Post 83 - The Hour Record

Bradley Wiggins, Tour de France winner, multiple Olympic medallist, quirky personality and very fast cyclist, was going for the Hour Record at the London Olympic Park velodrome on the evening of Sunday 7th June. I had been lucky enough to get a few tickets for this – around 7000 tickets sold out in 6 minutes flat, giving an indication of the popularity of cycling, and the recent interest in the hour record. Cycling’s governing body has recently changed the rules on the hour record, allowing standard aero bikes, aero wheels, and only permitting standard aero positions to be adopted on the bike (as opposed to some of the unusual contortions below). I’ve never been to a velodrome before, so was looking forward to it.

The "superman" position - now banned

 

The "tuck" position - now banned

The conventional position

I had 4 tickets and was going with housemates/friends/fellow cyclists/athletes. The trek to the Olympic Park started with: “Let’s leave the house at 2:45pm to get the 2:58 train…” After my Sunday morning swim, I was really tired – I’ve recently started going for a sleep immediately after my Saturday and Sunday training to combat the fatigue and to hopefully speed the recovery process, to however small a degree. I slept too long, and found myself with 25 minutes to make lunch, eat, get my stuff together and get ready. The others were in the same boat. Too much to do, not enough time… At 2:43pm they were sitting down to lunch. At 2:45pm we were running round the house, throwing whatever food we could into our mouths, getting water bottles and snacks together, locking up, and the final act at 2:50pm was to shovel what remained of lunch (potato wedges, vegetable and fish) into a plastic bag, to be eaten on the train. Needs must…

 

Look of determination...

We just about made the train, and got to the Olympic Park. I was last there 3 years ago for the 2012 Paralympics. It was a 20-minute walk through the park to get to the velodrome, nicknamed the “Pringle” due to its distinctive shape. It loomed like a UFO about the crowds. Someone who doesn’t know much about sport would think “What on earth is this building for…?” We got there at about 4:30pm, but the Hour Record wasn’t due to start until 6:30pm. There were a few “Team Wiggins” branded camper vans and equipment vehicles parked outside, we went and had a look. One of the equipment vans had bikes, disc wheels, deep-sectioned wheels and turbo trainers packed inside. I asked, “Any chance of a disc wheel?” Nothing ventured, nothing gained… “Yeah, for a small fee mate!” Wiggins himself at this point was probably warming up somewhere in the bowels of the velodrome, but I asked the guy at the door of the camper van, “Where’s Wiggins, is he in there?” “Yeah mate, he’s busy doing press-ups at the minute!” They weren’t giving much away…

We got inside, and it was pretty breathtaking. Support races were in full swing. The velodrome was already half-full. A running track is 400m for a lap, a velodrome is only 250m. It’s a short lap, which means the venue is quite compact, and you can see everything in your peripheral vision – the grandstands towering above the two straights, the whole track, the riders, the warm-up and corporate areas in the middle of the track, the scoreboards and big screens.

 

There were quite a few people in cycling gear – club jerseys, Team Sky jerseys, and various other jerseys. I was wearing my super-cool Belfast Giro d’Italia black and pink jersey. Everyone was given a Wiggins/Rapha cycling cap on arrival at the velodrome – a great idea and a really cool souvenir. Most people stuck these caps straight on their heads, and combined with the jerseys that a lot of people were wearing, most of us looked like proper cycling people. Or, to the uneducated, we may have been fools in lycra with silly caps, watching an even bigger fool in lycra with an even sillier pointy golden helmet ride 220 laps of a track…

 

Miguel Indurain's iconic Hour Record bike was on show.
He did 53.040km in 1994, just after winning his 4th of 5 Tours de France.

Needless to say, this bike would be banned under new regulations.

Still looks cool though!

 I’d always been told that the banking on a track is steeper than it looks on TV, but I couldn’t believe how steep it was in reality. It was like the wall of death – if you don’t hit the banked corners at 20mph or greater, you won’t generate enough centrifugal force, and you’ll just fall off. Also, for first-time track riders, it’s a big leap of faith to actually trust that you can lean your bike right over at a 45-degree angle (something that would be impossible on the flat), and not clip your inside pedal. But it works, because the track falls away so steeply. I’d always wanted to ride on a velodrome, now even more so.

 

The photos don't convey how steep it actually is

I’m far more of a doer than a watcher. If you’d offered me the choice of watching the hour record or riding for an hour on the velodrome, I’d have taken the riding any day. Similarly, watch the Tour de France or go for a bike ride… bike ride any day. Watch TV or go for a run? Go to a cinema (what’s a cinema anyway) or go for a swim?

One of the support races was an elimination race. This was savage. A peloton of riders was lapping the track at high speed, and every two laps, the last rider across the start/finish line was eliminated, gradually whittling the peloton down. This was good for seeing the riders race tactically, climbing the banking, and using it to launch themselves down the final straight in a mad sprint, to avoid the elimination. Really good to watch. One girl crashed and slid all the way down on the inside of the track, shorts ripped and back side on show. She limped back to the central area and off the scene, hands covering her bare backside. Cycling is unforgiving…

It was warm inside the velodrome, with the temperature kept at 28 degrees Celsius. The warmer the air, the less dense it is… the less dense the air, the faster you can cycle through it. But then, if it’s too warm, you’ll dehydrate too quickly, and performance will suffer, so there’s a balancing act… hot but not too hot… 7000-odd sweaty and excited spectators made it stifling inside. The air in the velodrome was very still. There were no draughts. To enter and exit, you have to go through an “airlock” double door system, to maintain the temperature and keep the air still.

There was a high-pressure weather system over London, so the weather on this particular day was really good. Warm, with clear skies. This wasn’t ideal for the record attempt – a high pressure weather system means the air is “heavier”, and more difficult to cycle through. For a recreational cyclist, it wouldn’t make much difference, but at the elite level, every little tiny factor can affect the overall outcome. I later found out that the day of the record attempt was the “worst” day of the past 2 months in terms of high air pressure. I guess ideally Wiggins would have postponed his attempt on a short-term basis, for a few days or maybe even a couple of weeks, until the pressure was lower ad more favourable. But, when you’ve sold 7000 tickets and have a packed velodrome and the world’s media in attendance, you can’t cancel…

The hour record had been set recently by Alex Dowsett, at 52.937km. Dowsett, by his own admission, had been relatively conservative during his attempt, and felt at the end that he still had got a bit left in the tank. It was fairly commonly accepted that Wiggins would break the record, barring a major mechanical problem with his bike. But by how much would he break it? Most people were sure he’d do 54km, possibly 55km. In 1996 Chris Boardman set a mark of 56.375km, using the "superman" position pictured above. This 56.375km has been re-classified as "best human effort" following the rule revision outlawing unconventional riding positions. 56.375km seemed like a big ask for Wiggins, especially at sea level where the air is denser. Thinner air at altitude would help a rider to go faster, but there seems to be an implicit understanding that all hour record attempts should be at sea level. There are so many variables in cycling… if you’re a perfectionist, it can mess with your head, I can attest to that!

The place was packed by 6pm. We had been debating whether Wiggins would still have his big massive beard, or would it be gone? A massive beard wouldn’t do anything for aerodynamics, so I thought it would be gone, given that a small fortune would have been spent optimising his bike, clothing and position on the bike to make everything as aerodynamic as possible. Finally, a beardless Bradley Wiggins emerged to huge cheers. People love Wiggins. He was so skinny. Pipe-cleaner legs and arms. I guess that’s what a lifetime of long-distance cycling does. He was so obviously deep in “the zone”, fully focused on the task at hand, seemingly oblivious to anything around him. He had done all his warming up somewhere else, deep in the depths of the velodrome, so he was ready to go. He cruised round a lap on a normal road bike, head down, barely acknowledging the crowd. No fuss, no dramatics. He got off at the start/finish line, where a starting block had been erected with his aero bike held in place. He got onto his aero bike, with a fixed gear, no freewheel mechanism, no brakes, and two disc wheels. He clipped his shoes to the pedals. The clock counted down from ten. Then, to huge cheers, he was away.

 

One lap, in the zone, before the hour started

Within half a lap, he was up to speed and settled into his aero position. He has a freakishly flat back in his aero position. He was ripping round the track, expressionless. Almost 34mph. Just over 16 seconds per 250m lap. To huge cheers. People were roaring him on. It must have been difficult to pace the early laps and not go too hard, to ensure he didn’t blow up and fade in the final 15 minutes. Alex Dowsett’s lap splits were on the scoreboard, so we could see in real time how far ahead of the record Wiggins was. He quickly went 10 seconds ahead. Then 20. Then 30. It was crazy. We could see he wasn’t quite on 55km pace, but we didn’t know whether he would lift his pace later in the hour. Or if he would blow up and fade.

He was riding a 58-14 gear, and had made a last-minute adjustment to make the gearing slightly easier, meaning he’d hold a higher cadence. Still he remained expressionless. I watched him really closely for any sign of fatigue, any shifts in body position, any grimace. Nothing. Pure concentration. I guess he was well within himself until half distance. He rode 25 miles in just under 45 minutes (if I remember right). For reference, the fastest I have ever ridden a bike was the 100 mile time trial in Bedfordshire last year, which I completed in 3:59. I averaged a fraction over 25mph. Conditions had been perfect. Dry and no wind, on a flat course. The 50 miles between 25 and 75 miles were my fastest miles, I probably averaged about 26mph. For a standalone 25 mile time trial on the road, I could maybe average something like 28mph. If I did it on the track, I doubt I could break 30 miles in an hour. The difference between 30mph and 34mph on a bike is huge. And hugely impressive. I’m going to do another threshold test in the next couple of weeks, I hope to hit close to 350 watts for an hour, as a maximal effort. Wiggins would probably hit 450 watts. Crazy.

 

Spot the rider... very low frontal area

I tried to set up some arty photos. I really like taking photos, and I really should buy myself a good camera. My photos were limited by the (dis)ability of my phone camera to take good shots, especially when zoomed in. I picked out a good “diagonal” photo, and was able to have a single audience member in the bottom left, the UCI rainbow stripes on the track, Wiggins, and then in the top right of the shot, a race official on the inside of the track, seemingly oblivious to what was going on, staring into his mobile phone. It took a good few attempts to get it right. I couldn’t pan with Wiggins when zoomed in because he was too difficult to track and I’d never have got everything else in the shot. So I had to frame everything else, and wait for Wiggins to come into the frame, but it literally was “blink and you’ll miss it”, so I had plenty of failed attempts before I got one I was reasonably happy with. It’s still a poor-quality photo with low resolution due to a bad camera, but it’s not a bad composition.

 

Nope...

 

Not quite...

 

That'll do...

Wiggins kept battering on, and in the final 15 minutes I started to see some tiny signs that he was tiring. His lap times dropped a tiny fraction, his speed dropped by a tenth of a mile per hour. He was still going pretty strong though, and I certainly wouldn’t say he was “fading” or “blowing up”. But the face started to grimace a bit. He was 1:40 ahead of Dowsett’s record, with 10 minutes still to ride. In the final 10 minutes, he didn’t pull out too much more of a time gap relative to Dowsett, which was indicative that Dowsett had indeed been quite conservative in his attempt, particularly in the first half, as he had enough energy left to finish strongly. Wiggins didn’t put too much time into Dowsett after 50 minutes had elapsed. But still, he was 5 or 6 laps ahead of Dowsett…

The crowd must have really lifted Wiggins in the final 5 minutes. Everyone was on their feet. He got a huge cheer when he actually broke the record, but he still had a couple of minutes left to go. After a few more laps at huge noise levels and intensity, a hooter sounded to signify the 60 minutes were up. You must still finish the lap you are on, so after crossing the finish line he climbed the banking to scrub off some speed – no freewheeling on these bikes. He took a lap to get down to a slow speed, and got up off the aero bars, hanging off the bike. He recovered enough to give a wave. I wondered what he’d do when he came to a halt. Most people just fall onto the floor, exhausted. Not Wiggins – he stood up, raised the bike over his head, and likely reflected on an hour well-executed.

 

Just done it (not my pic obviously!)

 

The official distance came up – 54.526km. About a mile ahead of the previous record. A big performance. I doubt there was much more he could have squeezed out of himself. But I wonder if, deep down, he was a bit peeved about the high pressure. For the same energy expenditure and performance, he could have gone maybe as much as a kilometre further. A few experts on social media seemed to agree. It’s maybe a good thing that the record had been hindered slightly by conditions, as others may feel more inclined to take it on. 54.5km is a more breakable record than 55.5km. Maybe even Wiggins himself will feel like another go at some stage in the next year? Dowsett will certainly try again, and he has age on his side. The man they call Spartacus, Fabian Cancellara, might fancy a crack. The “Panzerwagen”, Tony Martin? There are a few names out there who could run it close.

Laps of honour

Anyway, it was an evening to celebrate a well-executed maximal performance and a big world record. Wiggins got onto a road bike and rode a couple of laps of honour, waving and taking the cheers. Then they interviewed him. I was interested to hear his thoughts – he does offer some gems. They said something along the lines of “Congratulations, a huge new world record, how do you feel?” To which he answered, “That’s the closest I’ll ever come to what it must feel like to have a baby…” He said that his wife and kids are now experts on air pressure and weather conditions, and he also talked about having his hair and beard cut at a local barber’s, and the usual barber shop small-talk: the barber had asked him what he was up to for the weekend. “Not much mate”, Wiggins had answered. Just an hour on the bike, not much, nothing special at all… Wiggins also spoke of his relief that it was all over, the training, the build-up and the execution. It’s tough. I can empathise.

He kept the crowd entertained during his interview, and seemed quite nonchalant about the whole thing. Media duties over, he rode out of the arena, to huge cheers. Job done. We then went and ate Mexican food – I spoiled myself – a ginger, beetroot and carrot smoothie, steak, broccoli, sweet potatoes, salad, and chocolate bites. I’m sure Wiggins was enjoying a beer. I didn’t have any beer. I guess that makes me a better athlete than him… I didn’t get to bed until nearly midnight. That’s the latest I’ve got to bed this year…

Great day. A video of the final seconds of the hour is below: