Victor Campenaerts has held the UCI Hour Document for greater than three years, however he suspects his reign will come to an finish this week.
In actual fact, the Belgian says he’s “fairly satisfied” that Dan Bigham will surpass his benchmark of 55.089km when he takes to the boards of the Grenchen velodrome in Switzerland on Friday lunchtime.
Campenaerts, who broke Bradley Wiggins’ four-year file in Mexico in April 2019, believes Bigham’s involvement with Ineos Grenadiers will give him the sting. Bigham isn’t a full-time skilled rider however works as a efficiency engineer for the British staff, who fall beneath the umbrella of a wider Ineos sporting challenge that has additionally seen a profitable try at a sub-two-hour marathon by Eliud Kipchoge.
“I am fairly satisfied he’ll break the file. Ineos is a severe firm they usually would not assist an try if they didn’t suppose it could achieve success,” Campenaerts informed Cyclingnews.
“We’ll see. I do not know Dan in any respect, I do not know what his stage is in the intervening time. I simply know he is very sensible and really a lot into aerodynamics, and when Ineos assist an try, I am satisfied will probably be severe.”
This will likely be Bigham’s second Hour Document try in lower than a 12 months, though it will be the primary eligible for the official UCI world file, given he’s now a part of the governing physique’s anti-doping pool. That was not the case final October when he lined 54.723km in Grenchen, which might not have crushed Campenaerts’ file even when eligible, however nonetheless noticed him break Wiggins’ British file.
Bigham has spent his profession dabbling in time trialling and observe racing whereas additionally utilizing his tutorial background to participate in a variety of initiatives, from his personal Wattshop part firm to consultancy work for the likes of Jumbo-Visma, the Danish federation and now, on a full-time foundation, Ineos Grenadiers.
“Dan isn’t a widely known rider, however he has loads of expertise on the observe and he is an professional in marginal features,” Campenaerts mentioned.
“Again within the day, you may solely break the Hour Document for those who received the Tour de France however because the new guidelines in 2014 it has turn into one thing completely completely different. It is all about marginal features, which I benefited from, however Dan is already approach forward of my ranges of aerodynamics.
“Dan already did an try, he got here very shut, and now he is working for Ineos 24/7. So with out doing a greater bodily efficiency than final time, he can go additional.”
The query is, how far?
“I do not suppose will probably be a detailed name with my file,” Campenaerts mentioned. “I feel he’ll at the least put in a single lap on me, so at the least 250 metres. It is also fairly doable he’ll get nearer to 56km.”
Campenaerts is calm in providing a prediction that might see a world file taken from his arms, however he is proud of the run he is had.
“I’ve had the file for fairly a while. Information are there to be damaged,” he mentioned. “I will be wanting ahead to watching it.”
