-3 road race and Jaco van Gass, Ben Watson, Fin Graham and Matt Robertson contest the men’s C1-3 road race title from 8:30am BST.
