Charlie Tanfield failed to set a new UCI Hour Record on the Konya velodrome in Turkey, covering a distance of 53.967km, well below the record of 56.792km set by Filippo Ganna set in Grenchen, Switzerland in October 2022.
Before Tanfield's ride, British para-cyclist Will Bjergfelt set a new C5 UCI Hour Record of 51.471km, while later in the day, track sprinter Matt Richardson set a new men's 200m Flying Start world record with a time of 8.941 seconds.
Tanfield distance was also less than the records set by Dan Bigham, Victor Campenaerts and Bradley Wiggins. He stood head bowed on the track barriers after his ride, disappointed with his ride after weeks of special training and preparation.
Tanfield planned to ride a negative split strategy, starting at a below record pace before accelerating in the final 20 minutes. However he struggled to go beyond 54.500km/h in the final minutes.
He set a strong pace of around 16.5 seconds a lap, seeing him cover 13.750km in just over 15 minutes, putting him in a strong position to contest the record.
He maintained a good pace for the next half of the record attempt, then with around 43 minutes done, his tempo started to slip. His speed dropped to around 53km per hour. He needed to cover over 15km to cover in the final 15 minutes and so it was clear that the record was slipping out of reach.
