Triumphant trio of medals on the penultimate day of the road race at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris

The British Cycling Team's women's paracycling team achieved further glory on the road, with Dame Sarah Storey securing her 19th Paralympic gold in the C4-5 road race, Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl winning the B tandem road race, and Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall taking bronze.

Women's road race C4-5

Dame Sarah Storey proved once again that she is the undisputed greatest of all time, claiming her incredible 19th Paralympic gold medal in a thrilling sprint in the Women's C4-5 Road Race.

The race was very active from the start and Storey tried to liven things up and break things up right away. Storey took the lead 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 remain the leading group until the end of the race.

By the second lap, the quartet's lead had grown to 57 seconds, but the top four stayed together, with Storey doing much of the work at the front to control the pace. With three laps to go, Storey continued to ride strongly, with no sign of the leading group separating, while the peloton posed no threat, trailing 1'33″.

In the final laps, the gap between the leading group and the main group grew and reached up to 2:25 minutes before Bosco was released from the leading group.

The final stage of the race was thrilling as Gaugain attacked on the final climb, forcing Storey to counterattack to remain in contention for the win. At first it looked like Gaugain had gotten away, but Storey calmly and composedly caught up with her as they approached the finish straight, both setting up for a sprint.

The race was exciting right up until the end. Storey won by a tire's width and thus won her 19th Paralympic gold. Gaugain took silver, while Ossa Veloza took bronze in third place.

Speaking about her incredible success, Storey said: “It's incredible. Really incredible, I have no regrets at all. I'm just grateful that my bike was at the front at the finish.”

On Gaugain's attack: “The key is not to be afraid of losing a bike race. I'm not afraid of losing a bike race. I have to trust myself and not think too much and sometimes just listen to my instincts. That's how it is in racing. I just wanted to see how I could react. You have to put in the effort every time you step on the start line and I'll keep doing that and keep finding ways to win a bike race, so long may it continue.”

On her chance to compete in LA 2028: “Who knows? I have to enjoy it first. You should never say never. I have to process it first, because it was one of the most exciting races we've ever had and it was full throttle from the start.”

Women’s Tandem Road Race Class B

Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl won their second gold medal of these Paralympics, storming to victory in the Tandem Road Race B, while Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall secured the bronze medal.

In the first half of the race, a breakaway group of six bikes formed: Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly, Josephine Helion and Eve McCrystal (Ireland), Anne-Sophie Centis and rider Elise Delzenne (France), Louise Jannering and Catrin Nilsson (Sweden), Unwin and Holl, and Fachie and Hall (Great Britain). The six built up a 42-second lead over their Malaysian rivals – a group that could not be caught for the rest of the race.

Sweden launched a series of attacks but was regularly caught by the group, resulting in a split after two laps, which dropped the group to the two British bikes of Dunlevy and Kelly and the French bike.

At the halfway point, only Dunlevy and Kelly and Unwin and Holl remained in the lead, in a cat-and-mouse battle that seemed to have no end. Despite falling away from the top two, Fachie and Hall remained in third place, 25 seconds ahead.

On the way to the 70km mark, Fachie and Hall launched an incredible attack, managing to catch the two leading bikes and get into the rhythm together. When overtaking, the Irish bike was under pressure and had to react and increase the pace to keep up with the Brits. Unfortunately, the attack took a toll on Fachie and Hall and by the start of lap six they had dropped 27 seconds behind while Dunlevy/Unwin were catching up.

The British pair rode smartly, letting the Irish duo press from the front and saving everything for the final sprint. Unwin and Holl raced towards the finish line and looked unstoppable as they secured their second gold medal of the Games. Fachie and Hall took a brilliant third place.

On her hopes for the Games, Unwin said: “I would say we were hoping for it. We knew we'd won medals at every World Championships this cycle, so we knew we could do it. But you never know how other people are going to do. Everyone is always raising the bar for the Games. It's a great feeling to actually do it.”

An unfortunate mechanical failure at the start saw Lizzi Jordan and Danni Khan lose time that they simply couldn't make up. After a valiant effort to complete the course, the debutants crossed the finish line in seventh place.

Men's road race C4-5

It was a disappointing day for the Great Britain C4-5 men as neither Archie Atkinson nor Blaine Hunt crossed the finish line and were able to complete the 99.4km race.

The race started heatedly and was attacked from the start. Hunt and Atkinson worked together, putting Atkinson in the second group of 11 riders, who had a 58-second lead over leaders Gatien le Rousseau (France) and Martin van der Pol (Netherlands) after two laps.

Halfway through the second lap, Atkinson had a problem with his bike and had to switch to his spare bike. This left him 1:35 behind the leaders and he had to work hard to get back into the group. On the third lap, misfortune struck again and Atkinson had to switch to a third bike. Before the end of the second lap, a mixture of mechanical problems and fatigue left Atkinson almost four minutes behind and out of the race.

After supporting his teammate on the first lap of the race, Blaine Hunt dropped out early on the second lap and retired.

It was an exciting race, with Kevin le Cunff (France) and Yehor Dementyev (Ukraine) catching up halfway through the race and threatening the lead of van der Pol and le Rouseau. Overall, Dementyev won, with le Cunff and van der Pol finishing second and third.

Men’s Tandem Road Race Class B

Unfortunately, Chris Latham began to show signs and symptoms of illness in the 24 hours before the race and was withdrawn from the road race on medical grounds, meaning he and his tandem partner Steve Bate did not start.

Tomorrow is the final day of competition at the Paralympics for the British Para cyclists. From 8:30am BST you can watch 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 in the Men's C1-3 Road Race.