Matthew Richardson has set a new 200m flying start world record of 8.941 seconds, beating the Harrie Lavreysen previous record by 0.147 seconds.
The Brit averaged just over 50mph (80.527kph) to take the record off of Lavreysen and to become the first cyclist to go under 9 seconds.
Richardson was the last of three British riders to undertake world record attempts at Konya Velodrome in Turkey. This morning, Will Bjergfelt set a new UCI C5 Hour Record of 51.471km and became the first para-cyclist to break the 50km barrier. Charlie Tanfield also attempted to set a new Hour Record but failed to beat Filippo Ganna’s 2022 record of 56.791km.
Richardson switched allegiance from Australia to Britain after last year’s Paris Olympic Games, where he briefly held the record with a time of 9.091 seconds. But Lavreysesen of the Netherlands broke it again moments later.
The 26-year-old sprinter came to British Cycling’s record-hunting attempt full of confidence.
He appeared to break Lavreysen’s record at the Nations Cup at Konya Velodrome in March, but the UCI did not ratify the attempt because he drifted below the track’s blue line.
On his new world record, Richardson said: “I did it, I came here to do that [go sub-9 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. 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 of lot of it outside the sprint lane, so I know there’s a bit more there."
Speaking to BikeRadar ahead of the record, Oliver Caddy, British Cycling’s lead project engineer, said Richardson was “one of the most motivated riders I’ve met, and he’s giving it his all.”
Caddy worked with Richardson to fine-tune his Hope HB.T track bike for the record, which includes a 3D-printed titanium handlebar optimised for the track sprinter’s ergonomics.
Whereas Team GB riders will often have a fork produced by Lotus, Richardson’s bike had a custom fork made by Hope.
This was the first time Richardson used a wide fork. “When he first came to race for the team, we weren't sure whether he'd be able to [do] a standing start on the wide [fork] elements. We were pretty sure he was going to hit his knees,” said Caddy.
But with the record’s flying start, Richardson could use the wide design.
