British para-cyclist Will Bjergfelt has set a new C5 UCI Hour Record of 51.471km, pulverising the previous record and becoming the first para-cyclist to break the 50km barrier.
The previous record of 47.569 km was set by Italy’s Andrea Tarlao in December 2014 but Bjergfelt went much further.
He employed a negative split strategy for his hour Record attempt, covering the early laps at a steady 49km/h pace before upping his lap speed over 51km/h. He ended with laps at 51.4km/h and a final confirmed new Hour Record of 51.471km.
Bjergfelt was the first of three record attempts by British riders on the Konya velodrome in Turkey. Charlie Tanfield is targeting Filippo Ganna's men's Hour Record of 56.792km, and then sprinter Matt Richardson will target the Men's 200m flying start record.
Bjergfelt was an elite-level mountain biker and began para-cycling after a 2015 car crash that left him with life-changing injuries, becoming a successful rider on both the track and road. He was C5 road race UCI world road race champion in 2023 and again in Glasgow in 2024. In 2021 he rode the Tour of Britain with the Swift Carbon Continental team, twice going in the breakaway of the day.
He had special support from his employers GKN Aerospace.
"This is something I’ve worked for, for a long time. When we talked about world records at the start of the year it’s something I was very passionate about right from the get-go," Bjergfelt said after his successful record attempt.
"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.
"I’ve wanted this for so long its worth putting myself through torturous training sessions throughout the summer in full winter kit indoors, on my turbo trainer with no fan to try and accumulate the time in position, or on my TT bike in the heat – today is just the reward for the hard work I’ve put in and its thanks to everyone behind the scenes at the Great Britain Cycling Team who have put all the hard work into putting me on the best equipment to do the best performance I could do today.
"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.”
"I want to thank everyone – my family for the sacrifice that they’ve afforded me as well right the way through my whole career.
“It's not quite sunk in yet really. 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."
