UCI Cycling World Championships 2023: Sarah Storey wins 36th Para-cycling gold

Great Britain’s Sarah Storey won her 36th Para-cycling gold at the Cycling World Championships.

That was comfortably enough for Storey to clinch gold, with Australia’s Alana Foster 1:14.41 slower in second.

GB mountain bikers Tom Pidcock and Evie Richards then claimed bronze in the cross-country short track.

But Olympic mountain biking champion Pidcock was accused of bad sportsmanship by the rival he passed on the final corner to snatch third place.

Storey now has 17 world titles on the road and aims to add to her tally of 17 Paralympic golds – including five from swimming – in Paris next year.

“I’m so pleased I came here early to prepare on the course,” said Storey. “I didn’t want to leave anything to chance and I really felt that paid off.”

Team-mate Morgan Newberry finished 3:23.59 behind the Paralympic legend in fifth place.

Pidcock & Richards claim mountain bike bronze

Pidcock had a boost on day eight in Scotland as fellow multi-discipline star Mathieu van der Poel did not take his place at the start line.

The Dutch rider, 28, is still recovering from a crash en route to winning the road race title last Sunday so chose to focus on Saturday’s cross-country Olympic race, which is also Pidcock’s main target.

Defending champion Sam Gaze was among the leaders for most of the 11 laps of the 0.9km course in Glentress Forest while Pidcock, who started in 31st place, jostled for position in the top 10.

Gaze was clear on the final corner but Pidcock, 24, made a last-ditch move on the inside of Luca Schwarzbauer to go third, which sent the German sliding to the deck.

Pidcock crossed two seconds behind New Zealand’s Gaze, who claimed his second straight title in 20 minutes 27 seconds, despite a desperate lunge by Victor Koretzky of France.

“It was a very technical race and, for me, it felt safest to ride it from the front, to ride my tempo and try to recover between the climbs,” said Gaze.

The women’s race lasted 10 laps over the same course with Richards, world champion over the cross-country Olympic distance in 2021, among a group of six that broke away on the fifth lap.

The 26-year-old led into the final lap but defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of France streaked clear on the climb to win in 21:17, four seconds ahead of Dutch rider Puck Pieterse and nine ahead of Richards.

Besides Storey’s success, there were plenty more Para-cycling medals for GB, with two coming in the women’s C1 individual time trial as Frances Brown won gold and Katie Toft took bronze.

Finlay Graham won silver in the men’s C3 individual time trial and Amelia Cass claimed bronze in the women’s C2 individual time trial.

Sophie Unwin and her pilot Jenny Holl came second in the women’s B individual time trial, behind Ireland’s Katie-George Dunlevy and her pilot Linda Kelly.

GB’s Izzy Sharp, 18, also claimed a silver in the women’s junior individual time trial.

Dygert completes road to recovery

However, GB’s Anna Henderson was denied a medal in the women’s individual time trial as USA’s Chloe Dygert claimed her second world title.

Dygert, 26, set a time of 46:59.80 over the 36.2km course, which started and finished in Stirling.

Henderson went into second place after going 1:15.05 slower but Austria’s Christina Schweinberger nudged her into third by going just over two seconds. Australia’s Grace Brown then missed out on gold by just 5.67secs.

Dygert, who won the 2019 world title in Harrogate before suffering a serious leg injury as she crashed in 2020, won the individual pursuit on the track last week but was among those who picked up a respiratory bug in Glasgow.

“If the race was yesterday I don’t think I would have started,” said Dygert. “I spent the last four days praying I’d be OK.

“I’m still not 100% but I gave everything I could and it was just enough for today. This is really special, it means a lot for us.”