Matthew Richardson breaks flying 200m world record to become 'fastest cyclist of all time'

Great Britain's Matthew Richardson lays claim to being the fastest track cyclist of all time, after he broke the world record in the flying 200m on Thursday.

The 26-year-old became the first person in history to clock under nine seconds in the event. His time of 8.941 seconds was just over a tenth of a second quicker than the previous benchmark – 9.088 seconds, set by Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen at last year's Paris Olympics.

Richardson’s effort came in at an average speed of 80.5kph. It was completed at the Konya velodrome in Turkey, which is located at 1,200m altitude.

“I came here to [go sub-nine 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,” Richardson said afterwards

“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 before his attempt, the track sprinter said breaking the record would be “one of the biggest things I’ve ever done”.

“People win Olympic medals all the time, people win World Championships all the time, people don’t break world records all the time, and people definitely don’t ride sub nine seconds all the time, because it’s never happened before.”

The flying 200m is not a championship medal event, but rather a qualifying effort used to seed riders in the match sprint.

Richardson is the first British rider to hold the record, after he swapped nationality from Australia in August 2024.

The sprinter briefly held the record last summer, then representing Australia at the Paris Olympics, where he won two silvers and bronze medal. “Literally about 30 seconds [after my effort] I watched Harrie go round the track and I was like, ‘And it’s gone’,” he said.

The velodrome in Konya was opened in 2022, and hosted its first international competition this March in a round of the UCI Track Nations Cup. During the event, Richardson appeared to break Lavreysen’s record, clocking 9.041 seconds, but his effort was scored off by the UCI for straying off the track, beneath the blue band.

Richardson later said the saga taught him “how quick that track was”, which gave him the idea to return to hunt the record.

“I want extra goals, extra things to chase – that’s what this is to me,” he said. “It has a nice ring to it as well. Being the fastest track discipline, there are no caveats to it afterwards. It’s not that you’re the fastest time triallist, or the fastest cyclist in X discipline – in a flying 200m, you reach the highest peak speed possible on a track. It’s just cool if I do it to be able to call myself the fastest of all time.”

Richardson rode his effort on a custom painted Hope-Lotus HB.T bike, with a new seatpost, handlebars and cranks. He also used a new skinsuit.

The sprinter's record attempt came as part of a wider event organised by British Cycling. Earlier in the day, para-cyclist Will Bjergfelt broke the UCI Hour Record in the C5 classification, before Charlie Tanfield fell three kilometres short of Filippo Ganna’s elite men’s Hour Record.