Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl dig deep to win time trial silver

Sophie Unwin revealed that a good rummage around in the hurt locker was the key to Paralympic silver in the time trial.

The 30-year-old did not have time to hone her craft in racing against the clock on her whirlwind rise from redundancy to the Tflokyo Games inside a year, finishing fifth in the time trial.

Unwin and sighted pilot Jenny Holl have spent the last three years finding their groove on the time trial bike and reaped the rewards with silver in Paris, joined on the podium by compatriots Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall.

Unwin said: “It’s amazing, we weren’t anywhere in Tokyo in the time trial, we weren’t good at them yet. We’ve put a lot of work into them and we knew this would be a tough race.

“It’s really nice to come away with a silver.”

Unwin and Holl were top of the pile at the 5.8km mark, the first checkpoint, making the most of a flat and speedy section that plunged through Bondy Forest.

They were outstripped by the Irish duo of Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Linda Kelly who romped to victory by 83 seconds but held silver medal position ahead of team-mates Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall, who won bronze.

The steady improvement has been shown in the results at World Championship level: fourth in 2021 before a leap to gold in 2022 and silver on home soil in Glasgow last year.

“It’s more time riding,” said Unwin. “In Tokyo, I was so new to it and I didn’t know how to pace an effort, I didn’t know how to hurt myself in a time trial and I definitely know how to do that now.”

Holl interjected: “If you see Sophie after a time trial, it’s a sight to see. She can put herself in a box that I’ve never seen anyone be able to. I can’t do it, I’ve never been able to do it.”

Unwin continued: “I think a lot of that is that I don’t want to let Jenny down. Jenny has a much harder job than me on the bike, my job is just to put out power, so I just go, ‘that’s my job, I’ve just got to do that until I can’t anymore.’”

Fachie and Hall collected their second bronze medal of the Games having reached the rostrum in the 3000m individual pursuit.

“It’s great to get a second medal in the Games,” said Fachie. “Two bronzes, we couldn’t have done anything more there. We left it all out so its great to come away with something.”

“To be honest, I love the switch to the road. The track is like a pressure cooker, it just builds and builds and builds. I do it, but I find it very stressful whereas I love the road, its always nice to make that switch coming onto the road. I always feel a lot more relaxed. I’m in my happy place when I’m out on the road.”