Dame Sarah Storey has won her 19th Paralympic gold after beating a competitor 27 years her junior in a thrilling cycling road race.

ParalympicsGB rider Storey, 46, pipped 19-year-old home hope Heidi Gaugain to the line on the streets of Clichy-sous-Bois, just two days after beating the French teenager in the time trial.

“It’s really amazing,” Storey said after winning her second gold of these Games. “I’m just delighted my wheel was in front at the finish.”

Victory is Storey’s fourth straight in the C4-5 road race and extends her record as Britain’s most decorated Paralympian of all time.

Storey has 30 Paralympic medals to her name across two sports, winning her first two of five swimming golds at Barcelona 1992.

She has won 14 cycling golds across track and road events since Beijing 2008.

In what goes down as the tightest finish of Storey’s Paralympic career, the Briton went clear of breakaway rival Gaugain in the final corners of the five-lap course, and crossed the line just inches ahead.

Storey added: “The lap before a coach of hers [Gaugain] shouted from the other side of the road, ‘next lap on the left’, so I had a look where we were to make sure I was ready for that.

“He shouted, ‘go’ and I went too. Heidi took a little bit of a gap, which is fine because that’s a big acceleration that she’d made; I had a little bit of speed because I was trying to preempt it and then it was just a matter of holding her while she continued her acceleration.

“It was a long way out but it was the only tactic she could use because I have the faster sprint.

“And then, when we were together in that final corner, that’s when I unleashed it. She tried to come again. I could see her furiously peddling feet but I threw my bike and it was mine.”