Race Week!!

What a hectic week it has been since the Opening Ceremony and I am so glad to be sat here writing to you as Paralympic Champion in the 3,000m! It has been perhaps the most nerve-wracking event of my life and the relief of winning is quite simply amazing and so difficult to put into words.

Neither Barney or I raced on day 1 of the Games, but the cycling team started the event with 3 gold medals which set us up for what was the most incredibly successful 4 days of track racing we have ever known. Our Olympic colleagues had wowed the world with their performances just 3 weeks ago and we were all determined to continue the high.

Barney struck gold in his first event with a new world record for the kilometre time trial. It was a truly awesome ride and came just a few hours after my first ride of the Games. My first ride was the 500m Time Trial, an event in which I have won bronze medals at the past 2 World Championships. Unfortunately the Paralympic Games were being run under a different system to that of the World Champs and instead of me racing in the LC1 class; I was racing in a combined class along with LC2's and CP4's. This meant that we weren't racing directly with each other, but against our World Records, something that severely penalised the LC1's since the times we needed to do for both the 500m and the 3,000m were equal to many of the top riders in the Olympic Games.

In the 500m I knocked 0.8 seconds off the time I did to win bronze at the European Masters in July and although this was the 2nd fastest time, I was placed 5th behind people who had gotten closer to the world record in their class. It was a huge personal best time and a brilliant feeling to know I was riding so well and although I wasn't in the medals, it was amazing to watch Barney ride and win soon after.

By the time it came to the day of the 3,000m I was truly fed up with waiting for my main event and was uncharacteristically way more anxious than I usually am. I was quietly confident I would ride a fast time, but the system being used to decide the medals was something I could do nothing about, yet it was potentially standing in my way of winning the event I truly enjoy and have been getting faster and faster in.

Qualifying for the event was run over 5 heats of 2 riders and then in the finals, unless the riders were from the same class, then the final was run in 2 separate riders to ensure a faster rider didn't get held up by a slower rider from a different class. I was in the final heat during qualification and during heat 3, the American rider who knocked 5 seconds off the 500m World Record to win on Monday, knocked 14 seconds off the 3,000m World Record! It left me with a tactical decision, did I go for the fastest qualifier slot and risk having nothing left for the final, or did I go for the second fastest slot, ride first in the final and hopefully have something left to really put my opponent under pressure.

The decision was easy, we opted for the second fastest slot and in doing so I took 8 seconds off my own world record, but still felt as though I had more to give in the 2nd ride. Going up first in the final I felt gave me a huge psychological advantage and after a short 4 hour rest between the 2 rides, it was my time again to get on the track and give everything I had to try and get the medal I have craved since my last Paralympic gold in swimming in 1996 in Atlanta.

I rode what turned out to be a very well paced and fast race, I just kept on pushing lap after lap thinking of little else than I wasn't giving up without a fight even if it did mean I passed out at the end! As I crossed the line I could hardly lift my head to see the time and I wasn't sure whether the board said 3 mins 38 or 3 mins 36. Fortunately it said 36 and so I knew I'd put down a difficult marker for her and in the process knocked a further 4 seconds off my World Record, 12 for the day!!

I couldn't get off the bike! I slowed down and fell into one of our mechanics and then the soigneur grabbed me too and allowed me to lean on the fence while they gradually peeled the bike from under me! I was carried down the slope from the track and given my road bike to keep my legs turning while the American rode. The factor meant she needed to ride a little slower than the morning in order for me to win and after her first 1,000m was 3 seconds slower than the morning ride I started to get hopeful. But then she picked it up and it was level again. It was so hard to watch and work out whether or not I was anywhere near and in fact the final lap for her was quite quick and I just had to stare at the scoreboard and wait for the calculation to come through. I could hardly believe it when I saw her name with the number 2 next to it, that meant I had won and still I could hardly believe until the announcer started saying my name and "Paralympic Champion"!

I burst into tears, all the emotion had just been welling up for days, weeks, months even. I knew the system for deciding medals was really tough so to beat it and in the process win the gold meant more than I can possibly describe. The hours of training, the racing all over the country, the quest to fast track myself into all aspects of cycling and still remain focused on my main events has been an incredible journey, but to finally be stood on the top of the Paralympic podium again after 12 years is just truly awesome and I am still coming down off the roof!!!!

By the time this gets to you all the results of the road events will be known too!





Sarah Storey MBE
Scottish Widows Ambassador for the London 2012 Games