Campenaerts Breaks Hour Record
Victor Campenaerts, a Belgian time trial specialist racing for Lotto–Soudal, took down Sir Bradley Wiggins' hour record in Aguascalientes, Mexico yesterday.
The new record of 55.089 kilometers bested Wiggin's 2015 record by 563 meters.
The record was broken on a Ridley bike, and Campagnolo components.
The Ridley featured a lot of special innovation. The aerobars were custom molded to Campenaerts' morphology. The pursuit bars were 33cm wide, eminently rideable even on the road (see the 32cm 3T Nano), more so when you realize the only job of these bars is to last half a lap.
It was reported in the leadup to the attempt Campenaerts was waffling between riding 63×15 and 59×14 for his gearing. In the end he chose neither; his record was set riding 61×14.
While Selle Italia is the sponsor of the Lotto Soudal team, every image I've seen on this bike appears to have an ISM aboard it. The pedals were Look Keo Blade 20, and the bike featured C-Bear bearings.
It appears those bars might be a cooperative effort between Ridley and Speedbar.
Wiggins, for his record, chose a smaller gear: 58×14, compared to Campenaerts' 61×14.
Depending on the tire size, the cadence calcs out to somewhere between 99 and 102, depending on tire size. Victor was aiming for 102. Hour records are generally set at a cadence of about 103. And here's the tire. The low pressure rating for this tire is 145psi.
Here is the thread on our Reader Forum discussing this. More to come.
[PHOTOS: Ridley]
