Great Britain’s Will Bjergfelt broke the UCI Hour Record in the C5 classification on Thursday, and became the first para-cyclist in history to pass the 50km barrier.
The 46-year-old rode a distance of 51.471km on the velodrome in Konya, Turkey. In doing so, he beat the previous record – 47.569km, set in 2014 by Italian Andrea Tarlao – by almost four kilometres.
Speaking before his attempt, Bjergfelt said he was “pretty confident” in his ability to set a new record.
“I definitely want to see if I can crack 50km, and if I do, I’ll be the first para-cyclist to break that barrier. That will be something that’s pretty special,” he said.
In 2015, Bjergfelt was hit head-on by a car, and shattered his right leg. Having previously ridden for UCI Continental teams, he returned to cycling shortly afterwards, and received a C5 para-cycling classification, given to those with ‘least impairment’.
He then went on to become the first para-cyclist to compete in the Tour of Britain, and later a road world champion, winning the C5 event in Glasgow in 2023.
“I want to put out there that, even if you do have an impairment or a slight disability, there’s so many amazing things that you can do, and it shouldn’t hold anyone back,” Bjergfelt said.
“If you’d like to do it, crack on and do it. I want to try and inspire people really to get involved.”
In preparing for his Hour Record, the Brit focused on heat training, completing indoor turbo sessions while dressed in full winter kit.
He had never previously ridden on the track in Konya, which is at 1,200m altitude, and benefits from decreased air density, thus reducing aerodynamic drag.
For his attempt, Bjergfelt competed for the first time on GB’s Paris Olympics bike, the Hope-Lotus HB.T – “the fastest bike I’ve ever ridden on the track,” he said.
“The Hour Record in para-cycling has stood for a long time now, 2014, and since then, aerodynamics have advanced massively,” Bjergfelt said before his attempt. “I feel like I’ll be in a very, very good place to forward the record on and push it on and make it something big again.”
There will be two further record attempts from British cyclists in Konya on Thursday; Charlie Tanfield will try to break Filippo Ganna’s benchmark in the UCI Hour Record, and track sprinter Matthew Richardson will attempt to become the first person in history to go below nine seconds in the flying 200m.
