Richardson and Bjergfelt set world records

BBC News

4 days ago

Britain's Matt Richardson and Will Bjergfelt set track cycling world records as Charlie Tanfield fell short in his bid to break the hour record in Konya, Turkey.Richardson, 26, became the first cyclist to clock under nine seconds in the 200m flying start - doing so in an event set up with British Cycling backing to aim for a number of world records.His time of 8.941 seconds lowered the time of 9.088 secs, set by Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen at the 2024 Paris Olympics. "I came here to do that [go sub-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," said Richardson."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."Earlier on Thursday, Bjergfelt, 46, established a new hour record in the C5 classification as he became the first para-cyclist in history go beyond 50km.He rode a distance of 51.471km to beat the previous mark of 47.569km, set by Italy's Andrea Tarlao in 2014."It's not quite sunk in yet really," said Bjergfelt."While 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."In 2015, Bjergfelt was involved in a head-on collision with a car which shattered his right leg and left him with a bleed on his brain. Having previously ridden for UCI Continental teams, he was given a C5 para-cycling classification when he returned to the sport. He subsequently became the first para-cyclist to compete in the Tour of Britain in 2021 and took gold in the C5 road race at the World Championships in 2023.While each rider had their eye on the records for some time, the idea for a joint attempt supported by British Cycling and its partners arrived after the World Cup earlier this year when Richardson was impressed by the speed of the Konya Velodrome, which opened in 2022.
Tanfield falls short of iconic record
Tanfield was aiming to become the fourth British rider to hold the famous hour record since the UCI, cycling's world governing body, unified the rules for the event in 2014.He began preparing for his attempt shortly after last summer's Paris Games where he won a silver medal as part of Great Britain's team pursuit squad.However, despite making a strong start, he was unable to eclipse the 56.792km distance covered by Filippo Ganna in October 2022.The 28-year-old rode 53.967km during his attempt at 1,200m altitude - 750m higher than the velodrome in Grenchen, Switzerland where the Italian set his benchmark. Tanfield's effort is the seventh best of all time and he is also the fourth fastest British rider over 60 minutes behind Bradley Wiggins, Alex Dowsett and national record holder Dan Bigham (55.548km).