Jens Voigt breaks 1 hour record
Jens Voigt managed 51.115 kms tonight in Grenchen, Switzerland to break the UCI 1 hour record with tons of fans from around the world watching on and yelling shut up legs.
On the track in Grenchen Voigt looked very confident and did not go out too hard as some had feared from this hard riding German. Voigt was ahead of the record from the start and slowly edged away on his Trek dual disc equipped track bike as the Alphamantis' track aero system kept track of his effort in real time. Voigt reached 16.25 km in 19:32.5 minutes, was at 27.75 in 33:23.7 minutes and that is when he finally started to twitch a bit and adjust his position slightly. But his lap times on the 250 meter track were constantly under 18 seconds. After 38:32.4 minutes he reached 32 kilometers and 45:12.1 minutes in he had reached 37.5 kilometers. Voigt then cruised through the 40 kilometer mark in 48:15.7 minutes and after a few out of the saddle sprints in the last 10 minutes Voigt broke the record ahead of his own predicted distance.
Voigt was shown his lap speed via this tablet and this was actually one of his slower laps early on.
Jens Voigt looked very calm and relaxed when he got started.
Voigt rode lap after lap under 18 seconds and towards the end he hammered under 17 seconds per 250 meters.
This record distance will stand once ratified, but it looks to be solid. The distance is actually the 9th longest ever with Chris Boardman's 56.35 km still at the very top, but with the new rule of records counting with bikes that conform to UCI rules at the time of the ride, Voigt will be on top of the heap. Until a person like Tony Martin gets the itch to chase that world record.
