The One Hour Record

gntlmn

Yes, I am fascinated by the Hour Record. The Hour Record is to Cycling as the 100 meters is to Track and Field. There is huge prestige in getting the record, and I think every professional cyclist would like to own the record. It's the fact that the conditions are very well defined. The distance covered in this event is more representative of your own cycling performance relative to other riders than most other cycling events, and it's long enough to get the respect of even the greatest distance champions. Other rides, like tours with a peloton or pursuits around the track do speak much of the winner against the other participants on the day of the event. But the times cannot be compared to what someone does 10 years later. The Hour Record can.

As for Obree, he's the only one now that I know of who is actively making a move on the Hour record. So my fascination with Obree is mostly in the fact that he is in the eye of the hurricane right now. If you stepped up to make a legitimate run on the record, you would have my attention as I now give to Graeme. There are few cyclists who would attempt such a feat. Even if you get the record, most only motivate themselves to accomplish this by telling themselves they will never do it ever again. As you know, it taxes body, mind and soul.

limerickman

I agree with you the Hour record is pure - in that the conditions and the fact that it's you against a clock make it fascinating.
And the fact that you can measure your perforamnce against other record breaking attempts is also a valid point.

I would have thought that LA or JU might have had a crack at it like Rominger/Indurain/merckx.
but they don't seem to be interested.
It is all about physical suffering though.
Look at the state of Boardman when he broke it on the Merckx
machine - he was shattered.

In fact, there was a very interesting article in Procycling some months ago when the asked the modern riders to ride the bikes used to win the TDF/Giro etc between the years 1930-1960.
David Millar rode Roger Lapabie's 1936 (?) TDF bike and he could not get down the road on it.
He said afterwards that he would be unable to cycle it over a TDF
course !
I'm all for technology but a part of me has huge respect for the
'Giants of the Road' (cyclists from 1900-1950)

gntlmn

If I were Jan or Lance, I don't think I would even consider an attempt at the hour record until I had ridden my last Tour de France, and then only if I really thought seriously that I could get to record breaking form for the attempt. Otherwise, the brutal effect of this event might affect performance in the Tour, even though it might be 11 months away. They have too much to lose to try it when they are at the top of their games. Obree doesn't have that problem. Boardman didn't either.

I wonder if they will always keep this event on the current UCI standards. I suspect that in 50 years, the general public will be riding 1 kg bikes. I don't know if these riders will persist in this 7 kg limit with such a wide gap. It wouldn't be hard to maintain the event though for comparison purposes. I hope they do, actually. But I think they will change the road racing standards because of the enormous future change in material weights and strengths. I think the 1 kg bike of the not too distant future will be stronger than the 7 kg bike of today.

By the way, I think Indurain actually held the one hour record at one time, but it was during that stretch of time when riders kept using better aerodynamics. This record is now called the one hour performance. He has since been beaten. Indurain was a fantastic time trialist. If his only event were the one hour and he avoided tours, he may be the one with the record. But we will never know.

shorty

what about obree...i hear he is going to have another go @ the record. he is the scotsman that built his own bike out of scrap and broke mosers record before the uci banned his unconventional position.

limerickman

BigMig blasted the world record in 1994 at Bordeaux after the TDF
but before the World R/R championship :
He cycled 53 kilometres in one hour.
His record last only a few weeks : I think Rominger regained it or it was possibly Boardman (I can't remember exactly).
Indurain has a Pinarello Sword : it had a conventional setup.
There was no 'Superman' position a la Obree, in Indurains attempt.

gntlmn

Now comes the debate as to how much different his bike was than Merckx'. It was different. It's just that it wasn't as different or extreme as the later versions. Otherwise his record would stand as the first one to break Merckx' long standing record. It did not. It was included among the records which were considered the one hour performance, not the one hour record.

Indeed you are correct in that Obree's and Boardman's later records used more aerodynamic advantages than Indurain. But Indurain did use some aerodynamic advantage too--just not as much. Even a disk wheel, remember, would disqualify you from the "purist" Merckx standard.

A group of Basque physiologists has recently computed various average wattages generated by the cyclists who have claimed, at various times, the world one hour performance record. Conflicting with earlier results which I posted near the beginning of this thread, they list Indurain, not Rominger, at the top of the heap for wattages. They say he generated 510 watts when he claimed the record in 1994. Well, you must also consider that Miguel is a big man. To go the same distance as a smaller man, let's say Lemond, he is going to have to generate a much greater wattage. He will have greater rolling resistance because of his greater weight, and greater wind resistance because of his size. So this is clearly still a debate. If the game were who can generate the greatest wattage in one hour, maybe he would be the champion of all time. But that is not the test in the one hour. It's how far you get down the track in 60 minutes.

It's too bad Miguel didn't know that the UCI would years later rule that the hour record, purist version, should be ridden on Eddy Merckx' bike. If he had known, and all the others had known during that time frame when the aerodynamic advantages were being used, maybe he would have broken Merckx' record. I am disappointed that it has turned out this way, but that's the way it goes. At least now there is a specific standard, and the riders know it.

gntlmn

Yeah, that's what the commentary above was about--Obree's attempt at the hour on Merckx' bike in the Manchester Velodrome. Well, guess what? He just informed the press 2 hours ago that he is not going to make an attempt on the hour because he doesn't have the facilities to train inside on a track. He only has access to the road, and he thinks he is too far off form to break the record in a short time without having access to a track. He says he averaged 47 kph on Sunday night at the Manchester Velodrome for 12 minutes. This was too far off the pace. So he just quit then. He was going to try for the record in June, but now that he knows he can't find a track, he will give up on his bid for the world record.

I wonder if he is using a hypoxic tent (low oxygen sleeping environment). If he isn't, maybe this would give him the advantage he needs to break the record. I don't know how to send him an email to ask.

limerickman

Gntlmn,

You are correct when you say that Indurain's bike was aerodynamically suitable.
I think that there is a photo of it on this website
http://ida.physik.uni-siegen.de/menn/indurain.htm

You will see that his amchine was indeed an aerodynamic spec.

It would be interesting to see how he would do on a Merckx bike.

gntlmn

Back then, I think he would have at least been very close to it if he didn't beat the record. He needed to work on his pacing though. Merckx was very good about that. Miguel's run in 1994 was pretty sporadic as to pacing as the chart shows in the link you provided. You can also see that he was not in that superman position that the latest hour performance recordholders would use. He wasn't even close to being laid out like that. So I have a feeling he would have done it if he could have managed to set a more even pace on a Merckx bike in 1994. I checked the elevation of Bordeaux where the Stadium de Bordeaux is located where Indurain road, and it is only 60 meters. So there is virtually no elevation advantage either. It is disappointing that such a great champion didn't have a crack at the "purist" version of the one hour record.

gntlmn

Miguel Indurain was born in July, 1964. This means he will be 40 in July of this year. I bet he could make a good run at the hour record within the next 2 years if that were the only event he focused on. He's not too old. It's not like training for or racing in the Tour de France. It would bring a lot of attention to this event, and I suspect he may be able to break the one hour record if he tries. It certainly wouldn't be easy to get back into top shape, but it wouldn't be as hard as preparing for the stage races. Even though he may be past his prime for this event, I think he just may have enough in him to do it.

limerickman

I'm not sure that BigMig would be interested - did you see the shape that he was in at 2003 Etape !
In cycling terms he's as out of shape as Jan Ullrich - both of them wouldn't look out of place at the Worlds Darts Championships !

gntlmn

But I bet you'd rather play darts against these characters than challenge them to a time trial. lol.

Actually, I didn't know BigMig was riding at all. The fact that he has been on a bicycle in a race recently indicates that he may be more interested than we think he is to pursue this, provided the rewards were great enough. I still say he has a good shot at breaking the world record in 2 years in the One Hour if that's the only event he focused on. I bet he could attract some big name sponsors to back him and get the general public fired up about it. And this time, it wouldn't be to then be beaten by someone with a more aerodynamic riding position. Consider that Boardman went 56 km in the One Hour Performance in superman position, but the best aerodynamic ride has been just shy of 90 km for one hour using more and more aerodynamics. This record, the One Hour Record, has much more meaning in an Eddy Merckx mode. If you're going to go aerodynamic, you might as well go the full route and push past the 90 km barrier for the hour instead of this kind of compromised version of HPV that they hoped would pass as a regular track bike. I'm glad they brought the standard back to Merckx'. It has more meaning now. It also would be easier to convince a BigMig to give it a shot if he knows future riders will not be able to use more aerodynamic technology than he does.

limerickman

BigMig started the Etape - he had a nice little stomach on him -
although no bigger than JU.
BigMig did about 100km's (out of a total distance of 220 km's)
and stopped saying that he couldn't go any further !!!!!!!!!!

But I do hear what you're saying - if he trained he might have a chance

limerickman

To get real relativity - I think that one has to consider the bike with Merckx used - plus the season he put in that year when he
made his world hour record attempt.
He won several classic in a five week period - went out and one the Vuelta and the Giro (or was it the Vuelta and TDF) - won a
couple of autumn classics : AND THEN DID THE HOUR !

The more one considers Merckx, the more one is amazed.