Matthias Brändle reflects on hard Hour Record
It may have been harder and hotter than Matthias Brändle expected, but he still set a new Hour Record

Stated baldly, the distance that Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) covered, 51.852km, does scant justice to the excitement and drama involved. That’s always the way – it was just the same six weeks earlier when Voigt set the record that Brändle broke.
Brändle added a relatively modest 750 metres to Voigt’s distance, riding on the shorter-than-standard 200m track at the UCI headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland.
As with Voigt, Brändle set off strongly. He was not only strong; he was disciplined. As he reeled off 69-second kilometre after 69-second kilometre, on a solid 52.1kph average speed, the record almost began to look like a foregone conclusion. Even Brändle himself admitted afterwards, “At half way I thought I’d got it, I thought I would break the record for sure.”
But then: “It got hard. I had no choice but to slow down. I had to try to recover. I was beginning to get cramps. From about 30 minutes to about 45 was very difficult.”
His advantage over Voigt started to slip, from over 70 seconds, down into the mid-50s. There were concerned faces among his team in the track centre. A implosion in an Hour ride always starts slowly. They admitted later they’d been quite worried – he’d never faltered like this in his longer training rides.
“But after 45 minutes I started to get my rhythm back,” he said. “The closer I got to the end, the easier it became.”
For all that, he never really got back to the consistency of his first 30 minutes. He looked in some distress, and his line on the track grew increasingly ragged. Unlike Voigt, he couldn’t produce a storming rally in the last ten minutes. But he had enough left. “By 50 minutes, I knew that unless something big happened, I was going to do it.”
Was it harder than he expected? “Yes. It was much hotter than it was when we did the big training rides, and I didn’t expect that. I couldn’t have anything to drink, and that made it even harder. But I also felt the crowd, and I knew I was being watched every second of every lap.”
The high probability of his record coming under attack in the coming months didn’t faze him. “I’m on the list, that’s what I wanted. I’m there with some big riders, and now it’s the other guys who have to attack the record. And I’m fine with that. I’ve done what I wanted. I’ll go on holiday, and then get ready for next year.”
UCI President Brian Cookson, who, if he’d wanted to, could have watched the attempt through the window in his office that looks over the track, said, “This is exactly what we wanted from the record. We had an older rider, a retiring rider, who set a mark. Now we have a younger rider stepping up and breaking it. Matthias may even come back to the record some day, when he’s older and stronger. Today it was close, but it was enough, and it was great to have the record here, at the UCI’s own track.”
It’s clear that the UCI is delighted with its rejuvenated Hour record. And clearly the large and very, very noisy crowd that lined the track agreed. The question now is: who goes next? Because one thing’s for sure, and that is that we’re not finished with this record yet.
More on the Hour Record
Matthias Brändle sets new Hour Record
Austrian Matthias Brändle beats Jens Voigt's Hour Record in Aigle, Switzerland, with 51.852km
Matthias Brändle: The next man to attack the Hour Record
Cometh the hour, cometh the man
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Michael Hutchinson is a writer, journalist and former professional cyclist. As a rider he won multiple national titles in both Britain and Ireland and competed at the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games. He was a three-time Brompton folding-bike World Champion, and once hit 73 mph riding down a hill in Wales. His Dr Hutch columns appears in every issue of Cycling Weekly magazine
As a writer, he wrote the award winning The Hour about his attempt on the sport’s most famous and sought-after record. He followed that up with Faster, about the training, the science the genetics and the luck behind the world’s fastest riders, and Re:Cyclists, a history of cyclists from 1816 to the present day.
He’s written for outlets ranging from Cycling Weekly to the New York Times, and has presented and and commentated for the BBC, Eurosport, Channel 4, and Sky Sports.
Before he did any of that he was a legal academic at Cambridge and Sussex universities. He now lives with far too many bicycles in London and Cambridgeshire.
-
-
EF Education-EasyPost and Israel-Premier Tech to race all-new Maryland Classic in September, one of just 4 UCI races in the US
A truly international field slated to attend America's newest UCI race
By Anne-Marije Rook • Published
-
Kristen Faulkner cools down after making a splash at the Giro Donne
The American headed straight for the sea to after winning the stage and taking the Giro Donne overall lead
By Owen Rogers • Published
-
Ellen van Dijk makes history with new Hour Record
The Dutchwoman covered 49.254km to set the new Hour Record at the Velodrome Suisse
By Ryan Dabbs • Published
-
Ellen van Dijk says breaking Hour Record will be difficult: 'Joss Lowden's record is a really high standard'
The Dutchwoman will attempt to break Lowden's distance of 48.405km at the Velodrome Suisse on Monday
By Ryan Dabbs • Published
-
Ellen van Dijk set to attempt women's Hour Record in May
Van Dijk is looking to break Joss Lowden's current record of 48.405km
By Ryan Dabbs • Published
-
British rider breaks junior national Hour Record
British Cycling officiated Fred Meredith's attempt as he rode a record-breaking 49.184km
By Ryan Dabbs • Published
-
Filippo Ganna: 'I will attack the Hour Record at sea level - that gives me more satisfaction'
The Italian also wants success at the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and San-Remo
By Ryan Dabbs • Published
-
Dan Bigham and Michael Hutchinson on how the men's Hour Record can be beaten: 'It’s about keeping everything within your control'
Bigham reset the British Hour Record with a distance of 54.723km in October
By Chris Marshall-Bell • Published
-
Nico Anelli to attempt to break Scottish Hour Record distance to raise awareness of chronic gut conditions: 'It shouldn't be the end of your sporting hopes'
The Scottish time triallist set up his own team, Real Guts Racing, to raise awareness
By Chris Marshall-Bell • Published
-
Alex Dowsett analyses Hour Record attempt: 'I’m confident that was everything I had'
Briton's Hour Record attempt raises over £45,000 for charity
By Ryan Dabbs • Published