Armstrong to go for the hour record?

The New York Times | So Many Miles to Cover and So Little Time to Do It

Lance Armstrong has mentioned several times that he might go for the world hour record. John Markoff, the business/technical reporter for the New York Times, covers some of the early planning of Armstrong's corporate team and coaches.

One of the interesting problems is exactly which hour record to pursue. In the early '90s, there was renewed interest in the record, as Graeme Obree used his Superman position and Chris Boardman a more conventional full-aero bike to ratchet the record up to almost 54 kms, a mark smashed in about 2 months by first Miguel Indurain and then Tony Rominger, who clocked a 55.291 km hour in November 1994. Boardman in 1996 broke even Rominger's record by more than a km, clocking a 56.375 km.

Debate stormed, with the traditionalists arguing that all the records since Eddy Merckx (24 years before!) were tainted by advances in bike technology. At about the same time, road rules were updated to forbid the use of different-sized wheels and radical frames, so the "official" record was rolled back to Merckx '72, at 49.431 kms. Boardman's 1996 record was relabeled to "Best Hour Performance." Boardman promptly went out and broke the Merckx record (now also called the "athlete's record") on a "clean" bike (by 10 meters!), so the official record stands at 49.441 kms.

Given the technological bent to many of Armstrong's sponsors, and the public's appetite for big numbers, it seems they would want the biggest record possible, the "Best Hour Performance." But the UCI is unlikely to recognize or promote that record, which might explain why Armstrong's team talks about two attempts, one at sea level and one at altitude: Maybe one would be on a '72-style bike (shooting for 50 kms) and one on the lightest, stiffest, most aero frame ever created, shooting for the Boardman 1996 record.

"I think it would be an amazing spectacle," said Morris Denton, an executive for Advanced Micro Devices, one of Mr. Armstrong's sponsors. "If you look at the crowds Lance draws in the United States and you think about what would happen if you put some kind of marketing effort behind this event, it would be immense."

Armstrong also suggested he would contest the hour in 2001 (way down the linked page), with Italian doctor Michele Ferrari , since convicted of doping, as an adviser. That attempt never happened.