Anatomy of a Photo: Bringing Back The Hour

Brad Wiggins is sitting at home, watching his team implode at a Tour de France he was not invited to.

What’s on his mind? An attempt at the Hour Record, that’s what. Now that the UCI has allowed riders to mount a conventional (track) time trial machine in their efforts and the likes of Boardman, Obree, Moser, Rominger, and Indurain all get their records back, I’m getting wicked psyched for a renaissance of one of the coolest periods of Cycling when rider after rider attempted and re-attempted the record during the 90’s.

Unfortunately, the regulations won’t allow for anyone to hop aboard Fignon’s old monster – which he never rode – but at least we have a chance that Wiggins, Cancellara, Martin and co will spend the next few years one-upping each other in what could be the most gratuitous suffer fest our sport has to offer.

Bring it the fuck on.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

Next The Mercy Seat »

Previous « White Lightning Shades

View Comments

frank says:

Jul 22 2014 at 10:38 am

@Ccos

Well thankfully Fignon didn't take aerodynamics all that seriously at a particular time trial in late 1989. Perhaps that rig was his way of overcompensating.

That's a Renault Gitane, so it would have been a bike for an attempt some time in the early to mid 80's. I'm guessing '84.

@anhtony

@thefringthing

Boardman, Obree, Moser, Rominger, and Indurain don't all get their records back. The line is still Sosenka's record, which is a bit silly because beating it on a modern pursuit bike won't be that hard, relatively speaking. Honestly I think the old status quo with two categories, Merckx and aero, was better than these new rules.

Not sure what I think about them being able to use pursuit bikes other than maybe the idea is that it would be more apealing to attempt for TT guy's, I guess if get's people more excited about it I am ok with it .

The point is that it is an ITT, so the gear should be allowed. In fact, I hope the rules get relaxed enough that they get to innovate a bit again as well rather than just using the same bikes.
frank says:

Jul 22 2014 at 10:40 am

@Deakus

@ChrisO

Yeah except nobody was prepared to actually do it so the whole thing was shoved away into a corner.

The last time anyone got excited about the hour record was the Boardman/Obree era and why was that? Because you had two people who were not only great athletes but also prepared to apply innovation - new things get people interested.

It was a ridiculous division - why did it stop at Merckx? Why not insist on replicas of bikes from 1910? Why not set an altitude limit?

I just wish the Swiss Bitch would STFU and have a go. His whining is on par with his time trialling.

+1 he is behaving these days more like Frandy than any sort of Spartacus. There is an awful lot of guff escaping from his face and none of it is emanating from his legs.

All this talk of not wanting to tow people to the line, and cobbles being too hard when they're wet...for fucks sake. It's that awful fucking kit Trek is wearing, it's impossible to have morale wearing something like that.
frank says:

Jul 22 2014 at 10:41 am

@Mike_P

Sorry to drag you all away from the fascinating science, which I don't really understand and which is all starting to sound like ways of "breaking wind" more efficiently. I'm amazed that no-one has yet posted this...

Gutted not to do it again this year, but I've got a plan to do it on the anniversary of Merckx's ride this October.
Teocalli says:

Jul 22 2014 at 12:21 pm

@frank

@ChrisO

@hyppy Totally agree The Hour should be there - I've said it before. And his new book Faster is pretty good too, but The Hour is a classic deserving of being in The Works.

I wish we could get the fucking book outside the UK so I could read it and make the call. I've heard excellent things but can't get my hands on the bloody thing.

Need someone to source and send you a copy?
Buck Rogers says:

Jul 22 2014 at 12:53 pm

@frank

@Mike_P

Sorry to drag you all away from the fascinating science, which I don't really understand and which is all starting to sound like ways of "breaking wind" more efficiently. I'm amazed that no-one has yet posted this...

Gutted not to do it again this year, but I've got a plan to do it on the anniversary of Merckx's ride this October.

This was sooo much fun following the live feed last year. We need to have more events where Frahnk kills himself and we can all sit back and laugh and get fucked up in our own houses at the same time.
Teocalli says:

Jul 22 2014 at 12:58 pm

Never been on the boards but going for the first time at the weekend. Looking forward to a buzz.
Owen says:

Jul 22 2014 at 9:38 pm

@Buck Rogers

@frank

@Mike_P

Sorry to drag you all away from the fascinating science, which I don't really understand and which is all starting to sound like ways of "breaking wind" more efficiently. I'm amazed that no-one has yet posted this...

Gutted not to do it again this year, but I've got a plan to do it on the anniversary of Merckx's ride this October.

This was sooo much fun following the live feed last year. We need to have more events where Frahnk kills himself and we can all sit back and laugh and get fucked up in our own houses at the same time.

I'd tune in, especially if there were some system by which we could drunkenly support/heckle him as he destroys himself. And/or compares himself to some sort of ubermench at the start like this one.
Mike_P says:

Jul 23 2014 at 2:23 am

@Owen

@Buck Rogers

@frank

@Mike_P

Sorry to drag you all away from the fascinating science, which I don't really understand and which is all starting to sound like ways of "breaking wind" more efficiently. I'm amazed that no-one has yet posted this...

Gutted not to do it again this year, but I've got a plan to do it on the anniversary of Merckx's ride this October.

This was sooo much fun following the live feed last year. We need to have more events where Frahnk kills himself and we can all sit back and laugh and get fucked up in our own houses at the same time.

I'd tune in, especially if there were some system by which we could drunkenly support/heckle him as he destroys himself. And/or compares himself to some sort of ubermench at the start like this one.

Isn't this place, right here, where we normally drunkenly heckle Frank? If only we could somehow organise Frank versus Haleakala versus The Hour as an event in two halves to run one immediately after the other. That's got to be worth pay-per-view.
therealpeel says:

Jul 23 2014 at 8:10 am

@frank

@Ccos

Well thankfully Fignon didn't take aerodynamics all that seriously at a particular time trial in late 1989. Perhaps that rig was his way of overcompensating.

That's a Renault Gitane, so it would have been a bike for an attempt some time in the early to mid 80"²s. I'm guessing '84.

@anhtony

@thefringthing

Boardman, Obree, Moser, Rominger, and Indurain don't all get their records back. The line is still Sosenka's record, which is a bit silly because beating it on a modern pursuit bike won't be that hard, relatively speaking. Honestly I think the old status quo with two categories, Merckx and aero, was better than these new rules.

Not sure what I think about them being able to use pursuit bikes other than maybe the idea is that it would be more apealing to attempt for TT guy's, I guess if get's people more excited about it I am ok with it .

The point is that it is an ITT, so the gear should be allowed. In fact, I hope the rules get relaxed enough that they get to innovate a bit again as well rather than just using the same bikes.

Is innovation really that great? I mean, look at the lead photo and the Trek 7 series aero, their grotesque mutations of the fabulous machine we call a bike. I think the UCI is a bit arcane and mysterious sometimes with their rules sometimes, but without some of those rules we might see Pro-Tour riders TT'ing on recumbents due to better aerodynamic properties or on some crazy contraption made out of a dishwasher. Respect the Bike.
Teocalli says:

Jul 23 2014 at 10:15 am

@therealpeel

Is innovation really that great? I mean, look at the lead photo and the Trek 7 series aero, their grotesque mutations of the fabulous machine we call a bike. I think the UCI is a bit arcane and mysterious sometimes with their rules sometimes, but without some of those rules we might see Pro-Tour riders TT'ing on recumbents due to better aerodynamic properties or on some crazy contraption made out of a dishwasher. Respect the Bike.

The Trek is limited by having to conform to the basic Diamond (double triangle) shape currently required by UCI regs. As I remember it it was the likes of the below that made them restrict development.