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Sarah Storey said she is not afraid to lose a bike race but that is easy to say when you have never lost one at the Paralympics.
You have to go all the way back to the 2006 World Championships for the last time Storey had to settle for silver at a major event and that was before she made her Paralympic debut on two wheels.
With the narrowest victory of her Paralympic road racing career, Storey won her 19th Paralympics gold medal and her 14th in cycling.
Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian was pushed all the way by young French talent Heidi Gaugain, who was not even two years old when Storey was last beaten and was born 12 years after her rival made her Paralympic debut nine Games ago as a swimmer.
“The key is not to be afraid to lose a bike race,” said Storey, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
“I’m not afraid to lose a bike race, I have to trust myself and not overthink things and just go on instinct sometimes, that’s about racing.
“I just wanted to see what I had to respond. You put yourself out there every time you get on the start line and I keep doing that and keep finding ways to win a bike race so long may that continue.
“I think back to when I was 19. I had just come back from the Games in Atlanta, I had my fifth gold medal as a swimmer, and I was in the form of my life
“When you’re up against a 19-year-old, you remember what that was like. Using that experience, the nippiness of a 19-year-old, I’m still nippy for a 46-year-old but I have to use it wisely.”
Storey narrowly beat out Gaugain, with Colombia’s Paula Andrea Ossa Veloza taking bronze.
The trio had been part of an early breakaway alongside Samantha Bosco of the USA, who was dropped on the penultimate lap.
While Storey may not have the youthful abandon of her teenage opponent, the mum-of-two has skills that set her apart from the rest.
One of those is the ability to translate from French while hurtling around the 14.1km course in Clichy-sous-Bois.
She added: “The lap before, a coach of hers shouted from the other side of the road ‘next lap on the left’.
“So, I had a look where we were to make sure I was ready for that. He shouted ‘go’ and I went too.
“Heidi took a little bit of a gap which is fine because that’s a big acceleration that she had made.
“I had a little bit of speed because I was trying to pre-empt it. It was just a matter of holding her while she continued her acceleration, it was a long way out.
“It was the only tactic she could use because I have the fastest sprint. When we were together in that final corner, that’s when she unleashed it.
“She tried to come again I think as I had my head down, I could see furiously pedalling through my bike.
Try as Gaugain might, she was unable to stop Storey from beating her for the second time in three days, this time by less than a second having only lost by four seconds in the time trial.
Storey has advised Gaugain to make the move into professional cycling, as she did, to learn different types of racing and racing situations.
It is why the Mancunian was able to give the Frenchwoman a knowing look of ‘not today, kid’ as she overtook her on the final straight.
“It looks like two wins again to you,” Storey explained. “But it could so very easily have been the opposite result in both races.
“And that is where the psychology of sport plays into it, staying calm under pressure, playing to your strengths and knowing what your strengths are.
“Knowing your competitors, studying their form and what they are doing, knowing and paying attention to the race.
“And you race on instinct, if you speak to the people who have won any race, they’ll speak about the instinct they have for racing.
“And if you have as many tools as possible in your toolkit, you pull a different one out and win a bike race that way.
“I have been so fortunate that I have always been able to find the right tool for the right race.”
Storey has insisted she will enjoy the wins in Paris before making a decision on her career.
The meticulous planner, who largely coaches herself and works with Manchester Metropolitan University to monitor her body as it ages, could not have mapped out such a close finish, but it may be what makes her return for LA as a 50-year-old.
Asked what keeps her motivated after all these years, she simply responded: “Carrots like that one in the last kilometre.”
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