World Para Cycling Championships: In the thick of it instead of just there

Dame Sarah Storey has been around for a very long time. She first competed in the Paralympics in 1992 - back then as a swimmer. She recently won her 19th gold medal in cycling at the Paralympics in Paris. It was her ninth participation in the Olympic Games for the physically disabled. The Brit is now 46 years old, and you might think that the outstanding para-cyclist has seen it all. But she tells TOUR: "I've had a mega year." And she doesn't just mean herself and her successes, she means the big stage that para-cycling got in 2024 - with more spectators than ever before. Thanks to two outstanding highlights in one season.

Paralympics in Paris

The first highlight was the Paralympics in Paris. The second was the Road Cycling World Championships in Zurich, the first with true inclusion. "It was fantastic. We had the same World Championship courses as the other cyclists, which were very challenging. The crowds were fantastic. It was loud, especially in the centre," said Storey, describing her experience at the start in Zurich. The organisers in Switzerland's largest city had the ambition to bring together all races in all age and handicap classes: All routes led to a common finish at Sechseläutenplatz. This had never been done before.

Edge aspect in Glasgow

The first attempt at inclusion was made at the major UCI Cycling World Championships last year, but it was also criticised. "I was really disappointed in Glasgow," Storey looks back. The road para-cycling competitions there took place far outside the city. At that time, Storey & Co. were there, but only on the sidelines - and generally out of the public eye. In Zurich, they were in the thick of it for the first time.

Around two weeks before the highly acclaimed World Championships in Zurich, the para-cyclists made their traditional grand entrance - at the Paralympics in Paris. And they were already a superlative for the disabled athletes. "Paris was great," says Storey. "There was a magic about the city in Paris," adds Denise Schindler, who has taken part in the Paralympics three times as an active cyclist and was there this time as a TV expert for ZDF. Disabled sport has never had a greater media presence in Germany. "The Games there will stand for themselves for a long time," estimates Schindler, who wants to fight for even better conditions for para-cycling on the athletes' commissions of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the UCI. Maike Hausberger, who won the only cycling gold for Germany at the Paralympics in the individual time trial and bronze in the 500 metre time trial on the track, was also delighted: "Paris has put on something huge. There was no noticeable difference to the Olympic Games. The velodrome was sold out."

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Hausberger, five-time world champion in road cycling, was not at the start in Zurich. "I had to rest," she says in an interview with TOUR. After the media successes in Paris, she had many appointments - including an entry in the Golden Book of the city of Stuttgart and a reception in her home town of Butzweiler near Trier. "The World Championships were two weeks after our season highlight. Before that, I had been thinking about the Paralympics 24/7 for four years, four years of sweat and tears," she explains. "After that, the body shuts down. You're mentally exhausted. I'm not the only one who has run out of steam." Germany's most successful para-cyclist Michael Teuber and US star Oksana Masters also decided not to travel to Switzerland. Especially as the "Club of the Best" was scheduled for the German Olympic medallists at the same time as the World Cycling Championships - a holiday in Turkey at the invitation of the German Sports Aid Foundation as a reward for medal successes in Paris.

Annika Zeyen-Giles tackled the double start at the Paralympics and World Championships. After winning bronze twice in Paris, she rode to gold in the individual time trial and silver in the road race on Sechseläutenplatz. Afterwards, she gave an enthusiastic summary of the World Championships: "Even though the time between the Paralympics and this event was very short, it was great fun to be part of this inclusive World Championships. The event here in Zurich is really, really great. We already had a mega World Championships in Glasgow last year, but we were already very far out with the time trials and road races. Here you have ceremonies in the same place, the start and finish are partly the same, it's really nice to be together. It's great what the organising committee has achieved here."

A one-off affair?

But the date of this World Championship premiere was ultimately too close to the Paralympics to really be an outstanding showcase of para-cycling. Too many top athletes cancelled. The start lists in Zurich were sometimes short - in some handicap classes there were as many starters registered as there were medals to be won, or even fewer. Storey criticised the many absences: "That's a shame!" At the same time, she sent a message to all those who were not present in Zurich: "You are missing out."

Athlete representative Schindler knows that the UCI competitions in Switzerland were overshadowed by the Paralympics. Nevertheless, she emphasises: "The World Championships in Zurich are a wonderful example to keep our faces in people's minds." After all, the paracycling discipline is otherwise only really visible every four years. And at an integrated World Championships, disabled cycling benefits from the fact that broadcast teams are on site anyway, says Schindler. The para-cyclists virtually ride in the slipstream of the professionals.

Poor prospects until 2030

However, Zurich may have been a very pleasing but also a one-off event - for an entire generation of para-cyclists. The UCI did not give any clear answers to questions about when there will be comparable inclusion world championships again. But if you read the newly published calendars of the cycling world federation, there may not be any further integration of handicap cycling until 2030. Everything else is written in the stars. "Cycling is lagging behind other sports," is Dame Storey's judgement.