What’s the perfect way to celebrate becoming the fastest bike rider on the planet? By doing it all again the next day – and even better.
And that’s exactly what British sprinter Matt Richardson achieved on Friday afternoon in the Konya velodrome in Turkey, as the 26-year-old beat his own world record for the flying 200m time trial – just 24 hours after he became the first person in history to break the nine second barrier for the event.
Yesterday, as part of a trio of world record attempts by Team GB riders, Richardson set a new world record of 8.941 seconds for the flying 200m, beating Dutch rival and five-time Olympic gold medallist Harrie Lavreysen’s previous benchmark by 0.146 seconds.
Matthew Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record in Konya, Turkey (credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
However, while Richardson managed a blistering 80.527kph during his staggeringly fast ride, his record-smashing attempt was relatively ragged, as he veered up the track at times, desperate to wring every last bit of power out of his legs.
“It was a lot faster [than I’ve previously ridden], I was basically just a passenger,” he said after yesterday’s ride. “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.”
Watching the tape back, the 26-year-old – the first British rider to ever hold the world record for the flying 200m – was convinced he had more in the tank, so booked himself in for another crack on Friday, this time in a bid to beat his own world record.
Matthew Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record in Konya, Turkey (credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
And, by sticking to the sprinting lane this time, he managed just that, bettering yesterday’s ride by 0.084 seconds to set a new world record time of 8.857 seconds, thanks to an astonishing average speed of 81.3kph.
“I knew there was more time on the table after yesterday’s ‘out of sprint lane’ ride, so I knew if I came in with good execution and rode as close to the black as possible I’d go quicker and that’s what happened,” Richardson said after his second consecutive successful world record attempt.
“[I’m feeling] pretty good, a big, big relief. I knew there was more in the tank yesterday, so I was obviously really stoked about yesterday but I was hungry for more.”
When asked how long he thinks this new record – almost a quarter of a second faster than Lavreysen’s world record – will stand, Richardson is unsure.
“I don’t know, it’s out of my control now,” he said.
Today, however, was all about control. And it’s that control which makes Richardson, for the moment, the fastest man on two wheels.
Matthew Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record in Konya, Turkey (credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
His record-smashing week also caps off an eventful, and often tumultuous, 12 months for the 26-year-old.
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.
Matthew Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record in Konya, Turkey (credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
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, and definitively, made history this week.
Of course, Richardson’s double world record-smashing rides weren’t the only attempts at making history by British riders in Konya this week.
On Thursday 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.
Will Bjergfelt breaks UCI C5 Hour Record (credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
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.
Will Bjergfelt breaks UCI C5 Hour Record (credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
“[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.”
Will Bjergfelt breaks UCI C5 Hour Record (credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
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.”
Charlie Tanfield, Hour Record attempt 2025 (credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
However, not all Team GB’s record bids were successful this week.
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.
Charlie Tanfield, Hour Record attempt 2025 (credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
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.