“The hour record demands a total effort, permanent and intense, one that’s not possible to compare to any other. I will never try it again.”
If the greatest cyclist in history says something is too tough, then you better believe it.
Eddy Merckx, known as “The Cannibal” for his voraciously competitive nature, is the benchmark for all those who have followed — the Belgian won the grand tours of France and Italy five times each, plus the Spanish Vuelta and a multitude of shorter races.
But his 1972 attempt at breaking the record for most kilometers cycled in an hour has arguably left the greatest legacy.
Indeed, cycling’s ruling body reset the rulebook and turned back the clock two decades to his era when it feared technology was eclipsing the human element involved in tackling the hour.
These changes almost spelled the end for the sport’s most prestigious milestone, with few riders bothering to jump through the necessary hoops required to comply, so last year the UCI backtracked.
With a track pursuit bike now the standard — as opposed to the antiquated custom model Merckx rode in Mexico — a succession of athletes have taken on the challenge since September.
Now Bradley Wiggins, one of the greatest riders of his generation, is seeking to cap his glittering career by tackling the hour record on Sunday.
Can he do it? How will he do it? And why is it so hard?
WHY IS IT SO SPECIAL?
“It’s the only endurance record in cycling,” says Michael Hutchinson, who wrote the acclaimed book “The Hour” about his two failed attempts to break it.
“Most of endurance cycling happens on the road where conditions aren’t controlled enough for that kind of record-breaking,” Hutchinson told CNN. “If anybody wants to set down a marker as the best rider of their generation, that’s the only thing there is.”
Brian Cookson, president of cycling’s ruling body, calls it “the magic hour.”
“I think we’re in a new magic hour era,” Cookson, under whose reign the UCI changed the rules in 2014, told CNN.
“The riders who have attempted this record, and for some bettered it, have done a great service to cycling. This is definitely one of the most iconic events of our sport and by regaining the status it deserves it will help grow the profile of cycling across the world.”
WHAT SETS IT APART FROM CONVENTIONAL RACING?
“One bike, one man, one hour. No help, no tactics, no brakes, no gears. No hiding place,” Hutchinson wrote in his 2006 book. “Like nothing else it tests the purest element of riding ability — how fast you can go, alone.”
Dave Brailsford, the man who helped make Wiggins a star at Team Sky, says the hour’s “great tradition” of famous riders attempting the record has given it particular kudos.
“It’s notoriously painful, it’s very, very difficult, and the speeds they go at for an hour are incredible,” he told CNN.
Cookson adds: “I am thrilled by the overall mix of these attempts — the dedication and single-mindedness of the riders, their physical and mental strength, the atmosphere in the velodromes, and the purity of this race against the clock — which a large public can understand.”
WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT?
Velodromes, with their steep banks, bring new challenges to cyclists more used to road competitions. The temperature is also considerably hotter inside, and riders can’t take on food or fluids.
“There is a relentlessness to riding for an hour on the track that you don’t get on the road,” says Hutchinson, who set multiple British time-trial records on the streets.
“Riding a nice line on the track isn’t an easy thing to do. When it’s done well it looks effortless but actually you have to concentrate very hard.
“Every eight, nine seconds you have a curve to get around. The g-force is pushing you into the bike and there are forces pushing you up the banking. You’ve actually got corners to deal with twice a lap.”
DO YOU NEED TO BE A TRACK SPECIALIST?
Wiggins made his name on the track, winning three Olympic gold medals in pursuit events before turning to the road and winning time-trials and ultimately the Tour de France.
“If you watch anyone with track experience, every kilometer they do they’re gaining 10 or 15 meters every lap just by riding the better lines around the track,” says Hutchinson.
“They can go the same distance for less effort. Track pedigree is more important now than it probably was 50 years ago.”
Brailsford says Wiggins’ road time-trial victories at the London 2012 Olympics (“the perfect ride”) and last year’s world championships (“an epic performance — he was clinical”) are good indications that he can succeed.
“The general consensus is that Bradley is a fantastic track rider, he’s brilliant time-trialist, he’s a special individual in the way that he rides, and who he is as a person — and when he puts all that together, the expectation is that this record is made for Bradley,” Brailsford concludes.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Under the 1996-2014 regulations, it was actually more difficult for riders to get a custom, old-style bike made for an hour attempt.
“It was hard to get manufacturers excited about doing it,” explains Hutchinson, “because they were not going to produce something that they could then sell variations of — they’re spending money on making a bicycle that was last cutting-edge in 1972.
“Now it’s possible to do it relatively cheaply. Most guys have access to an adequate bike. You need to rent the track — depending on which one you go to, that might not be that expensive. You need dope control, timekeepers. You could put together an hour attempt for a few thousand pounds.
“On the other hand you could spend millions going to wind-tunnels and testing countless variations of equipment, skinsuits, helmets, and renting tracks all over the world and going to training camps. I’m not sure it would be really worth it though — the sweet spot is probably near the bottom of the pot.”
WHAT IS THE CURRENT RECORD?
Wiggins’ former Team Sky colleague Alex Dowsett set a mark of 52.937 km (32.894 miles) on May 2, 2015.
The British rider is the fourth man to break the record since the latest rule change, while three have failed.
Germany’s Jens Voigt was the first to pass the “unified record” in September when, the day after his 43rd birthday, he rode 51.110 km.
Austrian Matthias Brandle beat that with 51.852 km on October 30, and this year Australia’s Rohan Dennis pushed it to 52.491 km on February 8.
By contrast, the first official record set back in 1893 by Henri Desgrange — who a decade later would launch the Tour de France — was 35.325 km (21.949 miles).
HOW FAR DID MERCKX MANAGE?
Cycling’s superstar showed everyone how not to do it — but still smashed the record.
His first-choice venue in Italy was unsuitable, so he made the long journey to Mexico City, where he was delayed by similar weather problems.
Then, instead of pacing himself, Merckx decided to also take on — and comfortably beat — the 10 km and 20 km records en route to a distance of 49.431 km (30.715 miles).
That was 788 meters (861 yards) more than Ole Ritter’s 1967 record.
“How I ache — I can hardly move,” Merckx told reporters. “It was the longest hour of my career … It was terrible.”
And his achievement was so daunting that no-one would challenge it for more than a decade.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
To put it simply: Technology.
In 1984, Francesco Moser — who dedicated himself to the hour at the end of his career — broke Merckx’s record twice in five days, with rides of 50.808 km and 51.151 km in Mexico.
If cycling purists looked down their noses at the Italian’s use of aerodynamic bike frames, skinsuits and non-spoked disc wheels, they were horrified when British maverick Graeme Obree changed the face of cycle design with his DIY constructs a decade later.
Obree broke the record twice, helped by innovative body positions that were subsequently banned by the UCI, but neither stood for very long.
After Tony Rominger cracked the 55 km mark, Obree devised the full-length “Superman” position and with it won a world pursuit title — but before he had the chance to regain the hour, his old rival Chris Boardman adopted this new technique and smashed the record in 1996 with 56.375 km on a bike designed by Formula One team Lotus.
The UCI decided enough was enough. Not only was the “Superman” banned, but all times after 1972 were confusingly deemed “Best Human Effort” while the record reverted to Merckx.
WHY DID THE UCI CHANGE THE RULES AGAIN IN 2014?
To illustrate how hard it was to compete under the 1972 conditions, Boardman could add only 10 meters to Merckx’s mark when he tried again in 2000.
Five years later, Slovenia’s Ondrej Sosenka set a new mark of 49.700 km, with little fanfare.
“Things had become rather stagnant before the new rule,” Cookson admits. “We looked at the existing rules with two different records and decided that we should simplify and modernize it so that we now have one simply-understood record — which is how far a rider can go on a bike that conforms with the regulations governing pursuit bikes.”
“It was the right thing to do,” says Hutchinson. “Coming back to a more rational set of rules was very sensible.
“It had been a decade since anyone had even had an attempt at the record. It just wasn’t working. It’s supposed to be, for a hundred years nearly, the premier record in the sport, and suddenly it was dead. No-one was interested and nobody cared.”
CAN WIGGINS BREAK THE RECORD – AND BY HOW MUCH?
“I think when they started looking at it they had some fairly big distances in mind — 55.5-56 km,” says Hutchinson.
“I suspect that has been coming down a bit. I expect him to break it. If he gets good conditions, if he gets low pressure, a nice warm night on the track, he could certainly put a bit of distance on it.
“I don’t think he’s going to put 2.5 km on it, or anything ridiculous like that. I think he’s going to break it by a healthy margin, but I don’t think it’s going to be greeted by a stunned silence and that’s that, no-one’s going to try for a decade.”
Brailsford adds: “It’s something that should be on his overall CV, I think, and hopefully it will be.”
WHAT DOES WIGGINS THINK?
Wiggins has been talking up his chances of setting a new benchmark that will take a special kind of cyclist to break.
“It sounds a bit horrible to say but I could break the record tomorrow. But I don’t just want to break it, I want to put it right up there, as far out of reach as I can,” the 35-year-old told British newspaper The Times last month.
“I’ve got 55 km in my head and I think it’s realistic. And I think if I do it, it will stand for 20 years.
“I know I can average 430 watts for an hour, do that tomorrow. The challenge is dealing with the heat, the crowd, pacing yourself early when the crowd are egging you on. It’s about control, lap after lap, for 220 of them.”
He added in another interview with London’s Sport magazine: “In its purest form, cycling is a case of suffering at the hardest moments — and the hour record will be no different.”
WHAT’S THE SECRET TO SUCCESS?
Merckx aside, not many people have broken the record by going full-tilt from the start.
“With any endurance events, be it cycling, swimming or athletics, pacing is key,” explains Brailsford. “You’ve got the raw talent, but the ability to choose the right pacing strategy is the thing that’s going to make the difference.
“I think over the years, one of the things that makes Bradley stand out from the rest is his ability to be able to pace.”
Hutchinson had firsthand experience of what it’s like when you get the pacing wrong.
“My hands are going numb — I can’t feel the bars anymore,” he wrote as his first attempt went off the rails.
“This is like blind panic; it’s not efficient, it’s not considered. It’s just throwing everything I’ve got onto the fire.”
DOES THE VENUE MATTER?
Dowsett was originally going to use London’s Olympic velodrome, which will host Wiggins’ effort, but was forced to switch to Manchester — where Hutchinson and Boardman had opposite levels of success — after a broken collarbone delayed his attempt.
Three recent records were set at Swiss tracks, while there have been failures at Manchester, Melbourne and at altitude in Mexico City.
“Different tracks ride slightly differently and different tracks are faster than others,” says Hutchinson.
“Alex Dowsett’s team reckon that Manchester was quicker than London, but precisely by how much it’s hard to say. There are advantages of riding at altitude because the air is thinner. How the wood is can make a difference. There are a lot of variables, but it’s not very easy to nail down the world’s fastest track.”
The London velodrome is built on the site in Lee Valley where Wiggins used to ride when he started out, but he told Sport he had never cycled in the new arena.
WHAT DOES BREAKING THE RECORD MEAN?
Some riders use the hour to make their name, others use it to put the finishing touches to their career.
Others, like Boardman, do both.
For Wiggins, who now has his own team after leaving Sky, it is his last major challenge before bowing out with an attempt at team pursuit gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
“A man making an attempt on the hour is in as exposed a position as modern sport has to offer,” Hutchinson wrote in his book.
“If the hour record goes wrong, the best you can hope for is that you fail with some dignity. A failed hour attempt will follow you all your days.”
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FAIL?
Three lesser-known riders — Jack Bobridge, Thomas Dekker and Gustav Larsson — have fallen short since the end of January.
Hutchinson’s first attempt was the ultimate underdog story — he spent months preparing under the radar before making his big announcement, then saw his dream fall apart after a farcical chain of events.
The Northern Irishman didn’t even complete the hour, in front of thousands of spectators at the Manchester Velodrome, but his account of it resulted in an entertaining book which has helped him move into a writing career.
“I’m certainly quite proud of having put together a perfectly credible attempt without a pro team, without the backing of a multimillion-dollar sponsor,” says the 41-year-old, who was still setting British time-trial records as recently as 2012 despite ending his professional career in 2006.
“The irony for me is that breaking the hour record would’ve been worth a lot less — breaking the record, it turned out, nobody actually gave a damn. I wrote a very different book from what I would have done if I had broken it. It does seem that my entire career is based on failure!”