The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is pleased to announce that the British para cyclist William Bjergfelt has broken the UCI Hour Record presented by Tissot in the MC5 category, covering a distance of 51.471 kilometres at the Konya Velodrome in Türkiye.
The 46-year-old para cyclist went 3.902km further than the previous MC5 record, set on 13 December 2014 by Italian rider Andrea Tarlao (47.569km) at the Velodromo Fassa Bortolo in Montichiari, Italy.
William Bjergfelt had his first success as a para cyclist in the individual time trial at the 2018 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Baie-Comeau, Canada. In 2021, he became the first para cyclist to compete in the Tour of Britain (an event on the UCI Europe Tour calendar in the 2.HC category). In 2023, Bjergfelt won the road race at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Ostend (Belgium), before donning the UCI World Champion’s rainbow jersey in the specialty at the UCI Cycling World Championships held in Glasgow and across Scotland (United Kingdom).
An aerospace logistics manager, the British rider is a former elite mountain bike rider. Just a few months after sustaining a severe injury to his leg in an accident in 2015, he got back on his bike to embark on a glittering career as a para cyclist
After his successful hour record attempt, William Bjergfelt said: “It’s amazing. It’s not quite sunk in yet really. I’ve wanted this for a really long time. Before I was a para cyclist I wanted to have a crack at a world record.
It was 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 it’s (also) thanks to everyone behind the scenes at the Great Britain Cycling Team.
“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.
“Whilst I was going round the track and everyone was cheering at the end there, it started to hit home… I’ve smashed the world record on the track and that’s a dream come true.”
Para cycling sport classes for track events
C - Cycle: conventional bike with adaptations if necessary
B - Tandem: for a blind or visually impaired athlete with a sighted pilot.
Group C is divided into five different sport classes (1-5). The lower the number, the more severe the impairment.