Jody Cundy, 48, Targets a 20th Straight Year as Kilo World Champion
Jody Cundy could make history in Apeldoorn this week. A win in the kilo at the Para-cycling Track World Championships would give the 48-year-old British rider his 20th straight year wearing the rainbow jersey, the stripes worn by the reigning world champion, in that event.
The championships start on Thursday 29 October in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. The kilo is a 1000-metre time trial, where a rider races alone against the clock. Cundy competes in the C4 classification, which groups riders by impairment. He has been unbeaten in the kilo at these championships since 2006, according to BBC Sport.
His record in the event is long. He has six Paralympic titles, and he won the kilo at the 2008 and 2016 Games. His Paralympic career began in the pool. He won his first Paralympic gold as a swimmer at Atlanta 1996, before switching to the bike.
The road to Apeldoorn has not been easy. Archie Atkinson, a 22-year-old Great Britain teammate, beat Cundy at the National Track Championships last year. A few months later, at the World Championships, Cundy beat Atkinson. The two are both in the British squad.
British Cycling named a 24-rider squad for the championships on 23 October. British Cycling said the team is built on a wealth of champions, and that Cundy accounts for a large share of the titles held in the group.
Cundy's form at the last championships was strong. At the 2025 event in Rio de Janeiro, held from 16 to 19 October, he won gold and led Great Britain's medal haul on the opening day. Cundy also won the kilo at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which were held in 2021, but finished behind Spain's Alfonso Cabello, who set a world record to win that race.
Teammates call him "captain", according to the BBC. That title sits oddly with a rider who keeps racing in a sport where most of his rivals are decades younger.
Cabello and the other kilo specialists will be in Apeldoorn too. The result will show whether Cundy can keep his unbeaten run in the event alive for another year.
