UCI Hour Record, Chris Boardman - ONDŘEJ SOSENKA | (49,700 km)ONDŘEJ SOSENKA

UCI Hour Record,
Chris Boardman

Posted on 01. Lis, 2008 by admin in HODINOVKA

Manchester, 27.10.2000, 49.441 km
Chris Boardman had revealed during the Sydney olympics he had been suffering from the bone-wasting disease osteopenia for the past two years, which had debilitating effects on his cycling. So, probably not in the shape he had in 1996 when he broke the hour record, he took a final attempt to finish his career. The bike was more or less “similar” to the bike Eddy Merckx used 1972, though his 16 cm stem was obviously longer than normal. Boardman used a 54×14 gear.

Split Times

km	Merckx Mexico City, 25.10.1972		Boardman Manchester, 27.10.2000
km	time	avg. speed	time	avg. speed
1	1.10	51.43	1.17.891	46.218
5	5.55.7	50.60	6.04.016	49.448
10	11.53	50.49	12.03.889	49.732
15	18.01	49.95	18.04.635	49.786
20	24.07	49.76	24.06.975	49.759
25	30.10	49.72	30.11.663	49.678
30	36.17	49.61	36.18.409	49.577
35	42.25	49.51	42.27.043	49.469
40	48.32	49.45	48.33.402	49.427
45	54.38	49.42	54.40.588	49.381
46	–	–	55.53.916	49.375
47	–	–	57.06.713	49.377
48	–	–	58.17.899	49.401
49	–	–	59.29.264	49.422
49.25		–	59.46.661	49.433
1 hour	49.431	49.431	49.441	49.441

One can use the split times to plot the average speed at a given distance. Eddy Merckx had started incredibly fast, since he wanted to break Ole Ritter’s 5km, 10 km and 20 km records (Remark: Ritter had set his records on a special ride separate from his Hour attempt!). Compare his first km in 1.10 (which gives 51.43 km/h) to Bordman’s 1.17.9 (which gives 46.22 km/h)!

Merckx couldn’t hold this pace, Boardman finally “catched” him at 20 km. But from this point Boardman could not gain any more, at 25 km he was again more than 1 sec behind. The following 20 km the distance stayed almost the same, around 20 – 40 meters. Around 47 km he was still behind and began his final effort, increasing his speed over 50 km/h. At 49.25 km he was 2 meters up on Merckx, the final round of 51.8 km/h pushed him to 49.441 km.

Note that Boardman’s attempt was made at sea level, while the Mexico City track is at 2250 m. This should give an advantage of about 2 km/h.
Look at “Hour Record at altitude” page for details.

Now lets calculate the speed for the 5 km intervals (or 1 km intervals):
The biggest difference in both attempts is the first kilometer, the next 45 km are almost parallel, though Merckx showed a remarkable decrease in speed between 10 and 20 km.
Its quite obvious that Merckx, who was about 800 m ahead of Ole Ritter’s old record, just put in some “normal” effort at the end of his attempt. Boardman however knew he was behind Merckx, so he gave everything at the end of the attempt to get in front.