Neil Campbell hits 174mph to become fastest man on a bike

Great Britain’s Neil Campbell had hit a speed of 174.3 miles per hour (280.6 kilometres an hour) to become the fastest man on a bike – with his ride at Elvington Airfield in North Yorkshire also breaking his own motor-paced European record.

Fred Rompelberg from the Netherlands held the motor-paced world record for almost a quarter of a century from 1995, when he rode 166.9 miles per hour (268.8 kilometres per hour) at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Last year, at the same venue, Denise Mueller-Korenek of the United States broke that record, hitting 184 miles per hour (296 kilometres per hour).

Campbell, who works as an architect in Essex, has said he would like to target that record, although he accepts that he would have to travel to Utah to try and break it, with the runway at Elvington not long enough to accommodate such an attempt.

In successfully beating Rompelberg’s speed this weekend, he was towed behind a Porsche Cayenne before being released, and once he had been through the timed section deployed a parachute to help him come to a stop.