BRITAIN’S most successful female Paralympic athlete of all time Dame Sarah Storey was in Barnsley on Wednesday trying out the Tour de Yorkshire route with her team Storey Racing.
Dame Sarah, 40, heads the team of 12 cyclists, including two para cyclists and ten able-bodied. She will need to select six to take part in day two of the Tour de Yorkshire on May 4, which starts outside Barnsley Town Hall. It was from there the team began its recce of the full route on Wednesday.
“I’m adopted Yorkshire,” said Manchester-born Dame Sarah. “I studied in Leeds and was named Yorkshire sportsperson of the year in 1997.
“It’s great to be in Barnsley, I do like to do recce days, people see us out on the road with the support vehicles and they wonder what’s going on, and it does build excitement for the race.”
The main purpose of the day was to evaluate the whole route to work out which six of the team’s cyclists will best suit the course.
“We’ve been involved with the Tour de Yorkshire since its inception, so we’re really proud to be a part of it.
“It’s a fabulous event. It’s growing and growing, and it’s great to see so many different towns and cities getting involved and wanting to be start and finish locations for the race.
“We know we’re going to have an absolutely incredible ride.”
Dame Sarah has won 14 Paralympic gold medals across both swimming and cycling. She started as a swimmer but switched to cycling after a serious ear infection kept her out of the pool.
As a cyclist she has won Paralympic events with times which would have been competitive against able-bodied Olympic athletes - particularly in 2008 in Beijing where her Paralympic time in the individual pursuit would have put her in the top eight in the Olympics.
But she said it was ‘highly unlikely’ she would be among the six on the starting line on May 4 having only recently returned after the birth of her son, who is five months old.
“I’m probably the weakest member of the team at the moment, so it’s highly unlikely.”
