Cycling news just dropped this in to their TdF coverage - anyone even know the attempt was on?
14:18 CEST
And in some non-Tour news Czech rider Ondrej Sosenka has unoffically broken Chris Boardman’s hour record in Moscow, riding approximately 49.72 km, beating Boardman’s mark by 300m or so.
From cyclingnews.com:
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 300 metres, with the exact distance soon to be announced.
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.
Boardman set his distance of 49.442 in Manchester on the 27th of October 2000, improving Eddy Merckx’s 1972 mark by just .01 kilometres. 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.
so…he did one hour how fast? 59’? cool…