Dame Sarah Storey has won her 19th Paralympic gold medal, after sprinting to victory from a small leading group in the women’s C4-5 road race in Paris on Friday.
She was part of a longstanding four-woman breakaway in the 71km rolling race around Clichy-sous-Bois, east of the city. The quartet included Storey, Paula Ossa (Colombia), Heidi Gauguin (France) and Sarah Bosco (USA), and became three with around two of the 14km laps to go, when Bosco dropped out of contention.
Gauguin was the first to attack, with around 2km to go. Ossa was well dropped, and though it looked as though Storey might be in trouble for a moment, she wound her way back up to Gauguin’s wheel. In a sprint that covered two generations, 46-year-old Storey came past the 19-year-old Frenchwoman in the final few hundred metres to take the win by a whisker. Ossa took the bronze, 21 seconds behind.
Storey, who has now won road race gold at every Olympics as far back as London 2012, was a key player in the break and did much of the work.
This is her second gold of the Paris Paralympics, having taken her 18th gold on Wednesday in the 14.1km C5 time trial.
Despite winning, Storey was far from impressed from the logistics of that race. Speaking after the event she bemoaned the short distance, saying the course was disappointing.
“I hope they never do this to the women again,” she said. “This is the shortest Paralympic time trial we have ever had, and I think it’s a real shame because we don’t get to showcase Para-sport in the way we want to.”
She added: “It’s a hilly 10km. I do lots of those at home so I have plenty of practice. But in championships you expect a race of minimum 22km, that’s what we’ve done in all the other Paralympic Games.”
Storey began her Paralympic career as a swimmer at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, where she won six medals, including two golds.
She switched to cycling in 2005, and in her first Paralympic Games as a cyclist – Beijing 2008 – took golds in the time trial and individual pursuit.
She has won gold medals on the bike in every Games since, and in Tokyo 2020 she became the most decorated British Paralympian in history.
