Why no new records?

bahzob

Elsewhere its been mentioned that despite all the "progress" in recent years in terms of training/equipment et al this has not translated into cyclists actually going faster.

This seems to be substantiated by this list of records
http://www.uci.ch/english/palmares/track/record_index.htm

The most recent world record was set back in 2002, 80% or so of the records are older than 10 years.

(By comparision athletics has a number of records less than a year old and around half of its records (excluding field) are less than 10 years.
http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/tfn/records/records.jsp?sex=M&typeId=0&listId=1)

What are the reasons why no new cycling records are being set? Any views on if/when any of the existing ones will be broken?

portuguese mike

Perhaps less riders really are 'going clean' these days :shock:

andrewgturnbull

Hi there.

I really don't know, but I'll take a stab:

Professional track and field athletics are paid to go round the international circuit running 100m, 5k, marathon etc - races over set distances upon which the records are set.

Professional cyclists are paid to go round the uci circuit racing single day and stage races. They don't get paid for 25m time trials.

Track riders are the only real exception to this - Chris Hoy set the 500m TT record last year, but he had to go to a whole lot of trouble and altitude to do so.

Cheers, Andy

Bronzie

Is that web page even up-to-date? The "athletes hour" was broken by Sosenka in 2005! I'm pretty sure the UK hold the 4k team pursuit record, broken last year if I'm not mistaken?

Besides, I think a lot of those records on there are pretty redundant. Just a few thoughts:

1. Most track racing at elite level happens on indoor velodromes, so most of the "open air" records are going to stand. (Chris Hoy's attempt on the La Paz outdoor velodrome is perhaps an exception and this location was chosed purely for it's altitude).

2. Records tend to get broken during competition (rather than pure record attempts), and a lot of those records are at distances or events (flying start) that no longer feature in the Olympics (and consequently track champs and world cup meets), hence they will also stand.

3. Is there still a distinction between amateur and professionals? So a the amateur records are maybe no longer even capable of being challenged?

4. There are no standard records for professional road cycling or TT's at international level (where most of the big talent ends up). On a national level, the record for a 10 was broken by Bradley Wiggins in 2006 (17'58"). Prior to that it was held by Stuart Dangerfield (18'19") in 2001. And before that, Graeme Obree in 1993 (18'27") but that may have been using the Superman position now banned. However the 25 record is still Boardman's 45'57" in 1993 and the 50 is now 10 years old (Kevin Dawson 1-37-21 in 1997)! However the UK TT scene is still a fairly "small pond" compared to international cycling in general. The same could be said to apply to a lesser extent to track cycling records.

5. All this training with power meters is turning the athletes brains to jelly and causing them to spend more time worrying about their power outputs instead of cracking records.............naaaah!!!

Bronzie

See also Andy Coggan's reply in the other thread:

acoggan wrote:

You should know that those data are woefully out of date. For example, the women's 3 km and 500 m records as well as the men's sea level 1 km record were all set at the 2004 Olympics.

Try this link instead - think it's (more) up to date:
http://www.uci.ch/modello.asp?1stleveli ... dnews=3454

Alex_Simmons/RST

Bronzie wrote:

See also Andy Coggan's reply in the other thread:

acoggan wrote:

You should know that those data are woefully out of date. For example, the women's 3 km and 500 m records as well as the men's sea level 1 km record were all set at the 2004 Olympics.

Try this link instead - think it's (more) up to date:
http://www.uci.ch/modello.asp?1stleveli ... dnews=3454

Anna Meares broke her own women's 500m record this year.

cervelorider

First woman to do a sub 20 minute 10 mile TT last year:

Wendy Houvenhagel....19-50.*......15/09/07.....Andover Whs.. P613/10 ........30.252mph

:shock:

DaveyL

Time to change the thread title!

bahzob

DaveyL wrote:

Time to change the thread title!

I stand corrected. Should have Wikied insteat of Googling.

That said there's not exactly a lot of stuff here (e.g. compared to the athletics section).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_records

If anyone knows more about this subject than me (probably most of you) then this article could do with a bit of expansion.