Fin Graham won silver in the men's C1-C3 3km individual pursuit at the Para-Cycling Track World Championships, beaten to gold by fellow Briton Matt Robertson. The race was run as a solo time trial rather than a head-to-head pursuit, owing to a long-standing UCI policy that applies when riders from different classifications compete together: to avoid big mismatches, each rider races alone against the clock rather than starting on opposite sides of the track and chasing each other down. BBC Sport

That format change was not what Graham had trained for. He said the decision was made at the start of the week and that the distance stayed the same — 3km — but was contested solo. Earlier in the competition, he posted on social media sharing his confusion and anger at what he felt was a late change to the race format. BBC Sport

An individual pursuit on the track is normally one of the sport's most dramatic events: two riders start on opposite sides of the velodrome and chase each other for a set distance. The winner is the one who catches their opponent or records the faster time. In a time trial version, the chase element disappears. Each rider goes alone, and the fastest time wins outright.

Graham said he believed racing an opponent head-to-head is better for the crowd to watch — and he has reason to know. At the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the men's C3 3km individual pursuit was an all-Great Britain battle between Paralympic champion Jaco van Gass and Tokyo silver medallist Graham, a contest that delivered exactly the kind of head-to-head tension the time trial cannot. British Cycling

For Graham, a C3-classified rider — C3 denotes athletes with the least severe impairment in the C1-C3 range — this is familiar territory. He won the C3 individual pursuit title at the 2025 Lloyds National Track Championships in a time of 3 minutes 27 seconds, and took his second C3 world title at the 2022 UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships after qualifying fastest and delivering what British Cycling described as a stylish final ride. British Cycling British Cycling

This time, there was no opponent to chase down. Graham said his performance was not quite enough for gold, that Robertson rode a good ride, and that he simply did not quite have the legs to win. BBC Sport

For fans, the frustration is understandable. The individual pursuit at its best is a game of cat and mouse played at 50 kilometres per hour, two riders closing on each other while the crowd tracks the gap on the scoreboard. A solo time trial rewards the strongest engine on the day but strips away the theatre that makes the event special — and Graham has spent enough of his career in those head-to-head battles to feel the difference acutely.

Para-cycling's classification system groups riders by the severity of their impairment, from C1 (most severe) to C5 (least severe). When a race combines multiple classifications — as the C1-C3 event does — the UCI's policy is to run a time trial so that a C1 rider, for example, is not directly matched against a C3 rider in a chase format that could produce lopsided results. The rule has logic behind it. Whether it was communicated clearly enough, early enough, is the question Graham spent the week asking.