The Hour Record

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  • Yes, massive doper. He tested positive for methamphetamine and previously had failed a 50% hematocrit test. Did he actually test positive for EPO?

  • You're right, it was the 50% test.

  • The position and bike would be banned. Obree didn't make a 1996 Hour attempt. Boardman did the superman thing and still has the outright 'Hour Performance' or whatever it's called.

  • Great way for Jens to end his career, and i'm hoping that Wiggins/Cancellara/Martin give it a go. My money is on Martin.

  • Moser was faster on 'similar' material no?

    Moser was at altitude* and on blood doping at least, but no tri bars. The big wheel is a marginal gain, and the one he used for 51.151 wasn't big anyway, the big wheels came later for a separate indoor record of 50.644km

    Jens had 30 years of training science, frame design and clothing development to help him, plus the tribars which might be worth anything from 1 to 2km in an hour.

    I was hoping Jens would make the extra few metres and hit 51.151 :-)

    *in 1986, he set a separate sea-level record of 48.543km. Although information is sketchy, he may have later improved that to 49.8km, possibly with larger wheels.

  • Voigt will only steward the record for a while.

  • ^ Bet nobody will get that one.

  • Which means Boardman's 1993 record remains the absolute record, no?

    Boardman '93 is non-compliant with current UCI regulations because he wore a head fairing, not a certified protective helmet. It was UCI legal at the time, as were the later superman records, but the UCI reset was to the best performance complying with all regulations in force at the time of the reset, not at the time of the performance. Henceforth, records will need to be compliant with the regulations in force at the time of the performance, so if the record stagnates, UCI can change the rules to make the target a bit softer, e.g. change the frame regulations to allow non-diamond frames and chord:thickness ratios greater than the current limit of 3.0

  • Maybe not, but combined with his bike they explain why he didn't get near that when riding the Athlete's Hour.

    He had a cold that day.

  • change the frame regulations to allow non-diamond frames and chord:thickness ratios greater than the current limit of 3.0

    You mean that more musical and/or more stupid testers can have a go then?

  • That was just his coke habit captured on film.

  • How much has velodrome technology increased speeds? Air temp and pressure were known about but have the boards themselves got better?

  • Yes, track design must have some influence on speeds.

  • Congrats to him! I didn't expect to watch all the hour (plus the silly presentation by eurosport "we don't see double discs these days") but I did. Really exciting.
    The phrases printed on the frame seems written for a 16yo motogp rider :)

    Can't wait for Tony Martin attempt.

  • Really hope Wiggins, Cancellara and Martin do go for it, would be really interested to see how Wiggo's technique and track experience stacks up against the power of the other two.

    Good old Jensie though, nice way to bow out.

  • How much has velodrome technology increased speeds? have the boards themselves got better?

    There's probably room for improvement in the actual choice of board material, pine planking is chosen for a mix of reasons and I don't think minimising rolling resistance has ever been one of them. There are aspects of track shape which influence speed, notably the distribution between curves and straights, with long curves favouring pursuit (but making match sprinting pretty dull, as it becomes almost impossible to win from the back in a reasonably close match). There is always a problem with the transition from straight to curve, and a separate but related problem of having the black line lie in a single horizontal plane. The 1996 Atlanta track was designed to be 'flat' using a computational model which wouldn't have been available for such a trivial task until the 1980s, but I don't think it's an approach which has been widely adopted. It seems that there is scope to model the interaction between a bicycle and a track surface to minimise resistance at a given speed. The UCI has minimum and maximum permitted track lengths for competition, which precludes making a tiny 'wall-of-death' track for record breaking :-)

  • Great stuff. Reading about Atlanta and tracks built more recently, it doesn't seem like the polyester/wood laminate panel is common either. From some photos it looks like Atlanta boards were laid vertically?

    There is a bit of 'drome porn here for anyone interested.

  • Ronald Vincent Webb OAM
    Former Australian cycling champion residing in England
    Awarded the Order of Australia in 2006

    http://ronwebbcycletracks.com/

  • 412 watts, apparently.

  • I've been away on holiday and completely out of touch so this is rather late, but here's a link to a little low tech contribution from west London.

    http://britishcyclesport.com/2014/events/another-hour/

    I expect that anyone here who's interested will already have seen the previous article, but just for the sake of completeness here's its link:

    http://britishcyclesport.com/2014/events/hounslow-hour-record/

  • Nice couple of articles there, good to know it's possible to still be a great rider at over 60, I'm just beginning at almost the same age as Jens is bowing out.. 😝

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The Hour Record

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