American Ashton Lambie is confident he can break Filippo Ganna’s new individual pursuit world record time when he travels to altitude in April.
Lambie is set to go to Bolivia with British track team Huub-Wattbike to mount an assault on the individual pursuit, team pursuit and hour records.
Despite being bested by Ganna in the final of the individual pursuit at the Wrold Championships in Berlin today, Lambie said he was convinced he could make up the deficit at altitude.
Although he was beated in the final, in the qualifying round in Berlin Lambie posted a time of 4:03.640 to reach the final, putting him 1.7 seconds off Ganna’s World Record time of 4:01.934.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com - 28/02/2020 - 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships presented by Tissot - Das Velodrom, Berlin, Germany - Ashton Lambie of The USA during the Mens Individual Pursuit Gold Finals.
The American was full of admiration for Ganna’s qualifying ride. “It's textbook,” he said. “He was just dead on the split that he wanted to ride the whole time. It's incredible. It's super impressive.”
But he still felt that simply by going to altitude he could overcome the gap between their two times. “A 4.03 at sea level bodes well for 8,500ft of altitude. That’s a good few seconds, for sure,” he said.
After the USA failed to qualify a men's team pursuit team for the Olympics in Tokyo this summer Lambie has been given him some freedom. “My form has gotten a lot better from not having to balance like team pursuit and individual pursuit a little bit and being able to go full focus on this. I can kind of do my own training. It helps a lot for sure,” he said.
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When asked if he felt that he could even break the four minute barrier he said: “Oh, absolutely. I mean, honestly, I'm surprised he didn't do today. I mean, he has had a tough team pursuit the last couple of days. But I was fully expecting that to happen and I would have been over the moon to see that. It would have been awesome.”
Lambie is likely to ride against Huub-Wattbike team-mate John Archibald when the team makes the trip.
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Having trained as a journalist at Cardiff University I spent eight years working as a business journalist covering everything from social care, to construction to the legal profession and riding my bike at the weekends and evenings. When a friend told me Cycling Weekly was looking for a news editor, I didn't give myself much chance of landing the role, but I did and joined the publication in 2016. Since then I've covered Tours de France, World Championships, hour records, spring classics and races in the Middle East. On top of that, since becoming features editor in 2017 I've also been lucky enough to get myself sent to ride my bike for magazine pieces in Portugal and across the UK. They've all been fun but I have an enduring passion for covering the national track championships. It might not be the most glamorous but it's got a real community feeling to it.
