The British star is leading the race on the first of six 13.2km laps in difficult conditions, and is powering on the leading group with teammate Crystal Lane-Wright.

The TV commentators joked that they had no idea who was in what position as the cyclists took off in heavy rain for the 79km race in Japan.

Extremely wet conditions are in store for the cyclists at the track in Fuji as Dame Sarah Storey attempts to win her 17th gold medal for Great Britain.

The cyclists will race over 79km, doing six laps of the 13.2km course.

Talisson Henrique Glock of Team Brazil competes in the Men's 400m Freestyle - S6 heats on day 9 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Great Britain’s Dame Sarah Storey is targeting history on day nine of the Paralympics as she competes in the cycling road race to win her 17th career gold medal.

Storey, 43, tied swimmer Mike Kenny’s British record of 16 golds when she won the cycling time trial earlier this week and now gets the chance to take the all-time lead outright.

She began her athletic career as a swimmer in the 1992 Games before switching to cycling, where she has dominated the competition.

Tokyo is Storey’s eighth Paralympic Games and her fourth as a cyclist.

The road race will see the field make six laps of an alternative 13.2km circuit in Fuji, and it is an event that teammate Crystal Lane-Wright, who won silver in the time trial, believes is her strongest.

“Sweet 16. Can I be 16 again?” Storey said after being presented her time trial gold medal.

“I never set out on this journey to be Britain’s greatest Paralympian, but to match the best man and to have more other medals is just a dream come true.”

From farm life to the fast lane, Sammi Kinghorn rode the path less travelled to the Paralympic podium.

The wheelchair racer grew up on a farm near Gordon, in the Scottish Borders, was taught to deliver lambs at the age of five and loved animals so much she wanted to be a zoologist.

In 2010, Kinghorn and her father were clearing snow at the farm when she climbed onto a forklift and he lowered the beam onto his daughter, shattering her spinal cord.

More than a decade later, the 25-year-old was pining for her family’s presence to watch her speed to a first Paralympic medal with bronze in the 100m T53.

More, here, from Tom Harle in Tokyo:

When their head coach tested positive for Covid and was forced to stay at home, Great Britain’s men’s wheelchair basketball team appeared to be a ship without a captain in Tokyo.

But through choppy seas they’ve somehow navigated their way to the semi-finals of the Paralympic Games – and will take some stopping as they chase the gold.

It admittedly took Great Britain a while to click into top gear in their quarter-final against Canada but when they did, they were irresistible as Gaz Choudhry led Great Britain to a 66-52 victory.

They will now play Japan in the semi-finals on Friday and know that a win will propel them to a gold medal match that would be as remarkable as unlikely following a stressful start to the Games.

Read Charlie Bennett’s report from Tokyo:

Susan Bailey has won her first Paralympics medal at her seventh appearance at a Games alongside Megan Shackleton in the women’s team table tennis competition.

The GB pair were defeated in the semi-final by China but had already secured a bronze medal for reaching that stage.

Bailey, 48, has competed in every Paralympic Games since Sydney 2000 but until today had never won a medal while Shackleton, 22, was making her debut.

Alfie Hewett will take on the Netherlands’ Tom Egberink in the wheelchair tennis semi-finals tomorrow, where he could set up a meeting with defending champion and GB doubles partner Gordon Reid.

Rebecca Redfern will relish bringing a prized Paralympic medal home to toddler son Patrick - just don’t call her Supermum.

In the last year, the 21-year-old has finished a degree, started a family and now won silver at the Tokyo Paralympics in the 100m breaststroke S13 for the visually impaired.

Redfern spent the early days of lockdown training a hot tub and finishing her dissertation, and when pools did reopen social distancing robbed her of 30 per cent of training time.

“I found out I was pregnant and I thought that was my swimming career done, it was over,” said the Droitwich star.

“It’s insane how tough everything has been, but I hope I’ve proved to everyone that you don’t have to stop doing something you love because of something else.”

The latest from Tom Harle in Tokyo: