The world hour record by Sir Bradley Wiggins was one of those great sporting moments. It was a great achievement, and a real pleasure to watch.
An hour of a single athlete riding around a track, may sound quite dull. But, it is testimony to the record and athlete that it was one of the most enthralling hour’s of sport I’ve watched.
As a timetriallist myself I couldn’t help but admire, for the full 60 mins the near perfect position (with ridiculously low CdA), and metronomic timing of the laps. At one point, the average speed seemed stuck on 54.62 km/h. There was a very slight dip in speed in the last twelve minutes, but, still enough to smash the record with a 54.526 km.
After the torturous hour of racing, Bradley gave a very composed and entertaining interview; an example of why he was so popular. (a sharp contrast to the inarticulate interviews of footballers after European cup final last night – which was a great game!)
Number of riders who have won the following palmeres: One – Bradley Wiggins
- Olympic gold – Time trial (2012)
- Olympic gold – Individual pursuit *2 (2004, 2008)
- Olympic gold – Team pursuit (2008)
Total Olympic medals – seven, four gold (and Rio 2016 to come)
World Time Trial Championships
- World Time trial championship (2014)
- Track world championships * 6 gold medals (10 medals in total)
Stage race victories
- Tour de France victory
- Critérium du Dauphiné (2011, 2012)
- Paris–Nice (2012)
- Tour de Romandie (2012)
- Tour of Britain (2013)
- Tour of California (2014)
Miscellaneous
- 3rd Vuelta Espane (2011)
- Wore leaders jersey Giro d’Italia and Vuelta
- Team pursuit world record 3 times. 3:53.314 (2008)
National titles
- National Time Trial Championships (2009, 2010, 2014)
- National Road Race Championships (2011)
UCI World Hour record
- 54.526 (2015)
The coverage of the hour record was mostly good (at least after missing the start with Sky commercials. It was a little bizarre having a mid race interview with Seb Coe, who for some reason was spending the hour riding on an indoor bicycle. Carlton Kirby did a fine job in the commentary; but it was the atmosphere of the crowd seeping into the tv which was the real star.
1036mb was the air pressure making the record perhaps an hour slower. This record of 54.6 is definitely not on the shelf. I think a rider like Tony Martin could break it. – Perhaps within the year. Alex Dowsett will probably go away for a few years and feel that towards the end of his career he could come back and get close to this mark.
Would Bradley be tempted to have another go – knowing that low air pressure could give him up to another 1 km? Probably not. Bradley doesn’t have much to prove, but then he always said he would never do the hour record at all.
p.s. Kudos to the young kid wearing an Otley CC jersey I saw in the crowd.
p.p.s. I’m so glad his aero team told him to shave off his beard. I wouldn’t have got as much joy if he was riding with a beard to disturb the airflow.