Eddy Merckx: Campenaerts' Hour Record ride is an incredible achievement
17 April 2019 08:39
Five-time Tour de France winner Eddy Merckx was full of praise for compatriot Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) after the Belgian set a new Hour Record distance of 55.089 kilometres in Mexico on Tuesday, beating Bradley Wiggins' 2015 record by 563 metres, and making it the first time that the nation had set the record since Merckx did so in 1972. "I have to say congratulations," Merckx told Belgium's VTM Nieuws. "It's an incredible achievement to go over 55 kilometres. I take my hat off to Victor, as I know what it feels like to ride like that for an hour." Merckx's record of 49.431km stood for 12 years after it was also – like Campenaerts' ride – set at altitude in Mexico, albeit on an outdoor velodrome in Mexico City, on a relatively standard drop-bar track bike in October, 1972.ADVERTISEMENT It was finally bettered by Italy's Francesco Moser in 1984, who first rode to 50.809km, and then raised his own record four days later to 51.151km, riding on a 'lo-pro' bike with double disc wheels. Various rule changes in the years that followed meant that Merckx's record once more stood again as a 'best human effort' thanks to the lack of modern bike technology used on his ride, but Britain's Chris Boardman was able to beat it in 2000 on a round-tubed, drop-bar bike in Manchester, England, setting a new distance of 49.441km – and therefore beating Merckx's 1972 record by just 10 metres. In 2014, the rules were once again relaxed so that standard aero track pursuit bikes – more akin to what Campenaerts used on Tuesday – could be used, and a glut of new Hour Record distances were set over the next couple of years, starting with German Jens Voigt's distance of 51.110km, and finishing with Wiggins' 54.526km in London in 2015, which no one had since been able to beat. — Brad Wiggins (@SirWiggo) April 16, 2019
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com.read full article
