Martin Brändle can breathe a sigh of relief. The Hour Record he set last October in Switzerland still stands after he witnessed the first attack today on the velodrome in Melbourne where Jack Bobridge made an attempt. The Australian covered 51.300km which was around 0.5km less than the 51.852 set by the IAM rider in Aigle.

As a pursuit rider, Bobridge started strongly. De did his first four and a half kilometres in around 4.30. At that point, he had lad times of less than 7 seconds and was clearly better than Brändle at this point. But since then, he lap times stabilized at 17.5 seconds and later he used more than 18 seconds to cover the 250m.

Having done more than 30km, Bobridge started to lose ground to Brändle. However, the Budget Forklifts rider had something left in the tank for a final acceleration in the last ten minutes. He gained ground on Brändle but it was two late and he missed two laps to get the record.

The next attempt will be made next Sunday, February 8 in Grenchen when Rohan Dennis will try to beat the record.

"I'm busted," admitted Bobridge. “I think the hour record is tremendously underestimated. It is the hardest effort I've done in my life. Hats off to Martin Brandle and all riders who have achieved the record. It is something special.”

Bobridge has the consolation prize of having beaten the Australian record pf 50.052km that was set by Bradley McGee in 1997.