Cycling: Yesterday evening the 24-year-old Austrian Matthias Brändle set a new hour record at the World Cycling Center in Aigle (Switzerland). The official final result is 51,852km – Brändle surpassed the record set by Jens Voigt in September by 737m.
When it was clear shortly after 20.00 p.m. that Brändle had actually set a new world record, there was no stopping the packed velodrome. The great atmosphere throughout the event found its climax. The visibly exhausted, pale 24-year-old was frenetically celebrated by the spectators - so loudly that his words in the interview immediately after the end could hardly be understood. "For the first few minutes I just wanted to get it over with, but it got more and more complicated. I had problems especially between 30 and 50 minutes and kept asking myself why I was doing this to myself at all. The last 10 minutes are mainly a matter of the head and the unbelievable spectators helped me a lot here.” said the beaming new world record holder.
UCI President Brian Cookson also congratulated the Austrian: "What Matthias has achieved here is unbelievable. Nobody has ever come so close to the 52km mark.Shortly after the end of the race, the previous record holder Jens Voigt also spoke up on Twitter. He congratulated his successor with fair words: "Hats off to Matthias, he put in a strong performance. Congratulations on the new hour record. It's nice to see the young kids striving for it." - But of course there is some melancholy, as he admits: "I have to admit it hurts a little bit to lose the record, but that's normal, isn't it?! But hey, I never had the illusion of holding him forever."
Now it remains to be seen how long the new record will last. Bradley Wiggins had already announced that he would also try his hand at the lesson next season. So it remains exciting. We look forward to the next challenger.
If you missed yesterday's broadcast or would like to watch the highlights again, we recommend the following highlight video:
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