Dame Sarah Storey continued her historic pursuit of gold upon gold on Wednesday morning, claiming her 18th Paralympic victory over nine Games as she won the women’s C5 time trial, but hit out at organisers for creating a course that was just half the length of the men’s.

Storey won the time trial by 4.69 seconds from Heidi Gaugain of France, having been seven seconds behind at the initial checkpoint at 5.8km. But that was the only check on the entire course, which ran just 14.2km in total, half the length of the race to be completed by male athletes later in the day.

“This is the shortest Paralympic time trial we’ve ever had and I think it’s a real shame because you don’t get to showcase parasport in the way that you want to”, she said after the race. “I’m very happy. I’m over the moon. But I know that there’s always ways to improve things.

“There’s plenty of time in the day for us to do two laps like the men. And having fought so hard for parity in women’s cycling to not have it in para-cycling after what we had in Glasgow [at the world championships] last year, is a real disappointment.”

Storey said that submissions had been made to organisers ahead of the Games over the length of the course but athletes had not received an explanation as to why the decision had been made.

This is now the fifth Games in a row that Storey has won the time trial title, and the brevity of the course appeared to work in her favour as she blew away her rivals over the course of two climbs squeezed into the second half of the course.

“I’ve always been powerful,” she said. “So I knew that the climbs would be quite crucial to make sure that you really were on the rivet and pushing as hard as you can. You don’t really need to have recovery in a race that’s 20 minutes. So, yeah, it’s a hilly 10, if you like.

“We do lots of those at home, so I’ve got plenty of practice opportunities. But at championships you expect to race a minimum of 22km and I think that’s what we’ve done in all the other Paralympic Games. You look back to that incredible course in Beijing, Brands Hatch and all the fans, Rio, although it was flat, it was longer. And then Tokyo, we had the motor circuit and no one there anyway. But we had three laps there and it was a real challenge. So I think this is the most disappointing in that sense, after what came before it. And I hope it’s something that doesn’t happen again.”

It is understood organisers opted to hold some time trials over the shorter distance due to there being 19 races on Wednesday’s busy schedule, in addition to medal ceremonies.

A Historic Achievement

Dame Sarah Storey stretched her record-breaking exploits to 18 Paralympic gold medals with victory in the women’s C5 time trial at Paris 2024.

The 46-year-old wrote her name into the history books at Tokyo 2020 by claiming a trio of titles to surpass Mike Kenny as Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian.

At the ninth Games of a remarkable career which began as a swimmer at Barcelona in 1992, Storey further cemented her legacy in the eastern suburbs of Clichy-sous-bois.

She completed the 14.1km course in 20 minutes and 22.15 seconds, 4.69 secs ahead of French silver medallist Heidi Gaugain, with Australian rider Alana Forster third.

The victory maintains Storey’s 100 per cent Games record on the bike, which began at Beijing in 2008 and now spans 13 races, to take her overall Paralympic medal tally to 29, including 16 in the pool.

A Missed Opportunity for Gender Parity in Sport

Despite being delighted with her latest success, Storey expressed disappointment at the short distance of the race.

The men’s C5 event, which takes place on Wednesday afternoon, is double the distance, comprising two laps of the same course.

“This is the shortest Paralympic time trial we’ve ever had,” said Storey.

“And I think it’s a real shame because you don’t get to showcase Para sport in the way that you want to. So I hope this is the only time it’s less than 20k.

“You have to ask the organisers (why it was so short).

“But there’s plenty of time in the day for us to do two laps like the men. And having fought so hard for parity in women’s cycling, to not have it in Para cycling after what we had in Glasgow last year is a real disappointment.

“I’ve had to put that disappointment aside and just concentrate on what I can control because I couldn’t control the race distance.

“But I really hope that they never do this to the women again because I think it’s been appalling.”

A Legacy of Gold

Dame Sarah Storey’s 18th Paralympic gold was like none of the others as she claimed time trial victory at Paris 2024.

The 46-year-old struck gold before the croissants went cold in Clichy-sous-Bois to add to her legend as Britain’s greatest Paralympian.

Storey crossed the line 4.69 seconds ahead of French rider Heidi Gaugain to win a first Paralympic gold in front of children Louisa, 11, and Charlie, six, watching on having been given special dispensation to miss the first two days of school.

“I’m utterly delighted,” said Storey. “I just feel so, so proud.

“You race the course that you get and you prepare for that, and I knew well in advance what it was like. To have friends and family here, to see the flags, to have the cheer off the start ramp, it was just brilliant and I’m so pleased.”

Storey made history before she got to the start gate as the first British Paralympian to feature at nine Games.

Racing on a 14.1km course - significantly shorter than the parcours on which she won her other four time trial titles - Storey gave up 7.18 seconds to home favourite Gaugain, sitting in second place after the first 5.8km, a straight and flat section that plunged through Bondy Forest.

She used her strength on 4.5% and 4.7% climbs to catch up and crossed the line for gold in a time of 20 minutes, 22.15 seconds, only 4.69s ahead of the home favourite with Australia’s Alana Forster taking bronze.

“I’ve always been powerful, so I knew that climbs could be quite crucial to make sure I was really on the rivet and pushing as hard as I could,” said Storey.

“You don’t really need to have recovery in a race that’s 20 minutes. It’s a hilly 10km, if you like, we do lots of those at home, so I’ve got lots of practice opportunities.

“I knew I was seven seconds down and that’s not entirely surprising when you think that the first section is downhill and an opportunity to not go full gas. I knew that I had plenty to give up the climbs and over the top, through the wooded area, is false, flat sections where I could really put the power out.”

In the women’s C1-3 time trial Britain’s Frances Brown picked up a silver medal, behind Germany’s Maike Hausberger, while Sophie Unwin and Lora Fachie won silver and bronze in the women’s B time trial.