Categories: FolkloreNostalgiaTechnologyThe HardmenTradition

Imprecise Precision: L’Heure

Boardman suffers through his third Hour

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.

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.

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View Comments

RedRanger says:

Jun 2 2012 at 9:29 am

@mcsqueak

@RedRanger

Have you done that climb before? Looks like an ass-kicker.

Unfortunately not. one day though.
pistard says:

Jun 2 2012 at 9:49 am

@frank
Re: track protocol. Most velodromes will require you to take a basic track class or workshop, then buy a membership or pay drop-in fees to ride and have a license to race. Most have regular "open track" hours between races/classes, but I assume you would want an empty track for fewer distractions?

Dromes are generally non-profit and underfunded. They might be amenable to a rental or donation, or maybe you could set it up as a fundraiser. Online parimutuel betting anyone?
Dan_R says:

Jun 2 2012 at 10:41 am

@frank

@Dan_R

I love to yap about the HOUR. I get pukey and parachute-deploee just doing the Kilo. But to be clear, I have never done the kilo in aerobars, always in the drops.

Awesome article Frank. Pure suffering.

Brilliant. Another point Boardman makes in the Fotheringham book is that riding in the drops is way harder than aero bars. On the extensions, you're spreading the weight out and reducing pressure. But in the drops, its all in the forearms. Check out Boardman in this photo (main) and check out the curve in the drop bars going up. That's there to support his forarms and try to make it somehow tolerable.

Its amazing the load that's on your body when you ride a bike. Then you get used to that, and you go hard up a climb and you find that your arms are somehow the weakest link. WFT? Then you train more and they can take it. Then you ride the cobbles and your arms are the weakest link. WTF? Then you trian more and they can take it. The you ride in the fucking drops for the hour with no hoods, no tops, no NOTHING other than the drops for an hour. And you're completely fucked. FUCKED.

Vive l'Heure.

@scaler911
Touche. I am inspired to try. Merci, monsieur.

Oh Merckx. My track coach had me in the drops for entire sessions. The only time we were allowed up was sitting at the rail. And those narrow NKS sprint bars are ...well narrow.
Dan_R says:

Jun 2 2012 at 10:43 am

@minion
The kilo is so humbling. Yeah, that 3rd lap is a killer. "NASA We have deployed the chute early...."
Dan_R says:

Jun 2 2012 at 10:47 am

@pistard

@frank
Re: track protocol. Most velodromes will require you to take a basic track class or workshop, then buy a membership or pay drop-in fees to ride and have a license to race. Most have regular "open track" hours between races/classes, but I assume you would want an empty track for fewer distractions?

Dromes are generally non-profit and underfunded. They might be amenable to a rental or donation, or maybe you could set it up as a fundraiser. Online parimutuel betting anyone?

You ever seen people betting on keirin? And you think the racers are crazy?

Frank, we could set up a few keirin matches in between your Hour attempts. Because its not like you can do just one!
eightzero says:

Jun 2 2012 at 11:26 am

Jens' tweets sometimes really crack me up. You can just imagine the little grin on his face when he typed this: "@thejensie: And we did my favorite tactics!! The good old " DROP THE HAMMER " My all time favorite, just put everybody through the meatgrinder- hahaha"
xyxax says:

Jun 2 2012 at 12:17 pm

@RedRanger
Even to celebrate Merckxmas? Maybe at V a.m. when it's only 35. Maybe not.
But my infrequent visits are always in winter. I do see a mini-Cogal in our future. The girls need to see their Auntie, hmmmm.....
RedRanger says:

Jun 2 2012 at 12:36 pm

@xyxax

@RedRanger
Even to celebrate Merckxmas? Maybe at V a.m. when it's only 35. Maybe not.
But my infrequent visits are always in winter. I do see a mini-Cogal in our future. The girls need to see their Auntie, hmmmm.....

I'm down for a winter mini cogal if your in town.
Cyclops says:

Jun 2 2012 at 1:14 pm

(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.)

An epiphany! I always knew you were a smart bastard.
scaler911 says:

Jun 2 2012 at 1:20 pm

@VeloVita

@frank

@Nate

The point about the will and the other one about the UCI remind me of the extended riff on the hour in the Rider, and the insanity it induces, such as the guy who had a dot of light projected in front of him as a pacing mechanism in an effort to take his own will out of the equation, and the time Oskar Egg measured the track on his hands and knees to prove that a competing rider for the record didn't ride as far as claimed.

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.

You'd appreciate the interview Jack Thurston did with Mike Burrows a month or so back on The Bike Show Podcast. Burrows agrees and that is why his focus is entirely on HPVs (human powered vehicles, not STDs) now. He even goes so far as to suggest that pro racing would be more interesting if the UCI allowed HPVs (in the form of faired recumbents or whatnot) in prologues and time trials. I wouldn't be for that, but I suppose its an interesting concept, though it would start to make cycling more like F1.

I would suggest that if the UCI allowed HPV's or had a 'anything goes' attitude toward the TT's it would ruin the sport. Getting past the fact that we'd end up seeing quasi-bikes that would be fugly, ultimately only the teams with huge budgets could afford to spend the money on R&D to build the winning machines. IMHO, reeling in, and defining TT bikes was one of a few things that the UCI has done right. Can you imagine seeing Spartacus doing the prologue on a fully fairing equipped recumbent? I'd nip off and kill myself.