{"id":70147,"date":"2025-08-16T01:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T01:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/70147\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T01:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T01:24:12","slug":"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","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/70147\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI knew there was more in the tank\u201d: British sprinter Matt Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record \u2013 just one day after becoming the \u2018fastest cyclist in the world\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the perfect way to celebrate becoming the fastest bike rider on the planet? By doing it all again the next day \u2013 and even better.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s 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 \u2013 just 24 hours after he became the first person in history to break the nine second barrier for the event.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, as part of a trio of world record attempts by Team GB riders<\/a>, 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\u2019s previous benchmark by 0.146 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record in Konya, Turkey (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot faster [than I\u2019ve previously ridden], I was basically just a passenger,\u201d he said after yesterday\u2019s ride. \u201cI 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\u2019s a bit more there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching the tape back, the 26-year-old \u2013 the first British rider to ever hold the world record for the flying 200m \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record in Konya, Turkey (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

And, by sticking to the sprinting lane this time, he managed just that, bettering yesterday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew there was more time on the table after yesterday’s \u2018out of sprint lane\u2019 ride, so I knew if I came in with good execution and rode as close to the black as possible I\u2019d go quicker and that\u2019s what happened,\u201d Richardson said after his second consecutive successful world record attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how long he thinks this new record \u2013 almost a quarter of a second faster than Lavreysen\u2019s world record \u2013 will stand, Richardson is unsure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, it\u2019s out of my control now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Today, however, was all about control. And it\u2019s that control which makes Richardson, for the moment, the fastest man on two wheels.<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record in Konya, Turkey (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

His record-smashing week also caps off an eventful, and often tumultuous, 12 months for the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n

The Maidstone-born sprinter controversially switched his national allegiance back to Great Britain last year<\/a>, after securing two silver medals and a bronze while representing Australia, where he lived from the age of nine, at last year\u2019s Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n

That move sparked something of a geopolitical sporting storm, with AusCycling, the country\u2019s governing body for cycling, admitting they were \u201cdisappointed and surprised\u201d by Richardson\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Richardson breaks his own flying 200m world record in Konya, Turkey (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On his debut in British colours at the Nations Cup in March, Richardson went agonisingly close to beating Lavreysen\u2019s benchmark on his way to winning two golds \u2013 on the same velodrome where he finally, and definitively, made history this week.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0The 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<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, Richardson\u2019s double world record-smashing rides weren\u2019t the only attempts at making history by British riders in Konya this week.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"WillWill Bjergfelt breaks UCI C5 Hour Record (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

The former para-cycling world road race champion completed 51.471km during his hour, breaking Italian Andrea Taralo\u2019s previous record, 47.569km, by almost four kilometres.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"WillWill Bjergfelt breaks UCI C5 Hour Record (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

\u201c[I feel] amazing, it\u2019s not quite sunk in yet really,\u201d Bjergfelt said after his history-making exploit. \u201cWhilst I was going round the track and everyone was cheering at the end there, it started to hit home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s quite hit home yet that I\u2019ve smashed the world record on the track and that\u2019s a dream come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing here with the best equipment; the Hope\/Lotus bike, the Renishaw bars everything else that\u2019s been afforded to me, the Ale custom skin suit, the support that we\u2019ve had from Shell, GBCT, my employers GKN Aerospace where I\u2019ve worked for the past 25 years, this is something that means so much to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WillWill Bjergfelt breaks UCI C5 Hour Record (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the ride itself, he said: \u201cI actually woke up at about 4 o\u2019clock this morning to the morning prayer and I was thinking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally 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\u2019m used to in terms of pursuit; it\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing for GBCT over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time every third lap I was getting an average split so I was able to really control my pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy 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\u2019s the perfect way to do an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CharlieCharlie Tanfield, Hour Record attempt 2025 (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

However, not all Team GB\u2019s record bids were successful this week.<\/p>\n

Charlie Tanfield\u2019s attempt to better Filippo Ganna\u2019s seemingly untouchable Hour Record ultimately fell short, the team pursuiter completing 53.967km during his hour, almost 3km shy of the Italian\u2019s 2022 effort.<\/p>\n

Tanfield\u2019s distance is the seventh furthest achieved since the UCI revamped the rules for the sport\u2019s most prestigious record in 2014.<\/p>\n

\"CharlieCharlie Tanfield, Hour Record attempt 2025 (credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

It also falls short of Dan Bigham, Bradley Wiggins and Alex Dowsett\u2019s 2021 distance in the top-tier of British efforts, although it was around a kilometre further than Dowsett\u2019s record-breaking distance of 2015, demonstrating how much the Hour has moved on in the past decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the perfect way to celebrate becoming the fastest bike rider on the planet? By doing it all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-70147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}