Friday, August 19th, 2022 will be marked in the calendars because it is going down in history for all the right reasons. A new record high was set on the velodrome in Grenchen of 55.548km by non-other than Dan Bigham. The previous record was set by Victor Campenaerts.
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Campenaerts record was set at 55.089km in Mexico in 2019. Alex Dowsett had tried to take down the fort. He failed as his attempt at the Hour Record as he lost from only 500 meters. However, Dan Bigham covered 54.723km last year but he could not qualify for targeting the Hour Record because he was not a member of the UCI biological passport testing pool.
He then filled the position of performance engineer at the team Ineos Grenadiers, which became his green card to attempt the Hour Record. The 30-year-old picked up his pace after half-time. He explained his strategy:
I had five-minute splits, and I knew I had to be a certain amount of time down and then ahead of the record, but I was actually a little bit ahead pretty much across the entire board
He further added:
After that, you start to do the maths of what you need to do to break the record. Every lap is half a second in your back pocket and that gives you confidence
Bigham broke Campenaerts record with more than just a spare minute in hand. Nonetheless, he enjoyed every minute of it, as one can determine from his comment:
It was really, really enjoyable.In my head I wanted 55.5km, so to out another 48 metres onto it, I’m pretty happy with that
The part-time rider praised his team for supporting him so much. Although it was expected that Filippo Ganna may try his luck at the Hour Record, maybe he has now postponed his plans up till next year. Bigham said on Friday:
I got an ungodly amount of support from Ineos and I think that’s what’s been the step change. I’ve not had to worry about my bike, mechanics, timing, the Livestream, nothing. I didn’t even have to cook dinner, and I didn’t even have to put my stuff in the dishwasher. It’s everything you’d expect from this level of team, it’s been second to none
Tony Rominger set the record at 55.291km in 1995 which was surpassed by Chris Boardman. Boardman established a new high at 56.375km in 1996. Although he used the outlawed position “Superman”, he still remains unbeatable.
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Also Read: Gaia Realini Steps Up Her Game, Joins Trek-Segafredo
Featured Image Via YouTube/ Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling
