Watching the Jensie set a “new” record was somehow not-that-interesting and riveting at the same time. One guy going around the track for an hour; only cycling aficionados could find it so compelling. The thing I can’t get out of my mind is Eddy Merckx still did 49.43 km/hr with toe clips, spoked, box section wheels and a hairnet helmet on a track bike. That is a Man.
Eddy recently said if he had Chris Boardman’s plastic helmet, shoe covers and clip-in pedals he would have gone over 50 km/hr. As much as I liked the UCI Hour Record, it was already corrupted by that difference. If you want to see how you stack up to Merckx, you better find a hairnet helmet and toe clip pedals. I’d watch that.
Chapeau to Jens for kicking off what we can only hope is a rebirth in this great event. It is doubtful his time will stand for too long but he had the heart to jump on the track and see what he was made of, like Eddy did before him.
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I don't get the whole comparison thing.
I mean, I do understand it and I enjoy indulging in it, but what I don't get is the idea that someone thinks they are actually comparing one to the other.
It's a wonderful source of speculation in many sports. Who wouldn't wonder* how Don Bradman might have faced up to the great West Indian bowlers Marshall, Garner, Ambrose and Walsh forty years later. Was Puskas greater than Pele? Would Roger Maris have outscored Babe Ruth if they played in the same season?
The beauty of sport is that we can all have opinions but we will never know. Which is why the UCI's move to allow technological advancement is the right one - we should embrace the fact that it restores the element of doubt and debate.
*Obviously apart from those benighted societies - although one hesitates to bestow the term upon them - who have never developed the mental faculties to appreciate cricket.
Sport has facts, but it isn't about them.
@ChrisO
Athletes should still be running on cinder tracks if it applied in Athletics.
@Teocalli Indeed.
And on the subject of comparisons... we did a Team TT today.
In 1.04.57 four of us rode 2km less than Jens did in his hour record.
And that was a new course record, beating the previous mark set by the UAE National Team. I know intellectually that the hour record is hard but doing something like that gives the comparison a personal context.
I find this whole thing quite interesting. In regards to Jens' bike, it's a heavily modified road TT bike, running a heavily modified road group. For comparison, here's what Sosenka was riding when he set the record in '05:
https://i.imgur.com/pvBDfii.jpg
Great, so it's a completely different bike. Radically different. Hell, it wasn't even a track pursuit bike.
But, why was Romminger's effort removed from the record books?
http://www.wolfgang-menn.de/pics/romhour1.jpg
Or Obree's superman?
http://www.wolfgang-menn.de/pics/obree7.jpg
Granted Obree's superman is a pretty radical departure from the standard TT position, but Obree was riding a proper track bike with proper track gears. In '94 he also went more than a Km further than Jens did.
Now sure a lot of you are going on about how Merckx's bike was so much better than the one that was from the 1800's. Fair enough. But to be blunt, you can turn up on a beat up old steel track frame, box section wheels, drop bars, and still be competitive these days. How do I know this? I see guys on old steel Colnagos going toe to toe with guys on the Canadian National Team on their Looks, and beating them. Don't believe me? Come to Burnaby's Velodrome and take a look. We have beer.
I think that the hour should be done on a standard track bike, spoked wheels, and drop bars. I couldn't care less what the frame is made out of. Anything else, and the UCI is just conflating the hour record and its significance. You can't hit a moving target.
Lastly, Anquetil had one of the best Hour record of all time. Massive gear, gullet full of moules frites, and champagne coursing through his veins. But that's another story.
http://othersportsnews.gr/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Jacques-Anquetil-record-hora.jpg
You know what's interesting here is how the attempt all came down... recall earlier in the year all the news was Cancellara and Trek factory racing have a run at this thing. It was blah blah blah for months. And then on hold waiting clarification of rules. And then from nowhere, Jensie and Trek announce, and do it in a matter of what seemed like a couple of weeks. Jensie is one cool cat.
As for the rules? If we have a run of athletes going at this effort, Fabian, Tony M, Wiggo and/or whoever else, in the coming year or so then was a good rule change (is change what it was? I don't know).
BTW: If this helps Trek sell some Speed Concepts that's fine because it really is one cool bike. And I wouldn't mind seeing 'em around. I don't know that I'll ever have a TT bike but I'll admit to wanting to have a run on one some day just to see what it's like.
I think that the UCI requiring a "standard" competition legal pursuit bike is one step towards reconciling the differences between riders moving forward, but at the expense of some techological gains. I would prefer to have some degree of the measure of the man rather than the machine, but that's me. There are so many variables to consider that you can never have a true measure of one attempt versus another except for the distance covered at the final tick of the clock.
I am glad that Jens manged to write his name into the record books. There are not many others who spent so much of their careers with their nose in the wind. So, well done, Jens.
For me, the fun was in watching a 43-year-old hardman set himself a difficult goal and achieve it. Watching his lap times in the final minutes was a thrill.
@TBONE
Bless you, that's what I have been saying too. But I'm ready to let go. I was disappointed when the UCI just threw out the old school method, as was Fabs, but I'm getting over it. What I don't want to see is more of that half-assed superman bullshit. That is just rubbish.
In regards to Anquetil. I'm a fan. I'm going to adopt his riding style, minus the winning results. A face full of frites and beer, then ride my heart out. What could happen that a good bike washing wouldn't cure?
We did a Team TT yesterday.
In 1.04.57 four of us rode 49.1 km, or 2km less than Jens did in his hour record.
And that was a new course record, beating the previous mark set by the UAE National Team.
I know intellectually that the hour record is hard on any bike but doing something like that gives the comparison a personal context.
Our average age was probably about the same as Jens though.
@Oldnslowly
This is the whole question, answered. We use the best tech we have, and the difference is the mind that drives it.
The Athlete's Hour was backwards-focused, Golden Age thinking that doesn't move us forward or enhance our sport. I'm glad it's done with.
@TBONE
That's my kind of cycling, the sort that says, "let's see how much I can not give a flying fuck and still be a badass."