Cycling: So he withstood the high pressure: Bradley Wiggins set a new hour record a few minutes ago in the Olympic Velodrome in London. After exactly 60 minutes and 215 laps, "Wiggo" clocked up 54,526 km. He broke the old record of Alex Dowsett by 1.589m.
A few days ago, Wiggins confidently said his personal goal was Tony Rominger's old record - 55,291km in one hour. The Briton didn't quite reach this very high mark, but with 54,526 he smashed the old record and set a mark that would be almost impossible for any challenger to reach. Of course, the very high air pressure in London these days made the attempt more difficult - because the higher the air pressure, the corresponding resistance also increases. Hard to imagine what would have been possible under better conditions.
After crossing the finish line, the pained face of the visibly exhausted 2012 tour winner even flickered a brief smile – but he wasn't able to give an interview immediately after the exertion. His coach Heiko Salzwedel commented on this and was relieved: "It's definitely one of the big highlights of my career as a coach. It was incredibly exciting, but he fought until just before the KO. The high air pressure was of course a disaster for us.”
Like clockwork, Wiggins completed his laps from the start. Here, of course, he was able to show his greatest strengths - not only did he hold his position on the bike like he had grown, but his tires also literally stuck to the black line on the London parquet floor. He hardly allowed himself to fluctuate when it came to speed either – he had leveled off at around 54,5 km/h early on. At 19.30:XNUMX p.m. local time, the packed velodrome celebrated its new record holder: he made it. This record isn't set in stone either, but it should last much longer than that of its predecessors. Congratulations Wiggo!
