| Barney Storey MBE |
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In the years building up to the Paralympics in Beijing, Barney won double gold in the same two events, tandem sprint and kilometre at both the 2006 and 2007 World Championships. All this was backed up with gold medal success at the Paralympic World Cup's, National Tandem Sprint Championships and many solo bike events used to enhance his training for the tandem events. Barney's success since Beijing has continued to grow, again winning double gold at the Track World Championships on the tandem in 2009 with a new partner Neil Fachie. They lowered the tandem kilometre world record to a 1.02.217 and went on to beat a Spanish pairing 2-0 in the final of the tandem sprint event. 2010 and 2011 also saw Barney taking his 4th and 5th National titles on the tandem at the National Tandem Sprint Championship. In 2010 it was with Neil Fachie whilst in 2011 with Anthony Kappes.
2002 was a comparably disappointing year with no medals in the World Championships, but with his usual grit and determination, Barney bounced back in 2003 to not only win the National Tandem Sprint Championships but also pick up gold on his solo bike in the Keirin. Internationally was the start of the double gold rush, with Barney winning the tandem sprint and kilometre double for the first time at the European Championships.
Now working inside the highly successful tandem group within British Cycling, Barney is one of four men aiming to win medals in the London Paralympic Games in 2012. Outside of formal racing and training, Barney has piloted a number of "celebrity" stokers. Pictured above right with BBC Radio Manchester's, Ian Cheeseman, the pair spent the day on a tandem together for 2010 Sport Relief. Barney piloted Ian around all the Football League Grounds in the "Manchester" patch, starting in Macclesfield and doing a loop through to Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Bolton, Wigan, Manchester United and Manchester City. Since then he has introduced Channel Four's Jon Snow and Ewan Thomas to the track tandem too.
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Barney Storey is the world's best sprint tandem pilot. In 2008 he won double gold at the Beijing Paralympic Games with his stoker Anthony Kappes and in winning the first also lowered the tandem kilometre world record to an incredible 1.02.867, half a second quicker than the previous mark. The 2nd gold came in the tandem sprint event where they qualified fastest in the flying 200m and then beat the Australians 2-0 in the final. All this just 3 weeks after a 
In 2010, Barney also added to his long list of titles on his solo bike, when he was a member of the National title winning team at the Track Nationals in the Men's Team Pursuit event. Winning gold in emphatic fashion, it was the big turns and speed of Barney that helped the team to victory. Barney started cycling at the age of 12 as his brother was also racing and it was more fun to take part than stand around watching. In his early years of racing, Barney and his brother were a formidable force in southern counties road racing, with his brother's endurance and Barney's talent for sprinting, they could cover most moves in the peleton and began to dominate the regional scene. As the years progressed it became clear Barney should explore his speed on the track and in 2001 after several months of commuting to Manchester to train with the sprint squad and winning the European Championships in the tandem kilometre, Barney moved to Manchester to further explore his dream of becoming the world's best and ride the tandem full-time.
Unfortunately 2004 was another disappointing year and despite breaking the tandem kilometre world record in training, a problem at the Paralympic Games meant Barney finished outside the medals in Athens. The winning combination with Anthony Kappes was discovered in 2005 and since then the pair haven't looked back. Gold in the tandem sprint in 2005, turned into double gold as the pair added the kilometre in 2006! After a brief spell riding with other people after Beijing, the pair returned to the tandem together for the 2011 Track Worlds where they also added the Tandem Pursuit event to their race schedule to assist with the qualification points scoring for London. Despite the stresses of also training for the endurance event, which dampened their top end speed somewhat, the pair won a credible two silver medals just 1000ths of a second outside of winning gold. Considering their adapted training schedule for the extra event, it was a huge success and the pair rode quicker in all events than they had done in Beijing.
