HOUR RECORD

FROM CYCLINGPOWERLAB

The hour record has long been seen as the purest test of a cyclist’s physical and mental abilities, truly “an hour against oneself”, and it is for good reason that riders prefer to register this benchmark only at the pinnacle of their careers. Recent attempts have increasingly employed sport science and engineering to assist with preparation and pacing, adding a new simplicity to the endeavour. Why simplicity? Because the required pattern is very transparent: make intelligent equipment choices that minimise power losses to friction and rolling resistance, optimise the aerodynamics of the bike at zero yaw, then work on position and conditioning to maximise the rider’s ratio of sustainable power to aerodynamic drag: Watts/m^2 CdA. The progression of the record, then, is predictable, and we can model it. 

There are now multiple tools on this website that could be used to model, explain, or predict hour record performances, but in the interests of keeping things simple we have built this dedicated calculator. Altitude plays some part in the performance, so you start by selecting any of the tracks where the record has been set (or could be set), configuring an air density typical for the altitude of the track. The rest of the parameters (weight, Crr, CdA, power) are for you to define, at realistic levels. What’s realistic? Well the defaults have been set to the numbers we know and estimate from Jens Voight’s ride on September 18th 2014, indicating a distance of 51.11 km. A Crr of 0.002 is pushing the lower limit for a track environment, so aside from plugging in some other rider’s weight the predicted distance is mostly a function of CdA and sustainable power. Test your own views on that, or else look at our Analysis of World Tour Time Trials to estimate where the world class limits are laying. 

Do you have comments or observations about the modelling of hour record performances? Feel free to get in touch.