Image 1 of 2 Francois Pervis was fast enough for bronze. (Image credit: Gerry McManus) Image 2 of 2 Francois Pervis (France) celebrates his keirin victory. (Image credit: AFP)

François Pervis smashed Arnaud Tournant’s 12-year-old world record in the 1 kilometre time trial when he clocked a time of 56.303 seconds in the Track World Cup at Aguascalientes, Mexico on Sunday.

The Frenchman was one of five riders in the event to dip below Tournant’s mark of 58.875, which he set at an altitude of 3,600m in La Paz, Bolivia in October 2001. For his part, Pervis availed of the 1,880m altitude of the Aguascalientes track to make the most of his current good form and set a new landmark time.

Pervis had already showcased his condition by breaking the world record in the flying 200 metres on Friday, and he was in imperious form in the kilometre on Saturday evening, averaging some 63.939kph to beat Maximilian Levy (Germany) into second place by over 1.5 seconds.

Levy broke Tournant’s old mark by finishing second in 57.949, while Joachim Eilers (57.980), Eric Engler (58.369) and Hugo Haak (58.446) also all managed to break the former record but were unable to get close to Pervis.

Pervis had travelled to Mexico nurturing hopes of a record-breaking ride, as he told Ouest France before his departure. “I won’t have many chances like this in my life, I’m very strong at the moment. Everything is in place, now is the time,” Pervis said. “And if I needed a sign, Aguascalientes is where I rode my first World Cup race, ten years ago.”

The kilometre record was not the only one to fall during the final day of the World Cup, as Kristina Vogel (Germany) set a new flying 200m world record in qualifying for the women’s sprint. Vogel set a new mark of 10.384 seconds just moments after Anna Meares (Australia) had dipped below her 2012 record of 10.782 by clocking 10.487.

Meares established a new record in the 500 metre time trial on Friday, when she set a time of 32.836 and became the first woman to break the 33-second barrier in the event.