While Fabian Cancellara’s highly-anticipated hour record attempt has been shelved as a result of the UCI’s changes to the regulations, Sir Bradley Wiggins has admitted the prospect of tackling it still interests him – for precisely the same reason.
When Cancellara’s attempt was first mooted, speculation was raised as to whether fellow time trial specialists Wiggins and Tony Martin – the three having made up the time trial podium at the world championships – would follow suit.
But Spartacus has put his plans on hold after the UCI’s announcement – with his original target having been the ‘Merckx record’, an attempt on a standard track bike similar to that used by the Belgian legend in 1972.
However, with the news that all attempts on a legal track machinery would be permitted – and the record confirmed as Ondrej Sosenka’s mark of 49.700km, set in 2005 – Spartacus, who wanted to test himself against The Cannibal, has had a re-think.
Wiggins, by contrast, admitted after his Tour of California victory that the record is still on his radar, with his track background – seven Olympic medals, four of them gold, and all won on the type of low-profile machine now permitted by the UCI for ‘the Hour’ – seemingly now in his favour.
But could Wiggins take on the hour record? And could he or Spartacus prompt a flurry of record attempts? Might a certain German chrono specialist be tempted to join the fray?
