The fastest athlete on the planet? Is Usain Bolt ready to lose his crown against the British cyclist Matt Richardson? | Cycling news

Who is the fastest athlete on the planet? Many could say Usain Bolt. After all, it works faster than anyone … 9.58 seconds for the 100m.

If you read this sentence above at a good pace, it will take you about 9.5 to 10 seconds, at the same time (roughly) you took Bolt to stun the world in 2009. But is he the fastest athlete on the planet?

Maybe, maybe not. It is semantics.

While Bolt is certainly the fastest person to “run”, the “unofficial” title of the fastest athlete could actually belong to a cyclist, a Dutchman called Harrie Lavreysen.

He is a cyclist on track who, in time of time Flying 200m, whistled in a velodrome in 9.088 seconds. It is a niche world record, but it is nevertheless power, strength and raw speeds greater than 80 km / h (and a bicycle) combining to make an athlete of elite very, very fast.

Thirty years ago, track cyclists trying this 200m flying world record were fighting to break the 10 second barrier, but now, just as Bolt has revolutionized the reflection of what is possible in athletics, the pursuit of the modern sprint cyclist is not an elusive barrier of 10 seconds, but to break nine seconds.

Earlier this year, the British sprinter Sprinter Matt Richardson went faster than the Olympic champion Lavreyson during the 200m flying four hundredths of a second, but above all the record was not ratified by the UCI (the World Cycling Management Corps) while it was briefly moving away from the legal part of the track.

He took on the learning, the knowledge necessary and he now wants not only to break the world record Flying 200m, but to become the first to go under nine seconds.

British cycling is therefore off the beaten track to challenge their runners. There are world championships later this year, but no Olympic games, so why not do something a little different?

Thursday on a track in Konya, Turkey, three British runners as well as four support employees will go to an empty velodrome and try to bring back to the United Kingdom not only one, but three world records!

Richardson is one of course. This speed, the world record in the blink of an eye that it pursues the incredibly concentrated, obsessed fact.

When asked what he wanted the most, the world record or to beat nine seconds, he said Sky Sports: “I will be disappointed if I do not break the barrier of nine seconds, I want to go under.

“The world record is what it is, so if I go under new (seconds), so I take the record, I want to be the first person to do that.

“I know it can be done, I was close (earlier this year) but now I have a better knowledge of the track, I have better equipment and I drive at the right time of the day.”

Richardson only started to participate for Great Britain last year after the Paris Olympic Games where he won two silver medals and a bronze in competition for Australia.

Since then, in the GB colors (he was born in the United Kingdom), he won two gold medals during his beginnings at the Nations Cup and three sprint titles at the British championships.

He is not the only British to want to rewrite records in Türkiye. Two runners will try new hour -long world records. The para-cyclist Will Bergfelt aims to drive more than 47.569 km in 60 minutes. This record in category C5 is due to 11 years, so there is confidence in the British team that Bergfelt’s experience and technological advances mean that it will not only break the world record, but will add greatly to a new one.

The one hour record is, well, horrible. Horrible for the rider even if they like cycling.

It hurts both physically and mentally, and at any time during the 60 minutes on the right track, any record attempt can be bad if a balance is not found between maximum speed and energy conservation.

In addition to the Bergfelt C5 record attempt, Charlie Tanfield will attack the world record for the Italian Filippo Ganna of 56.792 km in an hour.

If he sets a new world record, he will almost make kilometer every minute that he is on the track. He said Sky Sports: “I break it down into three parts, the first at speed, the second rolling up and then the third part, I am roughly my maximum threshold for the last 30 minutes. It is horrible.

“The last 10 minutes are fair, well, horrible! I’m not sure I can walk the next day or a few days after that.

“All I want to do is do my best. If I execute it, I will be happy.”

The three world record attempts from British Cycling took place on Thursday August 14 in Konya, Turkey.

– 0800 (BST / United Kingdom): Will Bergfelt will try to break the C5 assessment of one hour.

– 1015 (BST / United Kingdom): Charlie Tanfield will try to break the history of one hour men.

-1400 (BST / United Kingdom): Matt Richardson will try to break the record for the 200m flying time trial.