Cycling: The Australian Jack Bobridge, who recently won the mountain classification of the Tour Down Under, dared a change of scenery on the track on Saturday and tried to break the hour record set by the Austrian Matthias Brändle in Melbourne. However, he wasn't quite as successful there as he was recently on the road.
Bobridge had covered 51,3km after 60 minutes - more than 500 meters separated him from Brändle's best time of 51,852km in November. The Australian then gave impressive, chilling and remarkable insights into the effort involved in such a world record attempt:
"I never thought... I don't think I'll ever get any closer to death without actually dying. I'm in such incredible pain it's almost funny again. I don't even know what to do other than smile. I can't even put into words the pain in my legs. It's by far the most intense thing I've ever done and I don't think I'll ever do anything like it again." said the 25 year old smiling.
Bobridge has words of warning for everyone who wants to try the record after him - including Tony Martin, Rohan Dennis, Bradley Wiggins: "After 20 minutes I thought I had come to terms with the situation and was prepared. You're stuck in it and can only move on. It was just brutal, from the first to the last second. Not a moment of the 60 minutes was beautiful in any way. All I can say: This record is really underestimated. I have to tip my hat to Matthias [Brändle]. It's an incredible record. Anyone who tries it after me should be aware of that. It's a damn tough hour.”
He goes on to describe in martial terms how the hour on the track felt for him: "Of course I knew it would take an hour, but after about half an hour you realize what your body has to do. You realize you're going through hell. I have never underestimated this record, but I don't think there is much that is more challenging. If you've never tried it yourself, you can't really imagine how awesome it is. A completely different level..."
Brändle's next challenger is surprise Tour Down Under winner Rohan Dennis – on this Sunday he will chase the hour in the Velodrome Suisse. If you can't be there and still want to follow the experiment, you will find a link to the live stream here.
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