Britain’s most decorated Paralympian Sarah Storey is to attempt the women’s hour record at the end of February at the Revolution Series track meeting in the Lee Valley VeloPark.
The record was set in 2003 by Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel of the Netherlands and stands at 46.065km. One British woman who held the record in the past is the Sydney Olympic medallist Yvonne McGregor.
Storey’s attempt is the latest sign of a flurry of recent interest in the record, which was in the doldrums for several years after the UCI split it according to the level of technology used by the athlete.
The new “united” record has seen two successful attempts on the men’s distance by Jens Voigt of Germany and the Austrian Matthias Brändle, while Sir Bradley Wiggins is expected to target it next June.
“I’m excited and nervous at the prospect of being the first women to take on the record in over a decade,” said Storey. “I did a couple of days’ testing up at the Manchester Velodrome to try and work out the output that would be involved over an hour to have a realistic chance of challenging it and we decided that I stood a fighting chance.”
Storey added that the attempt fits well with her plans to peak for the Para-cycling Track World Championship at the end of March, when she will ride the pursuit, 500m time trial and scratch race.
Storey, who is now 37 and was born without the use of her left hand, began her career as a swimmer, taking golds at Barcelona and Atlanta and silver medals at Sydney and Athens, before switching to cycling, where she won six gold medals at the Beijing and London Games. She has a total of 73 world records to her credit.
