Matt Richardson breaks the barrier | How To Break A World Record: Flying 200m

The world saw Matt Richardson become the first person to break the nine-second barrier on two wheels on the track. But how did he get there?

Follow Matt and the Great Britain Cycling Team as they prepare for a groundbreaking world record attempt in Konya, Türkiye, supported by Shell UK.

00:00 Intro
00:13 People don’t break world records all the time
00:40 Meet Matt
02:06 What does it take to go sub-nine?
04:28 Touchdown in Türkiye
04:58 The day before
06:16 Race day
07:12 The effort
08:26 The aftermath
09:49 Twice as nice
11:58 “I knew it was good”
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Music: Adobe Stock
Additional footage: Matt Richardson and Dog Haus Creative
Additional photography: Alex Whitehead / SWpix.com
Additional thanks: Türkiye Bisiklet Federasyonu and UKSI
Powered by: Shell UK
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You’ve already done all this work to get here. You might as well push as hard as you can. He’s worked so hard for this. He’s an absolute animal on the bike. I think that Matty can do it. Definitely. Yeah. People win Olympic medals all the time. People win world championships all the time. People don’t break world records all the time. And people definitely don’t ride sub 9 seconds all the time. The the flying 200 is one of those things where when it’s going well, it feels like the most natural thing in the world. You don’t really have to think about it. The wind up takes care of itself. But it very rarely feels like that. You know, it’s a simple concept, but like everything in elite sport, it gets really, really complicated when you try and do it to a high level. I’m Matthew Richardson. I’m a professional track sprint cyclist, and I’m going to con turkey to try and break the 9-second barrier in the fly 200. This could be one of the biggest things I’ve ever done. Ride a bike faster than anyone else in history. The world record obviously carries a certain amount of weight to me, but the sub9 is really the thing that I’m after. being so close on a couple of occasions now to me it’s a case of who’s going to do it first and I want that to be me basically it’s a natural step of the sport 30 years ago was the first time someone went sub 10 obviously many many people went sub 10 since then and it pushed the sport on it’s definitely been a personal ambition of Matt is something he really wanted to do my name is Jason Kenny and I am the podium men’s sprint coach which means I am the coach for Matty Richardson he was gutted obviously when we went racing in co last time out he broke the world record and then unfortunately the UCI decided they weren’t going to count it and he also came to so close to breaking 9 seconds. So I think since that point he’s really not been able to let it go. It’s pretty cool. It’s pretty cool being coached by Jason Kenny. I was there in the building when he won his seventh Olympic gold medal in their Kieran. It was obviously a crazy crazy race but it was just yeah surreal to now be coached by him. Someone that not that long ago I was trying to get the autograph of is obviously is really cool and to now be going for for a record such as this with with his guidance and his support is obviously yeah awesome as well. It’s a really really high standard obviously that he’s trying to do to break the world record. It’s a very well established record. Harry’s incredible rider who set it in Paris. It’s a massive hill, but I think that that that Matty can do it. Definitely. Yeah, Matt is um well, I mean, he’s a land of Woody. My name’s Andrew Pink. I am one of the podium coaches at British Cycling. He’s a switched on guy. He’s pretty emotional and really, really heavily invested. He trains hard. He works hard. He really wants the best. And I think that’s the kind of mentality you’ve got to have if you’re looking to set bars. Matt’s coming to join the squad this year and he’s been really good addition. Obviously, he’s got a lot of success already. He brings like a massive level of professionalism and um commitment and just having someone working at that level, you know, he’s really high level. He’s he’s just really good for everyone and the whole group as a whole to have someone to chase. And if we can help help nudge him up to the to the top set, that would be ideal. I’d hope that, you know, it can be somewhat inspiring to to other riders. I think I mean some of the stuff Harry does is inspiring to me and I think those sort of times and efforts and riders push the sport on. The faster we go kind of the faster everyone else catches up and the faster everyone goes hopefully it can push the sport on and many more people can can do it. He’s very I’d say particular. I think being that meticulous in your preparation for the event is really what sets him aside from everyone else in the world really at this point. The faster you go the harder it is to get faster. So Matt’s obviously gone really really fast. He went fast in Paris and then he went fast again in Kanya. So yeah, it’s not a lot that he’s trying to find. He’s trying to find a few hundreds, but those last few hundreds are really, really hard to find. So for him, it’s really important that he looks after himself physically. That’s the most important thing. You’ve got to first of all have the power to be able to do that, which means a massive peak power to get going, massive sustaining power to to do the actual time section. And then on top of that, he’s got to have discipline in his position, in his line, all those things that add up to those little marginal gains. And then obviously he can use the best kit in the world that we can provide. And hopefully all those things combined, as is the nature of marginal gains, those little bits will help new Jim over to finish line and he’ll get that special time that he wants so bad. I’ve been really dialing in on all those marginal gains in the bike, in the suit, in the equipment, all that sort of stuff. But it’s not going to get broken if I don’t execute, and it’s not going to get broken if I’m not on good form. So, there’s multiple pieces to this pie. I feel like I’m in a place where every single piece has been executed perfectly. So, now it’s just on me. You have to adapt to your surroundings, adapt to your equipment, nail that entry speed, and then nail that line down the track. Tracks differ in shape. So, you move to a different track. This is a very different track to Cona. So, he’ll have to adapt when he gets there to the track. [Music] So, we’ve made it to KA. It was uh not the longest travel day I’ve ever had yesterday, but it was still pretty decent. 4 and 1 half, 5 hour flight, something like that. So, yeah, we’re getting on track today. Just going to do a bit of track familiarization. I’ve obviously ridden it before earlier in the year at the World Cup, but it’s still good to familiarize myself with the track and and the shape of it and things like that. I’ll do a bit of a track warm-up and then once more acceleration effort just to open up the legs post travel before we get into pre-race tomorrow. I feel pretty good. The legs feel good. The body feels good. I’m ready to go. Everything’s where it needs to be. Track feels fast. Lines feel good. Everyone has a roll knows what it is and they’re going to be in the right position and everything kind of runs as smoothly as possible. I’m obviously feeling nervous, but nerves for me are a good thing. It really rises me to the occasion, so I’m not going to shy away from them. I’m going to kind of use them to my advantage. But yeah, it’s exciting. He just loves riding his bike and you can see him. He has that fun side. He has that serious side. I’m Emma Fenukin. I’m Matthew’s partner and I’m here to watch the hopefully flying 200 meter world record be broken by Arthur. He’s worked so hard for this, like behind the scenes in the gym, on the track. He’s put his body through so much and to see him here today excited for it, nervous for it, it’s been really nice that I can be here to support him. I think for me that was really special. Whether he does it or doesn’t, I’m proud of him no matter what. It is a little bit emotionally draining when you are that forthcoming with your goals and what you want to achieve. You know, you really put it out there on the map of this is what I’m going to do. This is when I’m going to do it. Maybe I go sub9 again in the future, whatever. If I do it this time, those times will be the second time I’ve done it or the third time I’ve done it and they won’t carry as much weight to it. So, you know, this could be a once in a lifetime a once in a lifetime thing. I pretty much leave for the vill about 3 hours before driving to the villa drone in the morning. I was thinking like, am I going to make history today? And then I’m on to the turbo trainer to do my first bit of the warmup. That takes about 15 minutes. My warm up is about an hour 50 long. I then go up for my first warm-up jump, which is basically like a flying effort, but just on a smaller gear, just get things primed to get things going. But important to me that I do a flying effort. It’s just another chance to do one more line, one more execution. I um go up again, but on the race gear this time. And again, just doing basically like the first bit of the flying effort. And that’s about 40 minutes before I actually go up for the effort. I take the leg warmers off. This is about 3 minutes before. Make sure my over shoes are good. Tighten up my shoes, that sort of thing. then walk up the stairs to the track, get on my bike. As I’m rolling around, I do half a lap to roll around to where Andy Pink is to push me up and then I basically Yeah. just ask Andy, “You ready?” And he’s like, “Yeah.” And then we go. It feels like many things in the wind up. It It’s nerve-wracking. There’s all sorts going through your head and then you think, “Right, switch on.” You know what you need to do. You start doing the wind up that you know you’ve done 100 times before. You’re trying to execute the perfect ride. You’ve also got to keep pushing as hard as you can. It’s almost like yelling in my head. Like I can just hear myself almost like screaming. And then yeah, I’m up on the track. I’m doing the processes that I know that I need to do in the wind up. Build some speed, build more speed, more speed, more speed down the back straight. You basically need to get to the top of the track and start winding up. It might be an average of 80k an hour, 50 mph. So the peak speed will be Yeah. north of 85, 86, 87, that sort of thing. And then I just go as hard as I can basically sprinting for dear life. You’ve already done all this work to get here. You might as well push as hard as you can. And then it’s about doing the fastest 200 m possible. [Applause] America. [Applause] [Music] Oh, pretty cool feeling to accomplish the one thing that I came out here to do. So, yeah, bit of relief now. It was hot. It was emotional. It was an emotional roller coaster from start to finish. Really, Matt is the fastest person ever to do a flying 200. It was special being in the blo. It was uh it was a really cool thing to see. It is theater and it is really dramatic. I mean, I’ve never been exposed to really seeing how somebody can put themselves into that much pain in less than 9 seconds. Yeah, it’s a unique trait, I think, that only sprinters have. It goes pretty quick. I know this track can be quite a handful out of the corners, so I was cautious in those sort of spots, but other than that, it was just pedal as hard as I can. So, I was basically just a passenger. I gave the bike a bit of basic direction, and then it was just steering itself almost. Yeah, I’m pretty happy. What’s happening today? I originally had two days planned um for a few different reasons. If I didn’t do it on the first day or if I felt ill and I had a second day or for what’s happening now where I’ve broken it on the first day and now it’s just me versus me and I get to go out and try and beat myself basically which is which is fun. Like can I be better than what I was yesterday? You know people always talk about the concept of like it’s me versus myself and all this sort of stuff. It genuinely is just me versus me now. You know, I mean, the current world record holder is me, and I’m going to try and beat me yesterday. So, I’m kind of in a bit of battle with that guy. But, yeah, it should be fun. I feel quite relaxed going into today knowing that I’ve come and done what I need to do. Today, he wants to rerun and improve. And, you know, the scary thing about watching him do that yesterday is how much there is potential improvement for today. He’s come off of that obviously elated by the fact that he’s gone sub nine in the event that he wanted to. But the scary thing is just quite how much faster he might be able to go after the initial elation. You could already see his mind woring about all the little things that went wrong and all the things that he could actually improve on for the next effort. It’s interesting having multiple attempts to do one thing. It gives you a lot of freedom to possibly try different gears or different windups or however you want to do it. I’m probably going to stick to the same game plan cuz I think it’s a really good one and I think I can ride it a little bit better. Um, so yeah, that’s my plan today. I feel pretty good. Normally I’m used to doing like the Olympics was 7 days of competition in a row of multiple races each day and things like that. I actually just did one flying 200 medias. You know, it wasn’t very hard at all. The legs feel good, the body feels good. I’m ready to go. You know, it could have taken more out of me than I think, but I guess we’ll find out today and we’ll see. a really exciting opportunity coming into today knowing that he’s got the legs, knowing he’s got the form, and actually if he can tidy up some of those little technical bits, he should be rapid. The buildup was exactly the same. It felt identical to what I did yesterday, but as soon as I started dropping into that 200 m line, I got down and I stayed low the entire way around the track. I had a slight wobble in turn three, but I fixed it very quickly. Stayed dialed, came out, nice straight line all the way to the 200. I knew it was good. I knew it was good, but I thought it might be a low 8.9. And then to see a mid 8.8 was more than I could have asked for. Like I knew I could go probably a high 8.8. So to see an 8.85 was uh yeah, just that little bit more special. [Applause] [Music] [Music]