For most athletes, being your country’s most decorated sportsperson in their category a new parent and a dame at the age of 37, would be reason enough to maybe take it a bit easy. But Sarah Storey is no ordinary athlete.
On Saturday afternoon, Britain’s most-decorated female Paralympian – 11 golds, eight silvers and three bronzes across two sports (swimming and cycling) and six Games – takes on a new challenge, the women’s world hour record.
At about 3pm tomorrow Storey will get on her bike at the London velodrome and attempt to ride further than 46.065km in an hour, the current record, set in 2003 by by Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel of the Netherlands.
There has been renewed interest in the hour record since the sport’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), clarified the rules last year, permitting the most modern equipment. Since then the men’s record, which had remained in place from 2005, has been beaten three times.
Storey is the first to go for the woman’s record since then. I had a chat on the phone with her in the build-up to the attempt, to talk training, damehood, and combining elite sport with an infant daughter.
Storey said she was asked in October by the organisers of the Revolution track cycling series, where the attempt will feature, and took a month to decide:
It was quite a daunting invitation and one I couldn’t just say, ‘Oh, no thank you.’ to. I came home from a training camp to Manchester and did some sessions on the track, to see what sort of power cost the necessary pace would be. The figures that were coming out were very favourable, and though I wasn’t perhaps in the exact right shape at that point we knew that with a good winter behind me I could be back in that sort of shape within three months. In the end it was a case that I have to say yes, because if don’t say yes I’ll always wonder.
She says she is cautiously optimistic, while aware it will be a hugely tough challenge:
It’s similar to most events. You’re optimistic because otherwise you wouldn’t have accepted the challenge, but equally if it was a foregone conclusion you probably wouldn’t bother because it wouldn’t be exciting to try. It’s a world record for a reason – it’s a tough challenge.
It’s one of the purest events, it’s ultimately yourself against the clock, or the distance measurement. The psychological aspects are probably just as tough if not tougher. If you pushed yourself for the full hour you’d push yourself off a cliff. You have to hover on this point where you’re in control of what you doing. If you don’t you’ll just spiral downwards, and get slower and slower.
It will be tough, but it won’t be tough like it is in a kilometre, or a 3km, or a team pursuit. It’ll be tough because of the longevity of the event.
In the 2013 New Year’s honours list Storey became Dame Sarah Storey in recognition for her London 2012 achievements:
It does feel strange, but in a nice way – it’s a reminder of everything that happened in London, and before, and the support.
But only some of her post calls her “Dame”:
It’s not that I ask, but whenever I apply for a new account and you put your title in the drop-down box it’s surprising how few options there are. There’s Mr, Mrs, Ms, Sir, Reverend, Lady, but never Dame.
One of my current account cards calls me ‘Dame’ but only because the lady who arranged it was so excited to change it.
Her trackside team will include husband Barney, who has won three Paralympic gold medals as a sighted pilot in tandem track events, as well as Chris Furber, the GB cycling squad’s coach in 2012. He leads Britain’s para-swimming squad but is returning to help her out. There will also be a big crowd cheering her on:
It will be a huge thing but it’s not one you can really rely on. Before the London Games I said, I need to be able to win this in an empty room, and the same applies. The crowd will be a 12th man, there’s no doubt that that will be of benefit, but it’s not a conscious factor in what we’re doing.
The noise and everything else is just part of the event we don’t control. As with any race, we control the control-ables and make sure we focus on the things we can make the best.
Storey plays down the significance of a Paralympic champion aiming for an able-bodied world record:
It’s not really a consideration. I started out in life not even realising the Paralympic Games existed. As a youngster all my events, until the Games in 1992, were in able-bodied sport. For me it’s just sport.
I’m one of many athletes who joins the two parts of the sport. Most of the girls I race against at the world championships are part of professional road teams. I’m probably one of the few who isn’t.
Are the barriers coming down?
To a certain extent, yes. There are some areas where we’ve still got huge hurdles, with the way the sport is governed at UCI level – it’s very, very separate. Paracycling is still very much a poor cousin to able-bodied cycling. We have no track World Cups, we really struggle to get World Championships dates on the calendar.
But in other areas, like the way the outside world looks at the sport, and the media coverage, I’m just talked about as a cyclist. But it remains to be seen if that’s just me. It would be interesting to ask other cyclists.
Also at the track will be Storey’s daughter, Louisa. She discusses combining parental duties with elite sport:
You just to accept that there’s some days where training is a little bit different. I’ve never had to miss a session. You just adjust things like timings, if she’s a bit poorly. The night before the individual pursuit at the World Championships last year, I was up all night because she was sick. But I still won the 3k.
It’s just part of life. The things that go wrong aren’t to be resented. They’re to be dealt with. They’re part of what happens when you’re a mum and I wouldn’t have it any other way. She’s the absolute best thing ever, and I’m so chuffed to have her at races.
I’m really glad when I cross the finish line and I’ve got this little person who’s always happy to see me and it doesn’t matter about the result.
She cheers, she shouts, ‘Go, go, go!’, she waves a flag. She really does enjoy the atmosphere and being in the middle of it. She’s probably going to be asleep during my attempt. She generally falls asleep when I’m riding.
She comes to bike races all the time, and loves all the girls on our team, she knows them all by name now and thinks they’re brilliant. She’s a real little socialite. She picks up the spanners and tries to help the mechanics. She just really loves being part of it.
• Storey’s attempt at the record is part of a weekend of racing at the Revolution Series. Tickets cost from £10 to £45 and can be bought at cyclingrevolution.com.
