The Great Britain Cycling Team came away with gold, silver and bronze para-cycling medals on the first day of the 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships in Zurich.

Dame Sarah Storey took her 38th cycling world title in the women’s C5 time-trial while it was a British double on the women’s tandem B time-trial podium, with Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl winning silver, while Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall took bronze.

In the elite time-trials, Josh Tarling just missed out on a podium with a fourth place in the men’s race, while Anna Henderson took seventh place in the women’s.

Women’s C5 time-trial 

Sarah Storey made is 38 cycling world titles as she delivered a masterclass in time-trialling in Zurich.

Taking on what was a classic time-trial course, Storey took on the climbs with her trademark confidence, before settling into her time-trial position and putting down the pace for the final 12km. A strong headwind heading into the finish at the northern tip of Lake Zurich was no match for Storey as she 39km per hour, comfortably holding the rest of the field off to take the win, 1:36.78 ahead of second place, Heidi Gaugain (France).

On her win, Storey said: “It feels mega, absolutely mega. I didn’t have any preconceptions about how this morning would go. Obviously everything went to perfectly at the Paralympic Games in Paris two weeks ago, and I just hoped my form would stay with me, and that I could ride the rollercoaster of adrenaline.”

Morgan Newberry delivered a strong ride which saw her sit in fourth place early on in the race. Not quite able to hold onto the pace, Newberry dropped back slightly, to finish in a time of 49:32.06 in fifth place overall.

Women’s B tandem time-trial

Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl delivered a fantastic ride, taking a silver medal to match their Paralympic result in the women’s B tandem time-trial. Starting confidently, at the first time check the duo were in second place, 52.34 seconds behind Irish duo and Paralympic champions Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Linda Kelly. 

By the second time check they had brought the gap back down to 36.88 seconds but a tough and windy final section pushed them out of contention for gold and they finished in second place with a gap of 1:09.70.

Fellow Brits Lora Fachie and pilot Corrine Hall delivered a strong ride, maintaining third position throughout the race. With the Irish bike putting down a large gap from the front, Fachie and Hall were focused on staying on the podium and bringing thr gap back from their teammates as much as possible. Finally, 28:74 seconds behind Unwin and Holl, they crossed the finish line to take the bronze medal.

Lizzi Jordan and Danni Khan put in a commendable ride in their first road world championships together, coming through fourth on first time check, +1:05.25 behind the leaders. After starting confidently, they weren’t able to keep up that pace after the climb and heading into the wind and finished sixth overall.

Elite women time-trial

In the elite women’s time-trial, Olympic silver medallist Anna Henderson delivered a good ride over the challenging 29.9km course, starting strong in fifth place at the first time-check. Clocking in around 50 seconds behind leader Demi Vollering, Henderson continued to push on the descents before settling in on the relatively flat final 12km.

By the second time-check, with less than 9km to go, Henderson had dropped to fifth and was in for a challenge to get up to the podium. In an incredibly strong field, unfortunately the challenge was not to be met today and Henderson finished seventh overall in a time of 41:00.43.

Elite men time-trial

In the men’s elite time-trial, Josh Tarling narrowly missed out on a podium place, finishing fourth overall behind Remco Evenepoel (Belgium, Filippo Ganne (Italy) and Edoardo Affini (Italy).

Starting well, Tarling hit the first checkpoint in the fastest time with Evenepoel and Ganna still to come. Once they had hit the checkpoint, Tarling dropped to third place, 12.04 seconds off first place.

By the second time check, Tarling had dropped in to fifth up the climb, and found himself unable to pull back into contention, finishing fourth overall, 23.19 seconds off a podium place.

Tomorrow will see time-trials continue with Fin Tarling and Dylan Sage competing in the junior men’s race, Chris McDonald and Adam Duggleby in the men’s tandem category, Archie Atkinson and Will Bjergfelt in the men’s C4-5 and Ben Wiggins and Josh Charlton competing in the men’s under-23 event.

You can watch the junior and under-23 men’s races on Discovery + and the para-cycling races on Eurovision Sport.