Monday, February 9, 2009

Assaulting the Hour

By all appearances, Lance will be making an attempt on both versions of the hour record. He's seen riding a nearly stock Trek track bike (equipped with an SRM and 28-spoke wheels) and then his road TT bike, also equipped with SRM. Word is he turned some 17.7-second laps on his TTX without too much effort.

7 comments:

No One Line said...

Neat. I'm pretty sure he's investigated the possibility before, but maybe he's got more time and energy to focus on it - he's not consumed by the TdF, and it would certainly make headlines (which is, arguably, his current goal).

But if he hasn't decided if he's going after the Athlete's Hour or the Best Human Performance, I think it might be too soon to get excited about it.

privateer said...

I don't think he could beat either record, even if he specifically trained for it.

jza said...

Or he's dicking around on a track bike and maybe doing some position tweaking with the TT.

Remember last time he did this? He rode on the track for about a week, realized it was harder than it looked and then shelved it.

Padraig said...

No One Line: You're right, the Hour was investigate before, but shelved for unknown reasons.

Privateer: I suspect we'll known the answer by the end of August. While I don't think I'd put my money on him at a Classic anymore, given how well Graeme Obree continues to ride into his 40s, I'd put my money on Armstrong. If he takes the start, I think he'll do it.

JZA: The efforts at the velodrome were very specific. He was clearly investigating his fitness. He's been in the wind tunnel recently, so he doesn't need the track to work on his TT position and I don't think he'd have been on the track bike for any reason other than gauging fitness. The fact that they took the stock wheels off and replaced them with 28-spoke old-tech was very telling.

Thanks for reading/viewing.

steve said...

prediction:

lancey will get a face slap at the giro then opt out of the tour to preserve his legacy. later he'll announce he's going for the hr record and will achieve it.

i hope he does well but honestly i've got lancey overload.

Ron said...

He's not going to cut it without the famous 'saddle sore creams' he used in 1999.

acquiesce808 said...

this hour record attempt brought to you by... the prostate cancer association. hooray for marketing!