Edited by Jeff Jones *Hour record broken by Sosenka in Moscow *
*By Shane Stokes *
Ondrej Sosenka has surprisingly beaten the world hour record set by Britain’s Chris Boardman in 2000. In Moscow this afternoon, the 29 year-old Czech rider improved on Boardman’s record by some 260 metres, riding 49.700 km in the hour.
*Sosenka competes with the Acqua e Sapone team and is a time trial specialist, winning the prologue of the Uniqa Classic and the stage 4 time trial in the Tour of Belgium this season. The current Czech TT champion has also taken the overall classification of both the Tour of Poland and the Tour of Slovakia in the past, as well as finishing second overall in the Peace Race. *
*The 29 year-old was faster than Boardman from the very start of today’s effort, recording a time of 1’15.01 (versus 1’17.891) for the opening kilometre. He went through the 5 kilometre point over three seconds up, and by the 25 kilometre point he had extended his advantage to just under 7 seconds. This continued to grow to 18 seconds by 40 kilometres. *
In his attempt, Sosenka was using a 3.2 kg wheel and 190 mm cranks. The reason for the heavy wheel was that although it was harder to get up to speed, it was easy to maintain it.
Boardman set his distance of 49.441 in Manchester on the 27th of October 2000, improving Eddy Merckx’s 1972 mark by just 10 metres. That record marked a new beginning for the discipline, with UCI rules requiring that riders revert back to same sort of technology that Merckx used decades earlier. Called the Athlete’s Hour Record, it replaced the Absolute Hour Record standard which permitted the use of aerodynamic bicycles, positions and clothing. Boardman had previously set an Absolute Hour Record of 56.375 in Manchester on the 7th of September 1996.
Okay… So are you gonna answer the question, or just try to educate me?
To just way that it’s not proportional is a true statement, within a fairly narrow range. But if the guy is 5’2", I’d say that using 190mm cranks is a bit on the extreme end, eh?
A 5’2" rider we’ll assume has a 28" inseam, pretty typical, let’s say he’s short and we put him on 165mm cranks.
Another rider, Maggie Backstedt sized has an inseam of 37" he get 180s, does a leg length difference of 9" only equate to a crank length difference of 1.5cm?
If the guy is 5’2" and needs to develop lots of torque, 190 cranks would be just what he needs.
And 50 kph on spoked wheels and drop bars is certainly extreme.
So, since you can’t seem to answer a question directly, I guess your real, short anser is that, no, you AREN’T going to answer my question, and you ARE just going to try to educate me.
So, since you can’t seem to answer a question directly, I guess your real, short anser is that, no, you AREN’T going to answer my question, and you ARE just going to try to educate me.
HAHA! I had this happen once. A guy was talking nonsense, and I posted a rebuttal. Something like 2 years later the guy came back and posted more nonsense as an answer to my rebuttal. It was hilarious. That was 2 years apart. The 8 years must be some sort of an Internet record.
So, since you can’t seem to answer a question directly, I guess your real, short anser is that, no, you AREN’T going to answer my question, and you ARE just going to try to educate me.
