The fastest cyclist in the world: British sprinter Matthew Richardson makes history by smashing nine second barrier for flying 200m, as para-cyclist Will Bjergfelt sets new Hour Record

Matthew Richardson can now lay claim to being the fastest man in the world on two wheels, after the British track sprinter smashed the seemingly impenetrable nine second barrier for the flying 200m, on a day of world record attempts for Team GB in Turkey.

Spoiler alert: He’s only gone and beat his own world record again on Friday! You can read all about Richardson’s history-making encore here:

> “I knew there was more in the tank”: British sprinter Matt Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record – just one day after becoming the ‘fastest cyclist in the world’

Our original article on Thursday’s world record bids continues below:

On Thursday afternoon on the Konya velodrome, Richardson ensured his place in cycling’s history books by setting a new world record for the flying 200m time trial, one of track cycling’s blue riband events, covering the distance in 8.941 seconds.

The 26-year-old’s blistering effort was enough to beat the previous record set by his Dutch rival Harrie Lavreysen by 0.146 seconds, and saw him become both the first rider to beak the nine second barrier in the event, as well as the first to average over 80kph, Richardson managing 80.527kph during his staggeringly fast ride.

The Maidstone-born sprinter controversially switched his national allegiance back to Great Britain last year, after securing two silver medals and a bronze while representing Australia, where he lived from the age of nine, at last year’s Paris Olympics.

That move sparked something of a geopolitical sporting storm, with AusCycling, the country’s governing body for cycling, admitting they were “disappointed and surprised” by Richardson’s defection, even briefly pursuing a two-year suspension from all competitions for their former rider before eventually banning him for life from representing the nation.

In Paris, while still racing in the yellow and green of Australia, Richardson briefly set a new world record for the flying 200, before Lavreysen broke it again minutes later, covering the distance in 9.088 seconds.

On his debut in British colours at the Nations Cup in March, Richardson went agonisingly close to beating Lavreysen’s benchmark on his way to winning two golds – on the same velodrome where he finally made history on Thursday.

“It has a nice ring to it, being the fastest track discipline,” the 26-year-old said before his successful attempt.

“There are no extra caveats to it afterwards, it’s in a flat 200 [metres], you reached the highest peak speed possible on the track. It’d be cool, if I do it, to call myself the fastest of all time.

“Breaking the nine-second barrier would etch my name into the history of the sport. It’s a milestone I’ve been chasing for years, so having the opportunity to go after it now is something truly special.”

And speaking after his world record ride in Turkey, a relieved Richardson said: “I did it, I came here to do that [go under nine seconds] and that’s what I did so, it’s a pretty cool feeling to accomplish the one thing that I came out here to do. A bit of relief there.

“It was a lot faster [than I’ve previously ridden], I was basically just a passenger. I gave the bike a bit of direction and it was just steering itself almost. I rode of lot of it outside the sprint lane, so I know there’s a bit more there. 

“It goes pretty quick. I know this track can be quite a handful out of the corners so I was cautious in those spots but other than that it was just going as hard as I can.”

Richardson’s successful bid to smash the flying 200m benchmark was the third world record attempt of the day for British riders on the Konya velodrome.

This morning, Will Bjergfelt became the first para-cyclist in history to break the 50km barrier as he set a new UCI Hour Record in the C5 classification.

The former para-cycling world road race champion completed 51.471km during his hour, breaking Italian Andrea Taralo’s previous record, 47.569km, by almost four kilometres.

An aerospace logistics manager and former elite mountain biker, 46-year-old Bjergfelt was hit head-on by a motorist in 2015, shattering his right leg.

But after returning to the sport in the C5 para-cycling category, he won the road race in the classification at the 2023 world championships in Glasgow and became the first para-cyclist to compete in the Tour of Britain in 2021.

“[I feel] amazing, it’s not quite sunk in yet really,” Bjergfelt said after his history-making exploit. “Whilst I was going round the track and everyone was cheering at the end there, it started to hit home.

“I don’t think it’s quite hit home yet that I’ve smashed the world record on the track and that’s a dream come true.

“Coming here with the best equipment; the Hope/Lotus bike, the Renishaw bars everything else that’s been afforded to me, the Ale custom skin suit, the support that we’ve had from Shell, GBCT, my employers GKN Aerospace where I’ve worked for the past 25 years, this is something that means so much to me.”

Reflecting on the ride itself, he said: “I actually woke up at about 4 o’clock this morning to the morning prayer and I was thinking about it.

“Originally I was going to go in 10 minute blocks and break it down into six blocks but then when I thought about it through the night I thought five minute blocks are more what I’m used to in terms of pursuit; it’s what I’ve been doing for GBCT over the years. 

“At the same time every third lap I was getting an average split so I was able to really control my pace.

“My coach Ben Brown sets me best average efforts on my TT bike so those efforts over the past 2.5 years have really played into what I did today where I started steady, built into the effort, sustained it, and then got faster towards the end. And I think that’s the perfect way to do an hour.”

However, not all Team GB’s record bids were successful on Thursday.

Charlie Tanfield’s attempt to better Filippo Ganna’s seemingly untouchable Hour Record ultimately fell short, the team pursuiter completing 53.967km during his hour, almost 3km shy of the Italian’s 2022 effort.

Tanfield’s distance is the seventh furthest achieved since the UCI revamped the rules for the sport’s most prestigious record in 2014.

It also falls short of Dan Bigham, Bradley Wiggins and Alex Dowsett’s 2021 distance in the top-tier of British efforts, although it was around a kilometre further than Dowsett’s record-breaking distance of 2015, demonstrating how much the Hour has moved on in the past decade.