Having previously expressed interest in the record, Fabian Cancellara is working on the details to make an hour record attempt in 2014. Next week, the Swiss will sit down with Luca Guercilena, the manager of his Trek team, to plan the details and find the most suitable time for the attempt.
Fabian Cancellara has long expressed his desire to try to revive the prestige that once surrounded the hour record, and the Swiss has now decided to go forward with his plans. An attempt to break the historic record is planned for the 2014 season, with Cancellara currently discussing the details with his Trek management.
The record is currently held by Ondrej Sosenka who covered 49,700km in Moscow in 2005. Unfortunately, Sosenka's career ended when he tested positive methamphetamine at the Czech time trial championships three years later.
The record lost its prestige when the UCI decided to ban tri-bars and re-set the record to Eddy Merckx’s 49.431km set in 1972. At that time, the record was held by Chris Boardman who had covered 56.375km but that performance is now only seen as "Best Human Effort". Previous records set by Francesco Moser (1984), Graeme Obree (1993 and 1994), Miguel Indurain (1994) and Tony Rominger (1994) were also deleted from the official list due to the rule changes.
In October 2000, Boardman ended his career by reclaiming the record, clocking 49.441km in Manchester. Since then, none of the sport's major stars have shown any interest in attempting to cover a longer distance but Sosenka improved the mark in 2005.
Cancellara will sit down with team manager Luca Guercilena next week to discuss the details at a Trek get together in Belgium.
“First of all we’ll study the equipment with the engineers from Trek, then we’ll decide the right moment to go for it," Guercilena explained to Gazzetta dello Sport. "The ideal moment would be after a peak of form: he needs three weeks of specific training to get used to the track."
“There are two possible moments in the season: after the spring Classics or after the first of the two Grand Tours that Fabian has on his programme."
It has earlier been reported that Cancellara was likely to make his attempt in his native Switzerland on the new track in Grenchen. However, those plans appear to have been changed.
“The track has to be the fastest there is,” Guercilena said. “We haven‘t done any specific tests but speaking to experts, it seems there are three fast tracks: Manchester, Aguascalientes (Mexico) and Anadia (Portugal)."
After having dominated the time trial scene, Cancellara has lost his crown to Tony Martin in recent years. He showed glimpses of his former level in the discipline when he beat Martin in the time trial at the Vuelta in September before taking bronze at the world championships.
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