The Hour *** spoilers ***

Mad_Malx

I'm always surprised that the best road TT speeds are so close to the track hour though - I expected road to be much slower.

Eg road 30 miles (about 40.2 km in 45 minutes 43sec) comes out at about 52.7 km/h
road 50 miles (80.5km in 95 min) comes out at 51 km/h

frenchfighter

Alex Dowsett is not a trackie is he and did absolutely fine. He is not as good a TT as Wiggins on the road so a 53 vs a 55 between them would be roughly what I would expect.

The only thing I can legitimately hear argued is that Wiggins muscles are so used to going clockwise on a track that they are actually formed differently to someone purely on the road and this physiological difference gives him a boost.

pirnie

Has anyone else noticed a correlation between successful record attempts and whether they were made on a standard track bike, or a custom modified TT bike?

Voigt - Modified Speed Concept - Record
Brandle - Modified Plasma - Record
Bobridge - Cervello track bike - No record
Dennis - Modified BMC - Record
Dekker - Koga track bike - No record
Sarah Storey - Ridley track bike - No record (overall)
Dowsett - Modified Speedmax - Record

It's almost certainly just coincidence but I thought it was an interesting pattern

RichN95.

pirnie wrote:

Has anyone else noticed a correlation between successful record attempts and whether they were made on a standard track bike, or a custom modified TT bike?

Voigt - Modified Speed Concept - Record
Brandle - Modified Plasma - Record
Bobridge - Cervello track bike - No record
Dennis - Modified BMC - Record
Dekker - Koga track bike - No record
Sarah Storey - Ridley track bike - No record (overall)
Dowsett - Modified Speedmax - Record

It's almost certainly just coincidence but I thought it was an interesting pattern

Isn't it more that the successful attempts had team and, by extension, manufacturer support.

keyser__soze

frenchfighter wrote:

Alex Dowsett is not a trackie is he and did absolutely fine.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/lat ... -27-150124

“My track experience will be a massive help for me. I’ve done more laps of the Manchester velodrome [while with the British Cycling Academy] than I’ve had hot dinners, so that can only help. Rohan and Jack will have the same help given the system they’ve come up from.”

frenchfighter

Haha fair enough. Never seen him on the track before. But I guess I dont watch it as it is incredibly boring.

andyp

frenchfighter wrote:

Haha fair enough. Never seen him on the track before. But I guess I dont watch it as it is incredibly boring.

He's been a regular at the Lee Valley track league this past winter.

No_Ta_Doctor

You couldn't make it up....

Ashbeck

Ai_1 wrote:

Ashbeck wrote:

OnYourRight wrote:

Come on, it’s pretty arrogant. It’s also delusional: he has no idea who will come down the pipe over the next twenty years. And with his distance as a target, it will likely be broken before twenty years and maybe in two.

I dont think its arrogant to say he wants to set a benchmark or delusional, he knows his cycling history and knows full well the chances of any record set by him lasting 20 years is pretty remote. Its just human nature to set a goal in your mind and want to acheive it, we do it every day, even if its something small.

If you stood up and said 'i would love to pay my mortgage off and be debt free for the next twenty years' does that make you arrogant or delusional just because the majority of people cant?? Of course it doesnt, its your dream/ goal/ objective, and youre just expressing your opinions and desires.

Wiggo is just doing the same thing, albeit at the pinnacle of cycling. Wether it happens or not is a different point entirely, it doesnt mean hes arrogant in expressing it.

You are talking like he said he would like to set a record that would last 20 years. I wouldn't have any criticism of someone saying that. What I suggested shows some arrogance is saying that he think's if he does what he expects to do, it will last 20 years. That's a bit different.
Anyway, it's a bit of a silly discussion. Who cares what he thinks or whether he's arrogant or not. I've never met the guy, I don't know the guy, I never will.

Likewise, i dont actually recall responding to one of your posts? So dont know where youre coming from :?

ic.

frenchfighter wrote:

The only thing I can legitimately hear argued is that Wiggins muscles are so used to going clockwise on a track that they are actually formed differently to someone purely on the road and this physiological difference gives him a boost.

:oops:

Fail.

adr82

TheBigBean wrote:

I'd like to see Tony Martin give it a go. I'd be very surprised if Cancellera tried - he's unlikely to break the record and it would be at the expense of road performance.

If he wasn't careful, a Tony Martin attempt would be destined to end in a crash caused by a puddle of drool on the track :P

term1te

IC. wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

The only thing I can legitimately hear argued is that Wiggins muscles are so used to going clockwise on a track that they are actually formed differently to someone purely on the road and this physiological difference gives him a boost.

:oops:

Fail.

With this in mind, would an attempt in the Southern hemisphere benefit from the Coriolis effect?

bigmat

Re the track background thing, I suspect most top riders could familiarise themselves with track riding given time. It is a different kind of riding though, and some riders are able to adapt to it better than others (hence Rominger hammering Big Mig back in the 90s, when he normally couldn't get close in a long road time trial). Wiggins has already demonstrated that he is a very good track rider (as has Phinney of course), we just don't know with Cancellara or Martin. The other thing in Wiggins' favour (in addition to being a proven world class track rider and also a proven world class rider over 1 hour) is that he has the freedom to devote a couple of months of exclusive training to the event, which is more than you would expect any comparable rider to ever get. He also has the support of British Cycling and all of their "marginal gains" (although Dowswett seemed to have a lot of tech available too). Throw in his proven ability to successfully target specific events and you have a unique set of circumstances, the hour record just seems made for him.

Pokerface

pirnie wrote:

Has anyone else noticed a correlation between successful record attempts and whether they were made on a standard track bike, or a custom modified TT bike?

Voigt - Modified Speed Concept - Record
Brandle - Modified Plasma - Record
Bobridge - Cervello track bike - No record
Dennis - Modified BMC - Record
Dekker - Koga track bike - No record
Sarah Storey - Ridley track bike - No record (overall)
Dowsett - Modified Speedmax - Record

It's almost certainly just coincidence but I thought it was an interesting pattern

Small detail, but Denis rode BMC's track bike. The only 'modification' was the bars were joined to the stem, but the frame was off-the-shelf.

AFAIK - Trek, Canyon, Scott, Ridley don't make hi-end track bikes (if at all) so they had to modify TT frames.

milton50

This is just an otiose statement based on nothing but my opinion: I don't think Tony Martin would get that close to a Wiggins hour record (assuming Wiggins rides to his potential)

Paul 8v

frenchfighter wrote:

Haha fair enough. Never seen him on the track before. But I guess I dont watch it as it is incredibly boring.

Frenchie, you need to go to a track meet one day. Different type of cycling but definitely not boring, The revolution is excellent, better in the flesh than TV definitely.

Paul 8v

inseine wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

It's more or less irrelevant. It is how hard you can push yourself for an hour. Whether that is on a track or on the road, it is the same for everyone.

Unless you would like to explain how Wiggins can get an extra 1 km over Tony Martin because he has not ridden one the track?

It's different riding on the track to the road, so some time to get accustomed is required but it is true that many of the record holders have not been trackies. Canc and Martin may or may not be in with a shout, but there's no point talking them up if they don't put themselves up for it.

I really want to see the bike Fabu ws supposed to be riding for the Merckx record, it must have been nearly finished or maybe even complete, special wheels made by Kieth Bontrager etc, I bet it was pretty awesome.

LeePaton

Paul 8v wrote:

I really want to see the bike Fabu ws supposed to be riding for the Merckx record, it must have been nearly finished or maybe even complete, special wheels made by Kieth Bontrager etc, I bet it was pretty awesome.

It was pretty much a madone... Theres pics somewhere...

r0bh

BigMat wrote:

Re the track background thing, I suspect most top riders could familiarise themselves with track riding given time. It is a different kind of riding though, and some riders are able to adapt to it better than others (hence Rominger hammering Big Mig back in the 90s, when he normally couldn't get close in a long road time trial). Wiggins has already demonstrated that he is a very good track rider (as has Phinney of course), we just don't know with Cancellara or Martin.

I'm pretty sure Cancellara considered going for the Olympic individual pursuit in Beijing or London (can't remember which) but after a few sessions on the track the idea was scrapped as he wasn't going to be competitive. And bear in mind that this was the time when he was pretty much unbeatable in prologue TTs.

Paul 8v

LeePaton wrote:

Paul 8v wrote:

I really want to see the bike Fabu ws supposed to be riding for the Merckx record, it must have been nearly finished or maybe even complete, special wheels made by Kieth Bontrager etc, I bet it was pretty awesome.

It was pretty much a madone... Theres pics somewhere...

Hmm, my google fu skills are normally pretty good but I can't find it

Pross

r0bh wrote:

BigMat wrote:

Re the track background thing, I suspect most top riders could familiarise themselves with track riding given time. It is a different kind of riding though, and some riders are able to adapt to it better than others (hence Rominger hammering Big Mig back in the 90s, when he normally couldn't get close in a long road time trial). Wiggins has already demonstrated that he is a very good track rider (as has Phinney of course), we just don't know with Cancellara or Martin.

I'm pretty sure Cancellara considered going for the Olympic individual pursuit in Beijing or London (can't remember which) but after a few sessions on the track the idea was scrapped as he wasn't going to be competitive. And bear in mind that this was the time when he was pretty much unbeatable in prologue TTs.

Would have to have been Beijing, there was no IP in London.

milton50

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/32756622

Wiggins aiming to break Dowsett's 10 mile record on the A63.

I'm not sure I'd fancy riding on un-closed British roads a couple of weeks before trying to break the hour record.

gsk82

I doubt there'll be any records this afternoon. It's rather windy here.

RonB

Good turnout though. Good luck to Andy Birdsall, Wiggo's minute man, who has set up a camera to record for posteriority the moment when he speeds past.

inseine

Should be setting off right NOW. back in 17 minutes....

RonB

RichN95.

A good day for Dowsett then. Gets a win, a leader's jersey and keeps his record.

DL1987

Maybe having the motorcycle out rider meant he didn't get the articulated vehicle assistance you usually get on a D/C TT.

RonB

Minute man Andy gets in with a PB and kept Wiggo at bay for just over 4mins

deejay

RonB wrote:

I'm Puzzled with this .
Is this today's sheet with your friend Birdball yet to arrive or
Is it the 2006 B Wiggins Cofidis 00:17:58.
It just seems strange that Wiggins repeats his PB some 9 years later. :roll: