'Finally someone has beaten me' – rider's 20-year streak as world champion comes to an end

Jody Cundy’s 20-year unbeaten streak in the kilometre time trial at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships ended on Thursday with a valiant silver medal.

The Briton lost out by 2.2 seconds in the C4 classification of the event to Australia’s Korey Boddington, who won with a time of 1:02.672.

Cundy, now 48 years old, won his first kilo world title in 2006. With no World Championships held in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2021, he went two decades undefeated and earned 16 consecutive gold medals in the event.

“Well after 20 years, and 16 back to back titles in the 1km time trial, finally somebody has beaten me to the rainbow jersey,” Cundy wrote on Instagram.

He also commended Boddington on an “awesome ride”, and called him a “deserved champion”.

Cundy qualified second on Thursday afternoon, 1.7 seconds adrift of Boddington, and wrote on social media that he would need a “minor miracle” to continue his unbeaten run.

While Boddington went on to hold the same pace in the final, the Briton went half a second slower, but managed to claim silver by eight hundredths of a second.

Speaking to the BBC before this week's championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, Cundy said he was “no spring chicken any more”.

“I’m getting older and the competitors are getting younger. It’s going to be very hard to keep that unbeaten run,” the six-time Paralympic cycling champion said. “As much as I would love to do it, the people I have to race this year… I’m in trouble.”

Boddington, the man who ended up toppling Cundy, is 17 years his junior, and the reigning Paralympic champion in the event.

Replying to Cundy’s Instagram post, Boddington said: “Huge respect for you and everything you’ve done for the sport. I’m still scared of what you can do on a bike so bring it on.”

A former swimmer, Cundy competed in his first Paralympics in 1996, and went on to win three gold medals in the pool before turning to cycling in 2006.

He competes in the C4 classification with a prosthetic leg, having had his right foot amputated when he was three due to a birth deformity.

Although he is no longer the kilo world champion, he continues to hold the C4 world record of 1:01.466, set in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 2014.

This week’s UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships run until Sunday afternoon.