Motorcus and the Hour Record
There is nothing going on right now, oh right, except the Tour of Poland. Can we talk?
I don’t think it’s just Frank and myself who are obsessed with the Hour Record. It is Hard Man cycling distilled into its purest form, the ultimate race of truth. During the first week of Tour de France madness Fabian Cancellara made it official he was going for the Hour Record. He has always had a fearsome check list: win all five monuments and reset the hour record. Regarding the five monuments, he has Liége and Lombardia left. Lombardia seems slightly better suited to him but both might require Cancellara to lose some mass and get his climb on or more likely he will win these on Spartacus power alone. Can he forgo kicking ass at Flanders and Roubaix for Liége? He really wants to do the Hour after his Spring 2014 campaign so maybe it’s the Hour in 2014 and Liége in 2015. Did I mention he has a list and a Swiss schedule to keep?
It’s tempting to say the Hour Record will be easier than winning either of those monuments but if setting a new Hour Record was anything but impossible, a few others would have attempted it in the last thirteen years. Fabian is the only rider of his generation who has the will and power to attempt it. People seriously believed he had a damn engine on his bike! He has a master plan for his career and the confidence to put the Hour Record on there. And forget Ondrej Sosenka’s record, it’s his record like those Tour de Frances are Lance’s. Sosenka cleverly bracketed his hour record with doping violations so let’s all agree he is a fraud. Chris Boardman’s record in Manchester of 49.441 km/hr is the number to think about. Yet Chris Boardman and Cancellara could not be much more different as cyclists. Boardman the Olympic pursuit man, Cancellara the passista. Merckx was always at home on the track. Boardman’s pedigree was already going fast on the track, his road palmarés were mostly prologues and time trials. Cancellara has no real professional experience on the track (except crushing opponents’ dreams on the Roubaix track) and he will need to put some time in both the wind tunnel and on the track to get his power position squared away.
Lance Armstrong had a chance to bolster his career had he attacked the Hour Record. That would have impressed me beyond winning Tours with a whole team at his disposal. Trek even built a bike for him, maybe it’s still around. Fabian has extended his contract with Trek so we know he will be doing it on a Trek track bike. This is not some aero machine, this has to be close to a straight ahead Merckxian Mexico City bike: no aero frame, no deep-section wheels, just good old fashion track handlebars and spoked wheels.
Cancellara had an earlier schedule for the Hour but the IOC foiled it.
They took the individual pursuit out of the Olympic programme. A wrong decision. I would have tried to get on the podium in London in 2012, and then the Hour Record.
We’ll see. I’ll try, but not this year or the next. And not in Italy.”
Yes, not in Italy (?), this will happen in his home country, planned out properly as only the Swiss can. This will be an exciting hour of middle-of-the-night video streaming for the Velominati. I’m already losing sleep over it. One can be sure the Velominati Super Prestige will be going to three decimal places to find a winner.
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I’m getting chills thinking about it.
Admittedly I’m not up on my history of the Hour Record. Since Cancellara can’t use the Superman position, who is the last holder of the record that he’s going to be compared against?
Fabian will be the first rider to break 50kms on a normal bike.
I’d like to try it too!
@VeloVita
I’d say Boardman and then Eddy at Mexico City. Chris Boardman did set a “superman” record too but then went back to reset the Merckx style record in 2000. Was that a clean record you ask? I hope so.
@Gianni
I suppose if I would have more closely read the second paragraph of your article I would have had my answer.
Yes, oh yes!
@Pedale.Forchetta
I see a road trip to the Swiss velodrome sometime in 2014 for you and camera. I’d consider flying over for that event. It will be special.
@Gianni so true!
I will be like a dog with two dicks watching this!
@Deakus
Licking your crotch for 60 minutes?
@Jamie
Either that or dry humping the sofa cushions.
@wiscot
@wiscot
Pfft. Dry hump with one and lick the other. That’s the beauty of having two.
@lordmoos3
Ah! now I get it. Well done!
Cancellara is the most compelling cyclist of his generation. This is very exciting!
Great news, Gianni!
My mother-in-law actually called today and asked what was going on. I didn’t have much to report. “Working, some soccer, cycling as much as I can.” Is that it? “I guess.”
A few minutes after we got off the phone it came into my mind why I had so little to say: post-Tour stillness of the mind, not so much going on these days. I’m rarely at a loss for something to talk about, but early August for a cyclist can do that.
@VeloVita
OndÅ™ej Sosenka holds the official record, but only because that was the week he didn’t fail a dope test. The smart money’s on Boardman at 49.441. He was at least a respectable rider. Go read his interview in Rouleur, its fantastic; they made wheels with recessed spoke nipples which, when he tested them later in the wind tunnel, only created headaches – no extra speed. Seems the nipples ride in the slipstream of the rim and wheel.
Sosenka is a doper nobody with only this event to his name. Nothing approaching the nobody that Obree was, because Obree was also a genius and basically invented every fast position on the bike. Which all were all banned.
Even if Fabs goes shy of Sausey Jack, but breaks Chris’s time, I’ll consider it a moral victory. But I have no doubt he’ll go over 50km, which Merckx could have done if he didn’t also go for the 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 55 minute records. (I exaggerate.)
@Pedale.Forchetta
Come out to the track in Seattle next Festum Prophetae!
Or, maybe Keepers Tour 2014 will be a track session aimed at everyone doing the Hour every day for nine days? Seems easier than riding the cobbles…
@wiscot
I’m not sure what a dog or any other creature would do with two dicks. Seems like overload time. My body can hardly handle the one its got, and my dog can certainly NOT handle the one its got. (The girl dogs are just as bad, bt dubs.)
This is fantastic!!! Go Fabian and Go Trek, what a combination. Wish this news would not have broken till a little closer to the attempt, now I have to wait and wonder. Spring 2014 can’t come soon enough!
@frank
Pretty sure what a two-handed male would do.
@frank but I am unsure if one would do “freestyle” or “butterfly”.
The Bike Show has a great podcast on this topic. Gets on topic about halfway through, but the entire show is a great listen: http://thebikeshow.net/boardman-versus-obree/
@Marcus
Speaking of dog dicks…….I digress………
I think Faboo has the cannons to pull this off. And when he sets his mind to something, really focuses, it gets done. It’ll be a thing of beauty to watch no matter what happens.
@scaler911
If he doesn’t, I don’t know who else would. Tony Martin or Beaker may have the engines but there must be a high degree of bravado necessary. Cancellara has confidence like few others, a real alpha male. A Schleck? Contador? Nope.
Merckx obviously too but I guess Boardman must have been very confident in his speed and smarts.
@frank
Fuck, talk about bravado. I’m going to beat all you in the shorter records then keep going and set a new hour record all at once. What a confident stud. That is why he is our lord and master. No one can say he didn’t start out fast. That’s one way to set a record, start out super fast and hang on like raped monkey (?) until the end. Faboo, take note.
If it’s track pursuit and TT pedigree you need, then Wiggo would probs be faster than Fabio. The problem is the will to do it. Love the hour record though, seriously needs a comeback and Fabio has the flair to bring some chapaeau with it.
The real shame in all this is how the jointly stupid & corrupt fuckheads at the IOC and UCI decided to cut the Olympic track program so sports like fucking BMX could be included and then they decide that the individual pursuit should be the one cut and then, no, lets include the fucking omnium while we are at it!
Brilliant stuff, can’t wait for this.
But… If there’s a competitor for the hour record then that man is Wiggo. He’s having a bit of a change of direction, has stated that he’s after the World ITT title this year, and has a long pedigree on the track.
I know some of you trans-atlantic chaps aren’t his greatest fans, but to us Brits he’s a legend. If you’d been anywhere near Hampton Court last August, you’d understand.
A potentially epic duel between two of my favourite riders. Bring it on.
@Marcus I know you want one of those Baum track bikes. Just do it already!
Article with good quote from Graeme Obree – http://theleadout.co.uk/a-simple-tip-from-graeme-obree/
“It’s not about going fast, it’s about not going slow”
@the Engine
There’s gotta be a Rule that deserves a great quote like this!
@Gianni
Boardman always took a very scientific approach. He knew how many watts were required for the record and knew he had produced them in training. I think this, above everything else, gave him the confidence. There is a story about his coach leaping in the air and screaming ‘the gold medal is yours’ after seeing power readings taken during a 4km test in the months prior to the 1992 Olympics. He knew he would win before the competition started.
@meursault
The great thing about the Hour is you don’t need either of those things. Just practice enough to ride the line and hold the speed. Its very pure, very elemental.
@Geraint
The difference between Brad and Faboo can be measured in this photo. Fabian would never, in a trillion billion million years, make this face. Much less allow it to be photographed.
Getting back to dueling hours like we did in the early nineties would be a dream come true, though.
I woke up today with a new spirit, having shrugged off the post-Tour depression and now seeing the light of Cancellara ride circles for an hour. Great news indeed!
I own a track bike, I’ve never had the chance of riding it on a real track and I just found out there is one only a few hours away. Must make plans to attend novice night sometime!
Wow, that is a tough picture. I vacillate between liking Wiggins because he’s at least original and seems to speak his mind and feelings, rather than just cliches, but he then again seems like a doofus. Of course, this is just based on how he “comes off” to me. I don’t think I’d behave so sanely if I had all that attention either.
Just read in Half Man, Half Bike that Eddy liked the good life, like Anquetil, in the offseason. Was not beyond putting on 5 kilos in the winter. Ah, that’s more like it, we have something in common!
@frank
Or wear socks this long
Ahem!
@Matthew
This is a great podcast and recommend it to everyone as well. Oddly enough I just listened to it two days ago, and then this story broke yesterday….almost as if the stars are aligning or a real twilight zone moment….and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge….
@the Engine
This is a quote worth embracing and something that I was working on today.
I will often do a short 35k TT like ride on the same route through Toronto. It’s a mix of roads and bike paths with some good long straights along the lake. today as I was pushing into the wind I really wrapped my head around the idea that this segbeings ill be the make it or break it part of my ride..give in to the wind and drop below 30kph and you’re done. Fast is going to happen with the wind at my back on the return, no doubt. The key is in holding off slow when it is mentally more difficult to do so.
I posted my fastest time ever for this route – smashed my previous by 1.5kph.
My heart rate was at 185 reading that.
@G’rilla
I just drooled all over my keyboard.
@meursault
What is that, some kind of mug shot? Charged with abuse of lesser riders?
@frank
Really not sure if I can see Wiggo going for the hour. Hopefully Fabs will do it and rekindle some interest. Wiggins has the engine and the track experience we know, and Sky love all the techy stuff so theoretically it’s a match made in heaven, but as I think most folks know, an hour on the road is very different from an hour on the track.
This guy standing following ‘the man of the hour’ will do it before him;) OK, maybe not the hour record but definitely all the monuments…
@wiscot
If I recall correctly, this was shot immediately after Paris Roubaix by Tim Kolln for his book The Peloton. I’m not going to criticize as if I were a part of this photoshoot, Mr. Kolln would be taking photos of a chalk outline.
@frank
Moreover, you wouldn’t see Cancellara face down in the muck.
@TBONE
Can I just throw i out there that I’m really tired of the “let’s bite the medal” schtick? What? Do you really think they might have slipped you chocolate one in error? Kiss it by all means, but the “bite” is so overdone, it’s pathetic.