Thomas Dekker came amazingly close to breaking the Hour Record last night, falling just a lap short of dethroning Australia’s Rohan Dennis.
Despite looking like he would fall some way short throughout his effort, the Dutchman pulled off a great performance, but was somewhat let down by the shambolic television coverage of the event.
As we noted when Jack Bobridge attempted the record at the end of January, information for the viewer is a pretty important thing in order to maintain interest. Shown live on Eurosport, Dekker’s attempt at least featured an on-screen clock, but when that was found to be running slow the whole spectacle veered sharply towards being a debacle.
Twitter was ablaze with scorn and satire as we were treated to various snapshots of a lady writing numbers on a piece of paper in the middle of the track – the only way anyone could keep track of what was going on.
Luckily, Hour Record aficionado and Cycling Weekly columnist Michael Hutchinson was on hand to provide some information, but even the Doctor was left a bit in the dark.
No information on feed other than elapsed time, and there are interview cutaways, so there's no way to monitor his progress. #UCIHourRecord
— Michael Hutchinson (@Doctor_Hutch) February 25, 2015
The UK’s top cycling brain, UK Cycling Expert, tried to reassure us that this pen and paper technique was pretty common in the sport, but the world was not convinced.
Union of Cycling Internationally are using state of the art pen and paper to record times. Cycling is a sport that use a lot of technology
— UK Cycling Expert (@ukcyclingexpert) February 25, 2015
MT @hendriksmj: 106 rounds in 29.55. Fourteen seconden ahead of Dennis' scedule pic.twitter.com/0hGc0weV9A
— Reno (@renovandael) February 25, 2015
As the hour went by, however, there was some concern that no-one at the track would actually tell Dekker when the 60 minutes was up.
I once actually, literally failed to organise a piss up in a brewery. But I could have done better than this for coverage. #UCIHourRecord
— Michael Hutchinson (@Doctor_Hutch) February 25, 2015
I make that an hour.
— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) February 25, 2015
But instead of the traditional gunshot to signal the end of the hour, a lady by the track rang a bell, bringing even more confusion.
Think they had a bell instead of a gunshot at 209 laps. Lap 210 was the 'partial' lap for the distance calculation. So 52.22? #UCIHourRecord
— Michael Hutchinson (@Doctor_Hutch) February 25, 2015
Then the backlash really started, with ITV’s very own Ned Boulting leading the charge.
TV Production Company: "Do we REALLY need a clock and stuff?"
Organisers: "Nah. It's only cycling."
TV Production Company: "See you in Rio."— Ned Boulting (@nedboulting) February 25, 2015
How can something as simple as timing 1hour exactly while counting how many laps the rider completes, go so very wrong #UCIHourRecord
— Jody Cundy OBE (@jodycundy) February 25, 2015
Former doper pins hopes of career rebirth on single, physically-crushing event, falls 200m short after over 52,000 meters. Good story.
— Caley Fretz (@CaleyFretz) February 25, 2015
But damn that was some terrible television.
— Caley Fretz (@CaleyFretz) February 25, 2015
Impressive and solid effort by @thomasdekker… Less than 1 lap short of the record. Hopefully shoddy time keeping didn't hurt his pacing.
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) February 25, 2015
But cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, distanced themselves from the farce.
For what it’s worth, TV production of @thomasdekker #UCIHourRecord attempt is NOT down to us. #uurrecord
— UCI (@UCI_cycling) February 25, 2015
But luckily Dr Hutch is prepared for Sarah Storey’s record attempt in London on Saturday.
All sorted for @damesarahstorey's #uciHourRecord on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/VRJFgjgpG3
— Michael Hutchinson (@Doctor_Hutch) February 25, 2015
