Clock Hunters.

[redir]

Real nice article from L'Equipe on time trialing and what it takes to be good at it on such a high professional level throughout the ages. Boardman's description of the hour record is epic.

“If I’d had any idea how much I was going to suffer, I’d never have done it, no chance. It was awful holding that position. I’d seen pictures of Merckx collapsing to the ground after setting the record and taking journalists’ questions lying down. I thought that was just for the cameras. I couldn’t walk for days.”

http://www.lequipe.fr/explore/clock-hunters/

[MattTuck]

Very good article, though I'm not sure when the interview with Cancellara was done. In the article he was quoted as not sure he'd do an attempt on the hour record.


As of a few days ago, he is planning an attempt on the hour record in the next 12 months.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cancellara-to-tackle-hour-record

This will be ridiculously awesome... whether he takes the record or not...

[ultraman6970]

Take while to prepare for that race, specially if the rider is not a tracker, at least many years ago riders were doing track during the winter, that makes the situation easier.

Probably during that year preparing for the record he won't race in the road at all due to possible accidents.

Would be neat to have him as a 1 hour record champion.

[redir]

Wow that is cool. I'm not sure when that article was written either as it's not dated. This is interesting. It's such a daunting task.

[br995]

As someone who doesn't really follow pro-cycling, and is typically bored by technical/historical cycling writing, this article is amazing.

[FlashUNC]

I'd watch Cancellara tackle the Hour.

I think they could have spent a little more time on Obree and his contribution to the record, but they covered the controversy around it rather well.

[bicycletricycle]

I really like the hour record bikes, huge wheels , weighted rimes, crazy positions.

Super interesting

[soulspinner]

Love me some Spartacus hour record............:)

[carpediemracing]

The lead picture (one of the lead pictures?) is from this year (Froome in 2013) so the article is recent.

There are a few glaring omissions, based on testimony in the last 5 years or so. The biggest is the fact that blood boosting, either through EPO or blood transfusions, can significantly increase a rider's average output. It's possible to safely increase the average oxygen carrying capacity of a rider by 20% (41 to 52 hematocrit) and if a rider/doctor pushes it the number is closer to 40-50% (41 to 60 hematocrit). This is super significant in terms of time trials because blood manipulation can hide aerodynamic deficiencies.

- 1984 - Moser's hour record. He transfused blood and there's no mention of the physiological boost in the article. This was the beginning of Conconi's influence on the sport of cycling (two of his students were Ferrari and Cecchini, Armstrong and Riis's trainers respectively). Moser said it wasn't super difficult, not in the sense that he couldn't walk after or whatever.

- 1992 - Indurain's TT. By 1992 EPO was prevalent in the peloton, not a few years later. His bike was not the end all - it was pretty poor aerodynamically. I don't know where I saw the article but said article made a good case for the Lotus bike. Tellingly I find it reassuring that Fignon suffered just as much in the new era as Lemond. Indurain's TT bike wasn't the best engineered bike but it was one of the weirder looking ones. It was a copy of the Lotus bike, taking on the worst aero features of the Lotus (the sloped leading edges are worst - they should be more vertical, as the later Lotus bikes were). I think the physiological boost is what drove him forward more than his aero equipment.

- 2000 - Boardman's Merckx record. The bike was pretty unusual - 17 cm stem I think, and something like a 63 cm top tube (Boardman rode a 53 or 55 cm frame). It wasn't stock by any means but certainly it was closer to a Merckx bike than anything else in the prior 16 years records. I found it reassuring that he thought it was super difficult also.

- 2000 - Also Boardman talks about the drilling craze of the 60s and 70s. Merckx may have drilled parts on his bike but his track bike was pretty solid. Merckx believed in stability, so much so that when he did his first Giro (?) he had something like 17 frames built for the 21 or 22 stages. The heaviest frames were for the mountain stages so that he could descend safely. In the Hour Record he even used a then-controversial titanium stem. He didn't think such a light stem could be strong enough. The builder (they were made by hand by one guy) invited him to try and break one. Merckx went nuts on a bar held by one of the titanium stems. Apparently he couldn't break the stem so he used it.

- I'm curious why the Look TT bike wasn't mentioned. Zulle rode one to a prologue win and the bike was immediately banned after that. That seemed to be the peak of the super TT bike, at least on the road. I can understand a French-tilted equipment range so missing that TT bike is odd. I have to admit I didn't watch any of the embedded videos so it might have been in one of those.

Overall though a good travel through the TT era. It really shows how the rules affect equipment (obviously it does but it's less obvious to a casual rider).

[redir]

Have you seen Obree's latest machine?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/1016537_402916739826144_460829492_n.jpg

[chengher87]

The biggest take away from this article is that speed holes are very effective if Luis Ocana says so!