Why would any sane person choose to suffer? The answer to this question is a primal one and of particular relevance to society in the current age: control. With chaos and uncertainty creeping from every corner of life, cycling provides us with control over physical suffering; to suffer at our own will provides us the control we viscerally crave. This control then provides us the courage to face uncertainty in life with the confidence that we can handle anything it can throw at us.
There is no challenge within Cycling which more comprehensively embodies this notion than The Hour Record, which represents the only event that pits the rider not against a course, but against Time itself; how far can the rider propel themselves in the span of sixty minutes while also suppressing their nausea as they turn left endlessly?
The cruelty is hard to grasp. As cyclists we suffer, but our suffering is normally proportional to it’s intensity – certainly it hurts to ride harder, but the harder we ride, the sooner the pain will subside. In the Hour, the duration of the suffering is uniform: the effort will last 60 minutes and no amount of increased suffering will shorten it, unless, of course, you believe Al Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, which states that for a body moving at speed, time moves relatively slower than it does for a body at rest. According to Al, then, the rider will experience a marginally reduced Hour measured not by a clock moving with the rider, but by a clock sitting at rest at the side of the track. (While this amount of time is mathematically negligible, it does explain why intervals on the trainer feel comparatively more interminable than intervals on the road.)
Eddy Merckx himself made the following observation after setting the benchmark effort of 49,431 meters in 1972:
The pain was very, very, very significant. There is no comparison with a time trial. There you can change gear, change your cadence, relax even if it is only for a few instants’ respite. The Hour is a permanent, total, intense effort, which can’t be compared to anything else.1
Knowing that the Prophet’s bunkmate was The Man With the Hammer, the triple use of the word “very” is somewhat panic-inducing.
In recent years, the Hour Record has sadly seen a decline in interest, with the last attempt by world-class rider having been made by Chris Boardman in 2000. Boardman was at the center of the Hour’s Golden Era in the early Nineties which saw Graeme Obree kick off a frenzy of attempts to raise it ever higher by first breaking the record in his innovative tuck position as an amateur in 1993. Boardman broke it a few months later, before Obree reclaimed it in his even-more radical Super-Man position. This was a period where Boardman, Obree, Miguel Indurain, and Tony Rominger all traded the record for the better part of a decade, each going ever-farther in evermore innovative riding positions.
The UCI put a halt to the interest in this record by establishing two records, the (Athlete’s) Hour Record and The Best Human Effort. The Hour restricts the equipment to that of a standard double-triangle frame with drop bars, while the Best Human Effort has no such restriction. While the intent was to establish a more equal judgement of the athlete instead of the focus on equipment, it misses the point that advancement, evolution, and innovation are all basic elements of what it means to be Human, and by eliminating these elements from The Hour, they eliminated the appeal in what is our sport’s most primal effort. After all, there were few riders willing to go head to head with Merckx in his time, and so there are few who are willing to do so today.
Chris Boardman stands apart in this regard and indeed went after the new record, which he broke by a whopping 10 meters3. Over the course of his career, he set the record three times, which makes him possibly both the toughest and slowest-learning human currently living; even Merckx declared he would never attempt the Hour a second time, despite having fallen short of his personal goal of 50,000 meters. Boardman describes the Hour in simple, physiological terms: with every push of the pedals, you break down the fibers in your muscles such that for each subsequent revolution, you have a little less functional muscle mass available to sustain your current speed and power through to the end. In a word, devastation. It is not the sort of thing one attempts more than one needs to.
To gauge an effort of this type is perhaps the most pure description of The V; you ride not as hard as you know you can, but as hard as you hope you might. Boardman, on the Hour Record:
You have three questions going through your mind:
How far to go?
How hard am I trying?
Is the pace sustainable for that distance?
If the answer is “yes”, that means you’re not trying hard enough. If it’s no, it’s too late to do anything about it. You’re looking for the answer “maybe”.2
Despite all the training, preparation, and technical advancement that goes into any attempt on l’Heure, it remains a matter of the Human element, one of imprecise precision.
1,2 These quotes are taken from William Fotheringham‘s biography of Eddy Merckx, Merckx, Half Man, Half Bike.
3 It has been broken since by other, lower-profile riders since.
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View Comments
@the Engine
Trying that even once is pretty freaking impressive/possibly insane! Seriously, way tougher than I am!
I like this piece very, very, very much. Good work, Frank!
I can't imagine an Hour of suffering; the closest I've gotten is a half hour of suffering in a cross race, but that still is one where you can cut down on the time by working harder.
Jens. Ha, he just revels in fucking with other riders. That's awesome.
@Steampunk
Ahhhh, FFS! Bloody Romans, what have they done for us? Yes, I stand corrected.
@Nate
I couldn't agree more, Nate! I'd never done long, sustained serious climbing until two summers ago. I'd done short, steep stuff, but nothing like long, steep switchbacks. And, I was welcomed to the rodeo by three pals, all much more seasoned and conditioned to this type of stuff. It was a long day. On the final climb, the steepest, I was dropped and had been in the saddle for five hours already. I tossed the bike into the woods not once but twice! I do this for fun, I'm not getting paid for this I told myself. I sat sulking on the railing. Then I got it together & finished that climb.
That ride gave me serious respect for skinny little cyclists. The mind games are insane when you are going 12km an hour for an hour. Why am I doing this? I'm so slow. I hate bikes. I feel ill. It takes serious fortitude to keep at it. I can't believe lads are able to do this in GTs for weeks and weeks on end. Impressive!
@snoov
Finally figured out what you meant, and I fixed the error. I actually know that, but my fingers insist on typing "the". Its like that scene in Mickey Blue Eyes (did I just admit to watching that?) where the gangsters own the restaurant called "The La Tratoria". "That means the the tratoria." "Yes, I know."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUspGAyWqjc
@Nate
Its a good point, except that once you go down that road, you start to really thin the herd, which is good and bad. Once a block named Eddy Merckx pisses on his corner, you know there aren't going to be a lot of guys willing to go head-to-head with him.
The evolution of the bike and position is what made this record interesting. We all already know Eddy was the best and no Hour Record or Tour de France record will change that for anyone who looks at the context around those. That is a done deal. Eddy was the most complete rider we'll ever have. Its over. The chapter is closed. Why fuck around with the Hour Record then? The Hour is about seeing how far you can go in an hour, and the evolution is what made that interesting.
Personally, I feel the UCI really missed the mark there. I understand the motive and I respect and even appreciate it - make it about the rider. Its poetic and beautiful, but we already have the anser. Might as well ask @ChrisO to compile an analysis of why the others won't ever match up to him.
The Hour was interesting because it gave people a chance to poke the badger and see if they could top Eddy's number when they gave themselves a massive handicap.
If I had access to Boardman and could ask him, I bet he'd agree with me on that. Chris is one of my biggest heros, btw. Right with Obree, they demonstrate the Hour's equivalent of Musueew or Boonen. Modern marvels.
@jonathan2263
WOW! Alpenrose is 268.43 meters around with a 16.6 meter radius and a 43 degree bank. I don't remember exactly, but I think you have to be going 14-16MPH (sorry) to not fall to the apron on the banks. It's really disconcerting the first few times around, especially combined with a bike you can't coast on.
@Roadslave525
This is why I love you so.
On another note: do you have a bell in your gimp cave?
@Souleur
@Rob
@Gianni
I'm with you, and I forgot to reference your bit on this, which is much better, smarter, and well-researched. As usual. But I hadn't forgotten. That bit your wrote really solidified my man-crush on you, so I suppose that's something.
But yes, I really hope Faboo goes for it. Really. A bunch of dopers (I lose track of how many) have the record now. What's the honor in that? At least when dopers held it before, they were on faster bikes so we could blame that.
But Faboo would be the first high-profile rider in 12 years to take it on. It would start a fire-storm as well. You know that German bloke who's got the TT Bands right now would have to have a go just to prove he's the new TT King. And then Taylor would have to have a go. And there are others. It would revitalize it.
But, he's got too much too lose. He's going against an amateur who has since tested positive. There is little value in the Record based on what he has to lose against such a shit rider.
@Steampunk, @brett
Right, if ΣπάÏτακος had worn Addelettes, he might have survived the battle on the banks of the Sele. (I forget which bank, but he got bitch-slapped on one of them. For not wearing cool enough sandals.)