The Hour Record

The reason I created this blog was to document my training and attempt for the hour record. However I realize that not everyone reading this blog may know what, exactly, the hour record is. There is a wealth of information on Wikipedia, but the gist of it is this: you ride your bike on the track for an hour and the distance you cover is recorded.

There are actually three hour records: the UCI hour record, the UCI best human effort record, and the International Human Powered Vehicles Assocation (IHPVA) hour record. The main difference between these three records are the bicycle requirements that need to be met in order to qualify.

The UCI hour record is the most strict of all the records - the bicycle has to weigh at least 6.8kg*, the tubing must have a circular cross-section, the handlebars must be standard drop bars, the helmet must be used only for protection and not for aerodynamics and any other equipment used (clothing, shoes, eye-wear, etc) must not give the rider an aerodynamic advantage.

Originally there was only one UCI hour record but in 2000 the UCI, fearing that the hour record had become a record of technology instead of a record of athletic acheivement, split the record in two. A new record was born, called the best human effort record, and all of the hour record attempts since Eddy Merckx's were moved into this category (as they all were made using aerodynamic components). This record aschews the weight limit and allows for aerodynamic components, equipment and tubing. However the bike must still fall into the realm of upright bicycles as governed by the UCI.

The IHPVA hour record is for all bicycles (or rather human powered vehicles) that do not qualify for either UCI record. In practice this means recumbent bicycles. These bikes are made to be as aerodynamic as possible - including full fairings that cover the entire rider, monocoque composite frames and wheels that just barely extend out of the body of the bike. They look more like spaceships than bicycles but are capable of reaching speeds as high as 130km/h.

I will most likely be attempting the UCI best human effort record.

*What is interesting about this restriction is that the bike Eddy Merckx used to break the hour record weighed 5.5kg. When the UCI split the hour record into the hour record and the best human effort record, Eddy Merckx's record was the last one the UCI accepted as an hour record and not a best human effort record. This makes sense from an aerodynamics standpoint, however, as Eddy Merckx's record was the last attempt using a "traditional" non-aero bike until Chris Boardman broke the record in 2000. More information about Merckx's bike can be found here: http://www.classicrendezvous.com/