Thomas Dekker falls short in Hour Record attempt

Thomas Dekker has fallen short in his attempt to set a new Hour Record at the Aguascalientes velodrome in Mexico, clocking a reported 52.221km.

The Dutchman, who is without a professional team in 2015, began strongly, lapping in the mid 17s, and seemed to pick up his speed around the 35-minute mark.

But Dekker could not maintain the pace or his line around the track as the clock ticked past 45 minutes.

Not known for his expertise on the track, Dekker struggled to ride close to the track’s black line – something that Australian Rohan Dennis excelled at in his successful attempt earlier in February.

With little information available from the Mexico track, Dekker looked to be some way off the pace, but when the hour concluded it was shown that he had completed just fewer than 210 laps of the 250m track.

Before the attempt, Dekker’s coach announced the rider would target 52.5km, just metres further than Dennis’ mark.

With a massive 58/14 gear equipped to his Koga bike, the 30-year-old found it difficult to stay on top of his desired cadence and ultimately fell just 270m short.

Dekker’s distance of 52.221km puts him second on the all-time list, 379m ahead of Matthias Brändle’s former record.