Fin Graham delivered an outstanding ride that saw him upgrade his Tokyo silver to gold, topping the men’s C1-3 road race podium and bringing Great Britain’s cycling medal tally to 22 on their final day of competition at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

Men’s C1-3 road race

The men’s C1-3 road race was nail-biting to the end, as Fin Graham found himself in a fight for the podium against host-nation riders Thomas Dartet-Peyreton and Alexndre Leaute.

The 71km race saw the three riders take an early breakaway, with Canadian Alexandre Hayward chasing them down, followed by a four-man chase group of GB’s Ben Watson and Jaco van Gass and Spaniards Ricardo ten Argiles and Eduardo Santas Asensio.

By the second lap, Hayward had bridged the gap to create a four-man lead group, with the French working together to put pressure on him and Graham, upping the pace in an attempt to split the group. However, Hayward and Graham were not to be deterred and matched the pace comfortably as the whole group gradually extended their lead on the chase.

Crossing the line into the third lap, van Gass and Watson continued to chase as a pair in an attempt to provide support for their compatriot. With the gap now at 52 seconds, it was looking unlikely they’d pull back the gap and the fight for the podium solidified itself between the front four.

Heading into the final lap, Hayward was clearly struggling to keep the pace, dropping three seconds behind as the French continued to push a ferocious pace to shake off their rivals. Eventually, with less than 20km to go, Hayward was dropped, with Graham left to manage the French tactics alone.

Outmanned but not yet outrun, Graham continued to battle for the top step of the podium, fighting off attack after attack from the French with ease. 

In the final kilometres of the race, Dartet-Peyreton attacked up the climb in an attempt to lose Graham, but the Scot responded calmly, sticking on his wheel on the ascent. Leaute, however, could not keep the pace and eventually dropped back to eventually take the bronze medal.

With one kilometre to go, it was a fight for gold between Dartet-Peyreton and Graham. Graham launched his sprint with perfect timing and with incredible power, flying across the finish line to take his first Paralympic title.

On the race, Graham said: 

“Amazing. I was eyeing up winning a gold. The time-trial didn't go as planned, I would have liked a bit of a better position than sixth but that's racing. This race, the French made it hard because it was two against one the whole race. It was hard to figure out what their plan was and what their tactic would be, but the boys played it perfectly in the first lap. Matty [Robertson] kept the pace high and then when the gap went, they just shut it down and prevented anyone else from coming over. It panned out perfectly.”

On winning gold: “It is the pinnacle of our sport. I have got world titles, but Paralympic gold, nothing compares to it. That's what we work towards every four years. To be able to come away with that is amazing.”

Teammates Watson and van Gass rolled over the line not far behind in fifth and sixth position respectively.Having set the pace from the start in service of his teammate, Matt Robertson finished his first Paralympic Games road race in seventh. 

Women’s C1-3 road race  

The women’s C1-3 road race split early on, with a group of six forming that would essentially evade the rest of the field and become the pool from which the podium was picked. 

The group of Keiko Sugiura (Japan), Flurina Rigling (Switzerland), Clara Brown (USA), Jamie Whitmore (USA), Anna Beck (Sweden) and Xiaomei Wang (China) broke away early, with British rider Daphne Schrager just missing the move, having been blocked in.

Schrager trailed by 15 seconds with two other chasers;  Daniela Munévar (Colombia) was three seconds ahead,and teammate Fran Brown, three seconds behind.

As the laps passed, Schrager and Brown dropped further behind as the front group’s lead only grew, with the medals dropping further out of sight. Eventually riding solo for over half the race, Schrager and Brown delivered commendable riders, with Schrager coming sixth overall and Brown following in seventh place.

Overall this Paralympic Games, Great Britian has won 22 medals across seven days of competition; 14 on the track and seven on the road, nine of which were gold.