The hour is nigh, but right now, in the depths of the off-season, Alex Dowsett can't say precisely when it will come around. The Movistar rider is aiming to regain the UCI Hour Record in 2017, but has yet to determine how to shoehorn those unforgiving sixty minutes into his racing schedule.
"What I'd love to do is another hour record attempt. There's a lot of people who want me to do it within the team, but just getting it together is logistically difficult," Dowsett told Cyclingnews at the Rouleur Classic in London, adding that the velodrome in Manchester is the most likely venue for another tilt at the hour.
The UCI's decision to relax the restrictions on aerodynamic positions breathed new life into the Hour Record a little over two years ago, with no fewer than five new marks being established between September 2014 and June 2015.
ADVERTISEMENT
In May 2015, Dowsett covered 52.397 kilometres in Manchester to eclipse Rohan Dennis' record, only for Bradley Wiggins to surpass that new milestone by over 1,500 metres the following month in London. Wiggins' distance of 54.526 kilometres remains the benchmark, but Dowsett is not perturbed by the lofty new target. As in 2015, the starting aim will be to exceed the existing record by the bare minimum.
"We'll attack it the same way we attacked the last one and just look to break it – no egos, no trying to prove how good we are. We just want to get that record and do it in the most conservative, risk-safe way as possible. We're not interested in putting on a big old show because it's a big mark," Dowsett said. "But it's in me. The numbers show that it's in me."
While Eddy Merckx's weary assertion of "I'll never try it again" on setting his mark in Mexico City in 1972 have echoed in history, a second (or even a third) tilt at the Hour Record has hardly proved an insurmountable psychological barrier over the years, as shown by Messrs. Moser, Rominger, Boardman and Obree.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2fyuQiW
No comments:
Post a Comment