Fabian Cancellara to attempt Hour Record

[gummibear]

Fabian Cancellara plans to take aim at the hour record in 2014, possibly in Manchester, according to his RadioShack-Leopard team. The Swiss, four-time time trial world champion, may attempt it in late April/early May after the classics.

"To begin with, we need to work with materials with Trek's engineers then we will look at the right moment to try it," team general manager, Luca Guercilena told Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

"The ideal time would be right after a peak in form because he'll need three weeks to adapt to the track. Two periods are available, right after the Spring Classics or after the two Grand Tours that Fabian will have in his programme."

The Italian newspaper reported that Cancellara will race the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España or the Tour de France and Vuelta a España. It added he will likely decide on the former pair.

Trek would give its full support to the project. The American bicycle manufacturer is already the team owner and title sponsor for 2014 after it bought the licence for from former owner, Luxembourg's Flavio Becca.

Guercilena, who is also the Swiss national coach, named Manchester as a possible venue for 32-year-old Cancellara to race.

"The track has to be as fast as possible," Guercilena added. "We haven't yet made specific tests but when we asked, three fastest three velodromes came up." He listed Aguascalientes, Mexico, and Anadia, Portugal, along with Manchester.

Chris Boardman set his record, 49.441 kilometres in an hour, in Manchester on October 27, 2000. Only Czech Ondřej Sosenka went faster. He rode 49.700 kilometres in Moscow in 2005.

Several Grand Tour stars - including Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil and Fausto Coppi - broke the hour record in their days. In the 1980s and 1990s, Francesco Moser, Graeme Obree, Miguel Indurain, Tony Rominger and Boardman set records on bikes and in positions that were later banned.

Cycling's governing body, the UCI standardised the equipment rules and rolled the record back to Merckx's 49.431 distance from 1972. After it established the new rules, attempts died down. Only Boardman and Sosenka passed the mark.

Cancellara already won the Olympic time trial in 2008, Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders twice and Paris-Roubaix three times. "I have other goals, I'd like to win all the monuments and the hour record," Cancellara said in 2010. "Even Merckx said that he'd be there to support me for the hour."

His attempt could start in a new round of attempts. If successful, Bradley Wiggins (Sky), Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and other modern stars may tackle the hour record.

Read more at http://www.cyclingwe...9HZTAJlgISPA.99

Edited November 18, 2013 by gummibear

[Tumbleweed]

I'd like to see him do it.

[gummibear]

I'd like to see him do it.

 

So would i.

I think if he does attempt it a few others will also give it a bash.

[jatho]

One of comments on the bottom of the website.... "My cousin Dai O Rhea wants to know what time is Cancellara aiming for"

 

 

Man thats funny

[Tumbleweed]

So would i.

I think if he does attempt it a few others will also give it a bash.

 

Yeah, it would be good to see it being "revived".

 

Slight tangent, for some insight into what it takes to prep for the race of truth, read this:

 

[Tumbleweed]

Fabian Cancellara is pulling the brakes on his hour record attempt while the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), cycling’s governing body, decides the rules. The Swiss cyclist reportedly planned an attempt on August 3 in Mexico.

 

 

Read more at http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/fabian-cancellaras-hour-record-attempt-hold-uci-decides-rules-120348#KbkgOVug1MJ5GXAR.99

[jcza]

Is this not news every year?

[fanievb]

so does this mean he is planning to retire?

 

usually after someone attempts the hour record they retire or they attempt it after retirement.

[Tumbleweed]

so does this mean he is planning to retire?

 

usually after someone attempts the hour record they retire or they attempt it after retirement.

 

Ja, Lance also claimed he was going to give it a go after his first retirement.

[igknot]

Bloody UCI.

How difficult can it be to make up rules.

All sporting rules are arbitrary. Everybody just needs to compete within the same rules.

The one that does best within these rules are the winner.

[fabs]

All the modern rules are just to equate the riding style and equipment used, to the original record breakers of the 50's, 60's and 70's.

 

If you take the modern riders, and put them on the equipment of 30-40 years ago, with the same diets,

the only thing they will break is a few matchsticks

 

I welcome a new record holder, but legends are far and few between.

[Tumbleweed]

All the modern rules are just to equate the riding style and equipment used, to the original record breakers of the 50's, 60's and 70's.

 

If you take the modern riders, and put them on the equipment of 30-40 years ago, with the same diets,

the only thing they will break is a few matchsticks

 

I welcome a new record holder, but legends are far and few between.

 

Ja, that "best human effort" record they introduced when they returned to the old equipment never really took off. Don't think it's been attempted since the '90s.

['Dale]

Thought he might attempt it at high altitude

Mexico, Denver or even Joburg?

 

Edited April 15, 2014 by ' Dale

[Shebeen]

Ja, that "best human effort" record they introduced when they returned to the old equipment never really took off. Don't think it's been attempted since the '90s.

spartacus is not human, new category required.

[Robrider]

Thought he might attempt it at high altitude

Mexico, Denver or even Joburg?

 

Do the drag benefits of high altitude count for more than the negative aerobic effects?

Interesting.

[jcza]

From July 2013 (Cyclingnews)

 

The hour record currently stands at 49.7km and was set by Ondrej Sosenka in Moscow in 2005. Sosenka’s career ended when he tested positive for methamphetamine at the Czech time trial championships three years later.

 

A Cancellara attempt would bring considerable prestige to a record that has lost some of its lustre since the UCI opted to ban tri-bars and re-set the record to Eddy Merckx’s 49.431km from 1972.

 

That decision saw Chris Boardman’s 56.375km on the since outlawed “Superman” position from Manchester in 1996 downgraded to the status of “Best Human Effort,” and the previous bests set by Francesco Moser (1984), Graeme Obree (1993 and 1994), Miguel Indurain (1994) and Tony Rominger (1994) were also expunged from the record books.

 

Boardman brought the curtain down on his career in October 2000 by bettering Merckx’s record on a traditional bike in Manchester, clocking 49.441, but the best road time triallists of the intervening period have all opted to forgo the hour record.

 

Lance Armstrong infamously claimed that he was planning an attack on the hour record in 2001 as a means of explaining his collaboration with the controversial doctor Michele Ferrari, but no such attempt was ever on the cards.

 

Cancellara is currently racing at the Tour of Austria and has built the second half of his season around reaching peak condition for the world championships in Florence. The Worlds road race takes place on September 29, meaning that a Cancellara hour record attempt would be likely to take place in the first half of October, or – if he decides to wait until next spring – in the weeks immediately after Paris-Roubaix.