Great Britain's Matt Richardson became officially the fastest track cyclist of all time, thanks to breaking the world record for the flying start 200m time trial.
He became the first man to cover 200m in under nine seconds, setting a new world record of 8.941 seconds on the Konya velodrome in Turkey. He raced at an average speed of 80.5km/h.
The flying start 200m time trial is not a World Championship race but is used as a qualifying event to seed riders in the match sprint. it highlights a sprinter's pure speed.
Richardson raced on a special version of the Hope-Lotus HB.T bike that Great Britain used at the 2024 Paris Olympics and other major races. It had a new seatpost and 3D printed handlebars and cranks.
Matt Richardson and his special bike (Image credit: SWpix.com (t/a Photography Hub Ltd))
Richardson's record was part of a three-rider record attempt in Turkey. Earlier on Thursday, para-cyclist Will Bjergfelt broke the UCI Hour Record in the C5 classification.
Charlie Tanfield failed to break Filippo Ganna’s men’s UCI Hour Record, covering a distance of 53.967km, three kilometres short of Ganna's record of 56.792km. Tanfield started on schedule but then faded later in his hour.
Richardson is the first British rider to hold the flying 200m record. He swapped nationality from Australia in August 2024 after the Paris Olympics. He had been targeting the record for a long time, having previously broken it for a few minutes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (9.091 seconds) and coming close again in at the Nations Cup in Konya earlier this year where he hit a time of 9.041 which was later rescinded.
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"I did it, I came here to do that 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 a 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."
It's official. Matt Richardson set a 200m flying start record of 8.941 seconds (Image credit: SWpix.com (t/a Photography Hub Ltd))
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
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