Cycling's World Hour Record

Bradley Wiggins world hour record ride can be watched here

Note: Early in 2014 the UCI modified the rules for bikes used in World Hour Record attempts. Now a rider can use a bike that currently conforms to the rules for track pursuit bikes. That means aero bars and disc wheels, among other things.

The World Hour Record is the greatest distance traveled on a bike in one hour. For most of its history World Hour Record attempts were done on a normal track bike on a velodrome. The first instance of a record done at altitude was when William Hamilton rode 40,781 meters at a Denver velodrome.

In 1968 Ole Ritter traveled to the Mexico City velodrome and added over a half-kilometer to Ferdi Bracke's record. Eddy Merckx also took advantage of the thin air in Mexico City to establish a record in 1972.

From then on the record was extended mainly through the use of improved aerodynamics, in both equipment and rider postion.

Concerned that the record was losing relevance and that the athlete's performance was being lost in the technological innovation, in September 2000, the UCI established 2 Hour Records:

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Hour Record. Done on a normal track bike with a normal riding postion. At the time of the change Eddy Merckx's 1972 record was re-established as the valid World Hour Record. Since then the record has been extended. There are several numbers given for Coppi's record, I've posted the official UCI distance.

Best Human Effort. For those records using upright bikes without fairings but with other aero equiment such as disc wheels, aero bars and with special aerodynamic rider postions being allowed.

This was a rational way for the UCI to handle the diverging goals of the record setters. It has been calculated (bikecult.com) that Eddy Merckx required a sustained effort of 485 watts while Francesco Moser's effort on a modern time-trial bike with disc wheels that took him over a kilometer further needed only(!) 446 watts.

It is also interesting to note that the cadence of successful record holder has hovered near 100 rpm for the last centrury.

The 1893 record setter, Henri Desgrange, later became the founder and organizer of the Tour de France.

World Hour Record
Date	Name and Nationality	Track	Distance (meters)	Increase (meters)	Links
May 11, 1893	Desgrange, Henri (France)	Paris	35,325
Oct 31, 1894	Dubois, Jules (France)	Paris	38,220	2,895
July 30, 1897	van Den Eynde, Oscar (Belgium)	Paris	39,240	1,020
July 3, 1898	Hamilton, William (U.S.A.)	Denver	40,781	1,541
Aug 8, 1905	Petit-Breton, Lucien (France)	Paris	41,110	329
June 20, 1907	Berthet, Marcel (France)	Paris	41,520	410	The story
Aug 22, 1912	Egg, Oscar (Switzerland)	Paris	42,122	602
Aug 7, 1913	Berthet, Marcel (France)	Paris	42,741	619
Aug 21, 1913	Egg, Oscar (Switzerland)	Paris	43,525	784
Sept 20, 1913	Berthet, Marcel (France)	Paris	43,775	250
Aug 18, 1914	Egg, Oscar (Switzerland)	Paris	44,247	472
Aug 8, 1933	Van Hout, Jan (Netherlands)	Roermond	44,588	388	Record not certified by UCI
Sept 28, 1933	Richard, Maurice (France)	Saint Trond	44,777	189
Oct 31, 1935	Olmo, Giuseppe (Italy)	Milan	45,090	313	Photo of Olmo
Oct 14, 1936	Richard, Maurice (France)	Milan	45,325	235
Sept 29, 1937	Slaats, Frans (Netherlands)	Milan	45,485	160
Nov 3, 1937	Archambaud, Maurice (France)	Milan	45,767	282
Nov 7, 1942	Coppi, Fausto (Italy)	Milan	45,848	31
June 6, 1956	Anquetil, Jacques (France)	Milan	46,159	369
Sept 19, 1956	Baldini, Ercole (Italy)	Milan	46,394	235
Sept 18, 1957	Riviere, Roger (France)	Milan	46,923	529
Oct 30, 1967	Bracke, Ferdinand (Belgium)	Rome	48,093	746
Oct 10, 1968	Ritter, Ole (Denmark)	Mexico City	48,653	560
Oct 25, 1972	Merckx, Eddy (Belgium)	Mexico City	49,432	779	The story
Oct 27 2000	Chris Boardman (UK)	Manchester	49,441	9
July 19, 2005	Ondrej Sosenka (CZE)	Moscow	49,700	259
Sep 18, 2014	Jens Voigt (Germany)	Grenchen, Switzerland	51,115	1,415
Oct 30, 2014	Matthias Brändle (Austria)	Aigle, Switzerland	51,852	742
Feb 8, 2015	Rohan Dennis	Grenchen, Switzerland	52,491	639
May 2, 2015	Alex Dowsett (UK)	Manchester, U.K.	52,937	446
June 7, 2015	Bradley Wiggins (UK)	London, U.K.	54,526	1,589	See the video of his ride
April 16, 2019	Victor Campenaerts (Belgium)	Aguascalientes, Mexico	55,089	563 meter increase
Aug 19, 2022	Dan Bigham (UK)	Grenchen, Switzerland	55,546	457
Oct 8 2022	Filippo Ganna (IT)	Grenchen, Switzerland	56,792	1,244

 

Best Human Effort (1984 - 2014)
Jan 19, 1984	Moser, Francesco (Italy)	Mexico City	50,808	Increase over Eddy Merckx's 1972 record: 1,376
Jan 23, 1984	Moser, Francesco (Italy)	Mexico City	51,151	Further increase: 343
Jul 7, 1993	Obree, Graeme (Britain)	Hamar	51,596	445
Jul 23, 1993	Boardman, Chris) (Britain)	Bordeaux	52,270	674
April 4, 1994	Obree, Graeme (Britain)	Bordeaux	52,713	433
Sept 2, 1994	Indurain, Miguel (Spain)	Bordeaux	53,040	327
Oct 22, 1994	Rominger, Tony (Switzerland)	Bordeaux	53,832	792
Nov 5, 1994	Rominger, Tony (Switzerland)	Bordeaux	55,291	1,459
Sept 9, 1996	Boardman, Chris (Britain)	Manchester	56,375	1,084