Yorkshire cyclist Charlie Tanfield chasing history in Hour Record attempt
Yorkshire cyclist Charlie Tanfield will attempt to make history next week when he bids to break one of the sport’s great milestones.
Tanfield, who won a silver medal in the team pursuit squad at last year’s Olympics in Paris, is chasing a spot in the history books by clocking more kilometres than anyone in the revered Hour Record.
He is heading out to the Konya Velodrome in Turkey with two British Cycling team-mates in Matt Richardson and Will Bjergfelt who are chasing their own individual world records on the track.
Richardson will attempt the men’s elite 200 metres flying start and para-cyclist Bjergfelt will look to match Tanfield by going for the Hour Record in the C5 category.
Great Ayton’s Tanfield is aiming to become the fourth Brit to hold the famous Hour Record since world governing body the UCI unified the rules for the event in 2014.
Alex Dowsett set the record at 52.937 kilometres in May 2015 before Sir Bradley Wiggins raised it to 54.526km just a month later. In 2022 Tanfield’s former housemate Dan Bigham set the bar at 55.548km but then helped his Italian team-mate Filippo Ganna set the current record at 56.792km.
“I remember joining the GB programme when Sir Bradley Wiggins held the record and thought, ‘Wow, I’d like to give this a go at some point’,” said Tanfield, who as well as having a collection of global medals in the team pursuit, also has a silver from last year’s European Championships in the individual pursuit.
“I identified this year after the Games as a time when I’d have the freedom to give it a go and that’s exactly what I’ll be doing.”
Richardson, the Maidstone-born sprinter who switched his allegiance to Great Britain last year after previously competing for Australia, wants to become the first man to complete a flying 200m in less than nine seconds – which would mean hitting a speed of 80kmh.
The Olympic silver medallist briefly held the world record during last summer’s Games in Paris with a time of 9.091 seconds, only to see rival Harrie Lavreysen break it with a time of 9.088 seconds a few minutes later.
“It’s a race between Harrie and I to go under nine seconds,” said Richardson. “It’s been on my radar for a few years now…
Bjergfelt, who has additional support from his employer of 25 years GKN Aerospace, has his sights set on Andrea Tarlo’s C5 Hour Record of 47.569km, which has stood since 2014. “The Hour record is iconic,” he said.