Former Hour Record holder Matthias Brändle has said that he may try and beat Victor Campenaerts current record in the future.
Austrian Brändle set a world record distance of 51.852km in October 2014, but had his mark bettered by Rohan Dennis in February 2015.
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In April of this year, Belgian Campenaerts posted 55.089km at altitude in Mexico, beating Bradley Wiggins’ distance of 54.526km that had stood for almost four years.
Brändle, who will race in the WorldTour again next year for Isreal Cycling Academy, is not rated among the best time triallists in the peloton, but has enjoyed a relative degree of success in the discipline and is eyeing up a second attempt at the Hour.
“In my mind, one day I will give it another try,” the 29-year-old told Cycling Weekly. “I don’t think Victor’s record is unbreakable.
“My primary goal was only to break the record. I wasn’t racing for the most kilometres.
“When Wiggins rode his attempt, I then asked myself the question ‘how far can I go?’. I was fourth in the European Games time trial [in 2017, nine seconds shy of winner Campenaerts] and sent my numbers to my coach.
“He said that with a super-fast bike, with a good amount of time to prepare, in the right conditions, that I could break his [Wiggins’] record with the numbers that I was managing to do.”
Brändle, whose first experience of riding on the track came in the weeks before he set a new distance in 2014, believes that with a dedicated support crew helping him, and with half-a-season focused on superseding Campenaerts’ benchmark, he can claim the record once more.
“When I did it, it was a small project – three weeks in total,” he said.
“We adjusted the bike a bit, but if we want to break the record again, we would have to do serious preparation.
“You would have to spend six months preparing for it. It’s a big project. At the moment I don’t have a date, and I’m not sure if I ever will do it again, but it’s an idea.”
The five-time Austrian national time trial champion is aware that his current team or future employers may be reluctant to sacrifice his services in a quest to beat a record that he may not beat.
“If I do it, I’d have to take half the road season off and that’s a problem with the team,” he admitted. “Teams pay riders to race and I’d be taking three or four months off.
“It’s expensive, too. It’s not just about taking the bike and doing it, you have to look at every detail. I’ve not done any research yet but all the big results have come at altitude.
“Victor took every detail into account, and he decided Mexico was the best location. The first time I rode on the track was in Aigle [before he set the Record]. If I take the project on again I will take on specialists and hire them.”
