The Hour Record

Thanks! I was wondering why nobody was talking about this yet. I hope they have the bandwidth to supply the demand of the US!

Right now he is at 50.666 Km/hr.

He is ~4 seconds ahead of the pace he wants per lap.  

Now at 50.756.

Not going to get 51, but he looks like he's going to break it and be over 50.

Looks like you might be right.  With less than 5 minutes to go he is at 50.997.  

He got 51.

51.115 to be precise.

I saw....damn!!!!!!!

And he is smiling.  Amazing!!! Absolutely amazing. 

I was thinking the same thing when I saw his speed start lowering from 50.8 to below 50.7 kph. His "schedule" was for 50.3 km. It's amazing that he had so much at the end to get over 51 km.

My legs were shaking through the whole last 5 minutes...

Great publicity for the sport and the record.  Can't think of a better way for Jens to go out.  My guess is that he could have done 51.5-52 if he really dug himself into a hole and risked blowing up but I'm pretty sure the whole objective was to break the record first and foremost and the rest is gravy.  We'll see if the real heavy hitters like Wiggo and Martin take a crack at it.  Interesting to note that someone from Trek Factory Racing mentioned that the record has lost some of it's luster for Cancellara as his main interest in the record was to draw a comparison to Merckx.  We all know that there are a bunch of guys that could crush 51.115 if they wanted to...so it's just a matter of who will be willing to step up to the plate next.

Something tells me that Jens might hold this record for a little longer than most people suspect.  Being that this is not something you would attempt every year, the top contenders like Wiggo and Martin might hold out until the other goes first...then they know what they need to beat.

It was awesome for sure, but I'm not exactly sure why it is a record. There are a few recorded distances over 51.115.

I need someone to explain that to me as well....and apparently the record he broke was on a bike with drop bars and no disc?

UCI legal bike and signed up member of the Athlete Biological Passport Programme

Rule changes.  There was a time when the hour record didn't have any restrictions, and guys were doing some crazy stuff (superman position) in order to break the record.  So the UCI changed the rules to prevent it from being a contest of who can be the most aero as compared to who can simply ride their bike the fastest.  So all those records that were not done with UCI rules at the time were dropped.

Fast forward to May 2014 and the UCI changed their rules to allow the use of modern pursuit bikes, but they still need to be UCI legal pursuit bikes.  I don't know this for sure, but my guess is that they can't back track and know for sure if all or any of the previous attempts over 49.7 km were following the UCI pursuit bike rules since they weren't checking for them to begin with.  Tough luck so to speak.

Make no mistake...Jens is very aware that this record isn't much more than bringing publicity to the sport, a nice farewell, and stamping his name in the history book before someone else has the chance to SMASH his record.  If Martin or Wiggo takes a legit crack at it...expect closer to 53.5-54.5 km.  Really no different than the gap you would expect between them and a 43 year old Jens in a 50-55 km TT during a road race.  Especially when you consider a guy like Wiggo comes from a track background.

Excellent!  Thanks!