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UCI confirms Victor Campenaerts will attempt Bradley Wiggins' Hour Record in April

Lotto-Soudal's European time trial champion is heading to Mexico for his record attempt in April...

The UCI has confirmed that Victor Campenaerts, will make an attempt on the Hour Record currently held by Sir Bradley Wiggins, in April.

Wiggins set his record of 54.526 kilometres at London’s Lee Valley VeloPark in June 2015, and in December backed the Belgian cyclist to beat it in response to news that Campenaerts planned to make an attempt.

The Lotto-Soudal rider will have an advantage over the existing record-holder in that his tilt at it will take place at altitude, at the Velodromo Bicentenario in Aguascalientes, Mexico, with 16 and 17 April pencilled in as the dates for his attempt.

Aged 27, Campenaerts is the current European time trial champion – in Glasgow last year, he retained the title he had first won 12 months previously – and finished third in the discipline last September at the UCI Road World Championships.

He has been preparing for April’s attempt on the record for almost six months now – in September, he undertook a trial run at the Vélodrome Suisse, followed by two months of altitude training in Namibia.

Campenaerts said: “The UCI Hour Record is a unique challenge in cycling and to beat it would be a way for me to write a bit of the sport's history. I respect Bradley a lot and I do not consider myself as a better athlete than the former Tour de France winner and five-time Olympic champion.

“However, by making progress and taking into account every possible detail, I hope to have a chance to take over the Hour Record.”

It’s one of three goals that he has set himself over the next 18 months or so.

“Personally, the world Hour Record, the world time trial title and the Olympic time trial title are the three dreams I want to pursue the coming years, starting with the world Hour Record,” he explained.

UCI President David Lappartient said: “I am delighted to see that the UCI Hour Record timed by TISSOT continues to generate so much enthusiasm among riders, even if Bradley Wiggins raised the bar very high.

“Victor is a superb specialist who showed what he is capable of by climbing on to the podium at the last UCI Road World Championships.”

He added: “I cannot wait to see how he fares in Mexico in April, knowing the part that altitude can play in outstanding performances.”

Since the UCI changed its rules in 2014 to allow up-to-date bikes and equipment to be used, 10 men have attempted the record, five of them successfully.

Jens Voigt’s record of 51.110 kilometres was set in September of that year and surpassed the following month by Matthias Brändle.

Rohan Dennis – winner of the time trial at last year’s UCI Road World Championships, where Campenaerts finished third, set a new record in February 2015, beaten less than three months later by Alex Dowsett, who held the record for five weeks before Wiggins set the current benchmark.

The last two unsuccessful attempts on the men’s UCI Hour Record were both made in Aguascalientes, while at the same venue Italy’s Vittoria Bussi set the existing women’s world record of 48.007 kilometres in September last year.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
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Ah, nipping off to Mexico to gain the advantage, so the UCI should actually catergorise it as a different record right?

if you compare BW's effort and what he was like stepping off the bike to that of Boardman when he broke the record (and still holds it for me) there's a huge difference.

Sir Chris was absolutely spent, could barely get off the bike, Wiggo looked liked he'd done a very, very hard ride but IMHO I reckon he had more in him, he was also 35 by the time of the record so past his peak I reckon.

I would expect the record to go at altitude but it's a bit like the beating of Tommy Godwin's record by using a recumbent on pan flat rinse and repeat routes by being driven back to the start to take advantage of prevailing winds and/or protected routes that has zero elevation whatsoever whilst using a recumbent ... a bit hollow and not really the same record, just a change in what's allowed.

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maviczap | 5 years ago
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I'd prefer if any attempt was made at sea level, as that's the benchmark Wiggins set. Beat that first, then go ahead and do it at altitude. But that's just my view

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paulrattew | 5 years ago
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Wiggins' record is a hard ask, but it doesn't feel like it's untouchable. Wiggins set that at sea level in comparatively poor conditions air pressure wise. Given more favourable conditions I think he probably could have gone much closer to 55kms - it's a bit of a shame that he ticked the box then had no more interest in it. I'd love to see more attempts and Campenaerts has as good a chance as anyone of taking the record. He's a brilliant athlete who has done the prep work. Hopefully conditions will favour him

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