When Bradley Wiggins wheeled to a standstill at the London Olympic velodrome after setting a new UCI Hour Record distance of 54.526 kilometres, he barely had a millisecond to ponder what he had achieved. Laps of honour, television cameras thrust at him and a hastily presented jersey to celebrate the distance all had to be presented before an in-house audience and those watching at home.
Finally, when he was brought before the waiting press on the ground floor of the velodrome and away from the sweltering conditions of the track, Wiggins spoke of satisfaction, pride and relief.
Satisfaction over the distance he had covered in an hour – although he admitted that had the air pressure been lower he could have added another 750 meters. Pride at joining an elite club of Tour de France winners who broke the record that includes Miguel Indurain and Eddy Merckx, and relief in finally completing the goal he set out to accomplish upon departing Team Sky in April.
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“It’s a huge relief more than anything. I was confident that I could break the record but until you actually go through the process and do it there’s always that element, not doubt, but until it’s done…” he said at the start of his press conference.
In truth, Wiggins achieved no more and no less what was expected of him, which in itself is a rather telling footnote to the recent indulgence of Hour Records. With Dowsett, Dennis, Bobridge and the rest the pre-match conjecture had been whether the record could be broken. With Wiggins it was a matter of by how much he could move the bar.
In conditions that were far from favourable he set about dismantling Dowsett’s record lap by lap. He was under record pace from the outset and had the air pressure been lower – it was at the highest it had been in recent weeks – he could have gone above 55 kilometres.
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