How far could you cycle in an hour?
In August, Britons Charlie Tanfield and Will Bjergfelt set out in pursuit of the elusive hour record, one of the most infamous cycling challenges in the world.
One track. 250m laps. One hour. Supported by Shell UK, can they become world record holders?
00:00 Intro
00:12 “It’s just a damn cool thing to do”
00:37 Meet Will and Charlie
02:41 The day before
04:00 How do you prepare for an hour record?
05:33 “The first 20 minutes are free”
06:54 Building
08:01 Where the hour is won or lost
09:58 Elation
11:37 Reflections
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Music: Adobe Stock
Additional photography: Alex Whitehead / SWpix.com and Luis El Toro / El Toro Media
Additional thanks: Türkiye Bisiklet Federasyonu, UKSI, and Dan Bigham
Powered by: Shell UK
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you’re really on a knife edge. You speak to any other cyclist that’s not tried it and they just don’t understand. The pain will come. You don’t have to chase it. We’re just massochists, aren’t we? It’s not really a natural thing to do to be honest. Make yourself suffer for so long and push yourself into that kind of horrendous place. It’s just a damn cool thing to do. And it gains so much respect and attention that so many people want to try it, but very few have the confidence to go for it. The hour record is iconic within cycling. If you put your name in the record books for breaking the hour record, you’ve forever done it. My name is William Bilfeld. I am a C5 parasyclist for Great Britain and I will be having a crack at the C5 men’s UCI parasycling world record presented by TEST. on the Veladrome which is a 250 meter track. We have one hour to complete as many laps or meters of that track as we possibly can. Charlie’s going for the elite men’s record. So, they’re two very different things in a degree whilst they are the same at the same time. His will be just insane. I mean, the bar has been set so high by so many people over the last few years. Well, you got to be like top top of your game. Hi, I’m Charlie Townfield and I’m an endurance track cyclist. I’ve done team pursuiting throughout my whole career and now I’m given a go the hour record. It’s been a very long journey to get here. I want to break the world hour record now. It’s um pretty much a multi-year project. It’s incredibly challenging in so many different respects. I can’t remember who said it, but somebody said it takes decades off your life. Maybe it does just from the sheer stress of preparing for one. I’m Dan Migum. I’ve been involved in many different hour record projects. I held the world record. I currently hold the British hour record and it’s something that has been a constant theme in my career, my life. I’ve wanted to do it since Yenv, a German rider who was kind of a cycling hero of mine as I grew up, did the men’s record. I didn’t ever think back then that I’d be doing the parro one. But yeah, once the accident happened to me and I became a parasyclist, it was something that I thought of quite a bit. That’s something that I just think would be amazing to have on my Palmy. I’ I’ve been interested in it since I was a young lad. It’s a bit of a weird thing to be interested in I guess but yeah I I Brad Wiggins when he took it back in I think it was 2016 I I remember watching that I was like wow this looks like the ultimate challenge and since then it’s moved on so much camping arts Dan as well he took it and then lately Ghana so it’s insanely quick but yeah I just was inspired by that and I thought at some point in my career I really want to give it a go I want to just say that I’ve attempted it and just give it my best shot and not have any regrets afterwards. Initially at the early stages of planning this whole thing, I basically went through every single vel in the world. It was 3 or 4 months before the con nations cup. I saw the conome and I was like, “Oh, wow. This is where where it needs to be.” Like this is perfect. The vel is absolutely beautiful. The wood’s nice. The air density is mind-blowing. And that’s made everything feel a lot easier. taken off bit of pressure in a sense of the training that I’ve done back at home for the past six months running into this event feels like it’s going to pay off dividends uh when I have the effort tomorrow when it was talked about all the way back at the start of the year and it was kind of a pipeline dream. It’s been a dream of mine to do it for years anyway. So to now finally be here realizing that dream is is amazing. It really is incredible. It feels absolutely amazing to have the full backing of GB behind us. It’s incredible to have all of the partners, Shell, Lloyds, LA, producing custom skin suit for myself. It’s mind-blowing. The Hope Lotus bike is just insane. I’ve never ridden anything as quick as it in all my life. I think it I think it started to gradually sink in as I’ve been here. Um, but yeah, it’s it’s an hour record and um it’s it’s big, you know, in terms of endurance cycling. It’s yeah, the most challenging event you can do. So, yeah, it’s exciting. I can’t wait to go out there tomorrow and show you what I’m capable of. How do you prepare for an hour record preparation perspective and an execution? You you need to have a good plan of what you want to focus on. There’s the physiological side which is is a massive component. You obviously want to put as much energy in as you can. That kind of preparation begins from the moment you start riding a bike. And really then when it comes down to it, it’s just that final preparation on the day. The unique thing about the hour record is it is entirely in your control. You pick the day, you pick the equipment, you pick the plan. There is nowhere to hide because it is absolutely your responsibility for every aspect of your attempt. The heat maintenance, the effort perception and the aerodynamics is all come into play for your performance. If you want to get a bit geeky, it’s great for that. It’s just one of these things I’ve always wanted to do. We’re just massochists, aren’t we? I mean, like, yeah, we we love to go out there and really hurt ourselves and push ourselves and um just try and inspire people as well at the same time. The current men’s record is 47.9 kilometers for the C5 men parasycling. And personally, I’ve got a goal of around 50 kilometers, which will mean riding 200 laps. I’ve been doing quite a few sessions on my turbo trainer, actually in full winter kit with no fan, so that I can simulate the heat as well as the position, the cadence, and the power that I’m going to need to put down. It’s really, really exciting for me. I definitely want to inspire people to take the parasycling hour record up. In a word, I’m feeling incredibly excited. Yeah, it’s been a long time. It feels like now I just want to get there and just give it a go and and say I’ve done it, you know, like it’s I’ I’ve been working hard for this. That’s it. Come on, mate. Build into it. The first 20 minutes is actually is quite chill. You actually have to be careful in the first 20. The back end, it can bite you. So, you have to be really conservative at the start. First 20 minutes is brief. for the effort. It should feel like you’ve gone out for a Sunday ride. The pain will come. You don’t you don’t have to chase it. There’s a problem if you’ve gone out too hard because you’re never then getting that back. When I set off, I was like, “Okay, this is fine. This is fine.” You have to be like ultra disciplined. It’s one of these ones where it really tests your like true ability to like measure your effort and have some grit and determination to try and get through it. Really control that pace. Don’t get carried away because the effort does come round. is the fatigue that it builds in your hands, your arms, and your hip flexors. I’m hopeful that actually if I’m quite conservative in that first half of the effort, then the latter half of it, I’ll be able to really push it on. It’s just about that comfort when you’re in that position for an hour, you can’t afford to move. You have to be really, really disciplined. Your head can’t move. You were trying to give them the encouragement and you’re trying to keep them on the straight and narrow. But I think the physical exertion, I can’t think of a more pure event in terms of cycling and just being up against it. Like it’s just a super super hard record to try and break. The middle 20 is really where you build. You need to have a good plan of what you want to focus on. The record is measured on the black line, not how far you actually ride. It’s how many laps you ride. So having the ability to ride close to that black line time and again for well over 200 laps is a critical performance determinant. How do you get focus? How do you recover through those hard points because they will exist. Everybody has those those little mental wobbles throughout what is quite a lonely hour. You’re the only person in the drove who doesn’t really know what’s going on. You can’t see the timing board. Uh all you’re getting is your feedback from your coach and you hope that’s enough to pace and to execute to. It’s pretty easy to get distracted to stay concentrated in position putting out power. You want to think of as fewer things as possible. An hour is a long time when you’re rocking around the track. It’s very different to road riding though. Like you got your static position in the bike. You don’t move. You don’t get the saddle. And it’s a very tight hip angle. So, you got to be able to hold that the whole ride. It it really is a beast. You have to be so in tune with your body. And I think it just comes from experience. Like, okay, I’m suffering now, but can I hang on to this to the finish? And then that last 20 is where it’s won or lost. And we did a a really good statical analysis on this on the breaking point of the hour. Pretty much around 45 minutes, things start to go sideways or downwards for a lot of people. There’s so many things that can go wrong. I think this is probably why people call it the most difficult thing you can try. I went out at a pace that was what I thought was not too far away, but I think quickly realized by the halfway point that yes, it’s starting to bite quite a lot. And I quickly realized after like 35 36 minutes, I was getting too hot and my legs were starting to feel a little bit a little bit fatigue creeping into my legs. I could see then I think about the 35 minute mark, you could see the pain starting to etch on his face. It’s a long long 25 minutes from that point. I was expecting to see and wanted to see those tents starting to come down and unfortunately for Charlie yesterday they kind of held like everyone knows as soon as that starts going the other way on the fixed gear. When you’re fighting against the elements by yourself it’s a really hard task to pull that back. He’s flying close to the sun at any point you’re really on a knife edge there. and you’re trying to do 56k an hour for an hour on the track against the elements, you you run the risk of it going the other way. By the 40minute mark, I was hanging on. I was I was in a world of pain and everything was just yeah in agony. My arms had gone, so I was kind of like struggling to even hold myself up on the bike. My core temp was skyhigh. So, I was kind of like almost getting tunnel vision cuz I was so hot. There’s nothing you can do to bring it back at that point. Like, you’re done. I never suffered so much in my life. You You’re hanging in there for grim death. You just got to try and suffer through it. You have to like just keep on going and going and going. [Music] You should be hanging on in your last two laps. You shouldn’t have more to give. I started steady, built into the effort, sustained it, and then got faster towards the end. And I think that’s the perfect way to do an hour. I don’t think that it really could have gone much better for him. [Applause] [Music] some big days. Hip flexors, triceps. Thank you. Thank you everyone. What’s up, Joe? Give us a hug. Great job. Thank you. Well done, Bergies, says Martin. Yes. world record holder. This is something that means so much to me. I’ve wanted this for so long. It’s why I’ve put myself through torturous training sessions. Today is just the reward for the hard work that I’ve put in. And it’s thanks to everyone behind the scenes at Great Britain Cycling Team who’s put all the hard work into putting me on the best equipment to do the best performance I could do today. Thanking everyone, my family for the sacrifice that they’ve afforded me as well right the way through my whole career. I think whilst I was going around the track and everyone was cheering at the end there, it started to to hit home. But yeah, I mean, uh I don’t think it’s really quite hit home yet that I’ve smashed a world record on the track and that’s that’s a dream come true. I’m dissatisfied. I think it was a a hard process. You speak to any other cyclist that’s not tried it and I just they just don’t understand. Like I’m sorry. They just don’t like it’s it’s not it’s it’s it’s in it’s incomparable to to anything else. Even if you were to do that effort on the turbo easy compared to this it’s easy. Like it’s it does not get close. That’s not to say I don’t want ever want to do it again. I don’t know. It’s maybe in a few more years. I don’t know. I’ve got so much respect for anyone who’s tried it and yeah even more for people who have taken records cuz it’s is it’s crazy. Like yeah, it’s one of these ones where from the outside you don’t see it like you don’t see it until you’ve done it. So it’s been a a roller coaster of an experience. One for Great Britain. [Music]
2 Comments
Joy and pain. Yin and yang. But well done to both
Kudoses to both.