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The Hour Record attempt by Jens Voigt (18.09.2014)

What will happen?

  • Vino (he will beat Boardman's superman 56 km)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

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  • Poll closed .
one of the things i have to congratulate uci and cookson. the revival of the big legend, the hour record.
it all begins next week with a (hopefully) new record by jensie. it is more about getting publicity for this event that's why they choose him and not bob jungels(just an example). the big guns will follow next year. i hope. i also read that sosenka prepares for a try next year, that would be completely awesome:D

the event will take place in grenchen, switzerland and will be broadcasted live on eurosport.
as we know, uci changed the ancient rules, so here it is jensie's bike

dsc_8554_220.jpg

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/exclusive-jens-voigts-hour-record-trek-bike

it's a very big advantage to merckx's bike and normally sosenka's distance should be improved. i wanna see your predictions. i hope the thread won't be moved to track section because nobody reads there and jens voigt belongs to road racing:)



actual recognized record by uci: Ondřej Sosenka 49.700 - on old traditional merckx bike
here more about history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record
 
of course it's not very honest to sosenka and merckx. but life goes on

sosenka while of course on jetfuel, was and is a power of the nature, a monster


showimg.php


wiggo already said that his references performances are those of indurain and rominger. jens won't get nowhere close to that of course
 
jens_attacks said:
of course it's not very honest to sosenka and merckx. but life goes on

sosenka while of course on jetfuel, was and is a power of the nature, a monster


showimg.php


wiggo already said that his references performances are those of indurain and rominger. jens won't get nowhere close to that of course
Interesting, you mean in training test I asume? This could be a way for Wiggo to pass the time for Wiggo, while waiting for Rio..

Would like to se a fully prepared Spartacus give this a go. Would be fun.
 
BigMac said:
That of course, I agree.

In your opinion, is this an honest and serious attempt, or just a marketing/attention seeking stunt?

You asked Jens but I'll give an answer. :)
He is trying to set a new record. He wants to pave the way for the real contenders. I guess you could say he wants to set a new benchmark. Trek seems to think that he will be able to break the current record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGEx84_QQh0&list=UUXgba6tOLghtJuXaD8LBHWg
 
BigMac said:
In your opinion, is this an honest and serious attempt, or just a marketing/attention seeking stunt?

When they asked fabian to actually ride for the hour they got a response like "turns too sharp, road too inclined, bicycle no speeds, air too still, surface too hard, clock too fast, whole thing no good for pro riders".
Then someone thought it'd be good if they could use the argument "if an old man can do it, then you can do it, also, fabian".
You know the rest.
 
trevim said:
I thought it would be a Merckx kind of bike. This looks too much of a TT bike where the technology gets in the way of a direct comparison with Merckx time for instance.
Are they comparable under the new UCI rules?

The question is, should the hour record be about a comparison between athletes, or about finding out how much distance a man on a bike can cover in an hour with state-of-the-art equipment?

I think it can be both, and there should be two official hour records.
 
I'm just peeved that Cookson personally intervened to prevent a top amateur rider from making the hour record attempt by inventing a non-existent bull**** rule that neither exists in their own revised and updated regulations, nor applies to any other track cycling record (or to women for that matter).

I feel like they are only interested in preserving the publicity (and hence monetary) value, not the athletic value of the event. Wouldn't want to risk having an amateur set a record Jens may not beat, would they?

Best of luck to Jens though. It's not his fault.
 
kingjr said:
The question is, should the hour record be about a comparison between athletes, or about finding out how much distance a man on a bike can cover in an hour with state-of-the-art equipment?

I think it can be both, and there should be two official hour records.

There are several records, but not all records are UCI records.
e.g. the current IHPVA/WHPVA hour record is 91.556km
 
kingjr said:
The question is, should the hour record be about a comparison between athletes, or about finding out how much distance a man on a bike can cover in an hour with state-of-the-art equipment?

I think it can be both, and there should be two official hour records.
Yeah I like the idea of "best human effort" label for state-of-the-art equipment. I just don't see how Voigt's bike will be something comparable to Merckx's record....
 
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They should create a new name for this discipline as it has nothing to do with Merckx's or Sosenska's record.

Its like letting 750cc superbike race with 250cc bikes. Completely different race.
 
Jun 18, 2009
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jens_attacks said:
jens paves the way for people like wiggins,fabian or tony martin. so he deserves some respect for that. of course if he fails to beat sosenka : :eek:

anyway i think he will do around 50.5-51 kms. that is my bet

Well said. I don't think he breaks it either. But I know he'll turn himself inside out trying to do so.

Can't wait for Tony Martin to try it.
 
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Jancouver said:
They should create a new name for this discipline as it has nothing to do with Merckx's or Sosenska's record.

Its like letting 750cc superbike race with 250cc bikes. Completely different race.

There are two hour records - UCI Hour Record (which Sosenska beat Boardman who had already beaten Merckx record), and then Best Human Effort (which Boardman achieved using Obrees Superman position).

Did you have a problem with Moser, Obree and Boardman beating Merckx record on bikes that were vastly different to Merckx? I remember when Obree and Boardman set new records, and people back then thought it was awesome. Why is it different now when Jens Voigt is making an attempt (for whatever reason)?
 
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kingjr said:
The question is, should the hour record be about a comparison between athletes, or about finding out how much distance a man on a bike can cover in an hour with state-of-the-art equipment?

I think it can be both, and there should be two official hour records.

I agree, there should be. And . . .

Alex Simmons/RST said:
There are several records, but not all records are UCI records.
e.g. the current IHPVA/WHPVA hour record is 91.556km

Hmmm - there ARE two official hour records!

But we want to see the UCI recognize two, maybe, I guess? Ok.

Back when Obree did it with homebrew tech, I thought it was great, because at the time we needed a little injection of reality into the way things were run. Today, it is different. Hi-tech is everywhere, and it's big money. The frame mfrs have crossed into HPV territory, and we need, as fans, some standards for comparison with historic heroes. If you keep moving the goalposts, there aren't any standards. As a result, I am in favor of a '76 era tech hour record, and a non-faired HPV record (what Jens will be doing), AND a faired HPV record (that's Alex's quoted record). That actually makes 3 hour records.
 
For The World said:
There are two hour records - UCI Hour Record (which Sosenska beat Boardman who had already beaten Merckx record), and then Best Human Effort (which Boardman achieved using Obrees Superman position).

not anymore, there were two

uci recognizes now all of them in the same category but for one reason, sosenka's is regarded as the official record.

sosenka said that he wants to challenge cancellara:D he's waiting for him to set the first serious record
 
kingjr said:
The question is, should the hour record be about a comparison between athletes, or about finding out how much distance a man on a bike can cover in an hour with state-of-the-art equipment?

When they still had common sense, the UCI clearly answered that question: a comparison between athletes, period.

There has never been two hour records, there's always been one and only one and this incompetent little @#&$%£@§*%£ Cookson killed it with his damned stupid reform. Besides the Hour record, there are only a sh*tload of "hour performances" which are NOT the record.

I keep repeating like a parrot but pseudo cycling fans will never hear me that the article 31 of the UCI ruling in 1914 clearly defined what a bike is:

"Les machines de tous types sont légales, équipées ou non de composants tels que changement de vitesse, roues libres, etc., à condition qu'elles fonctionnent seulement par la force de l'homme, qu'elles ne requièrent pas d'appendice ou dispositif pour réduire la résistance de l'air et qu'elles n'excèdent pas les dimensions de 2 mètres en longueur et 75 centimètres en largeur. Ceci s'applique aux machines à un seul cycliste qui occupent une seule file".

Which roughly translates by (I'm speaking under francophone posters' control):

« Machines of all kinds are legal, equipped or not of components such as gear shifting, freewheels, etc on the ground that they are functioning by the only strength of man, that it does not require any appendix or device to cut wind resistance and that it does not exceed a length of 2m and a width of 75cm. This applies to the machines with only one cyclist who occupies only one line.”

By 1913, Marcel Berthet was already experiencing with "streamliners" that he called "vélo-torpille", meant to cut air resistance (for all those who believe aerodynamic devices are recent discoveries !!!) and broke the 1km standing start record.

f1.highres


In 1933, Berthet at age 47 made hour perofrmances with a new kind of "streamliner" called Vélodyne, covering 48.6km in a first attempt, stopping due to a mechanical in a second attempt while on his way to reaching 52km and covering 49.922km.

essai1berthet.gif


Berthet knew that his performances would not be sanctioned as Hour records before he attempted for it but these performances fell under the category: “Bike with special devices to cut air resistance”, in other words, these were the first "Best Hour Performances", 51 years before Moser.

In 1939, Francis Faure bested Berthet's performance in that category with a mark of 50.537 kilometers on a faired recumbent.


This also means none of the riders that set the records in subsequent years were allowed to use the best technology that were available to them since those riders in the 1930's had better technologies AND made better performances.

Berthet was aged 47 and covered a longer distance than Archambaud, Coppi, Ritter, Merckx or even Sosenka ... Same for Faure who was not even a professional cyclist...

Along came Francesco Moser in 1984 with a bike that was clearly equipped with devices to cut air resistance.

I had a lot of debates on the Track section and on the comments of the article earlier this year that celebrated the 30 years of the Moser performances. The truth is that Moser's bike was BLATANTLY illegal and the UCI was too lax with their own rules !! Never any device to cut air resistance! The whole contest was falsified after that, as Théo Mathy pointed out many times...


Merckx lodged a complaint by then and even argued that he had been supplied disc wheels for his 1972 attempt and not given permission. Proof:

84moserhourmk2merckx.jpg


Only by 1996, the UCI finally realized their mistake with the Lugano Charter, which some sort of a back to the roots reform and LOGICALLY re-instated the Merckx record, which Boardman broke in 2000.

And then came Cancellara in 2013, preparing for breaking that Hour, the one and only Hour that exist on a normal bike and this incompetent UCI President to stop him by this stupid shameless rule change. The undertaker of the Hour record. Undertaker of cycling.


If Voigt someday tells his grandchildren that he broke the Hour record, I hope that these grandchildren would make a little bit of research and realize the grampa NEVER broke the only real Hour record. The Hour Record is dead!
 
echoes as always ruining all the fun :p

there are 100 years since that rule which was made for those times anyway, life goes on, we advance, technology advances
you realize too that there is a difference between berthet's "bike" and those of voigt or moser c'mon.
 

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