Eddy Merckx (Mexico City, 25.10.1972, 49.431 km)
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When the UCI decided that the bicycle for the "new" hour record must
be "simple"
or "similar to that used by Eddy Merckx", I think
they should have read some literature about his attempt to have
an idea how much effort was put in this bike... Merck's bike was absolute NOT
"standard" with a weight
of just 5.5 kg, holes were drilled in each part of the bike, super light tires,
a special titanium stem was welded in the USA, etc. etc...
Look at the
articles
in
cyclingnews.com (look here for the scanned
article)
and torelli.com |
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Split Times
km
| Ritter
Mexico City,
10.10.68 |
Merckx
Mexico City,
25.10.1972 |
|---|
| time |
time |
avg. speed |
| 1 |
- |
1.10 |
51.43 |
| 5 |
6.11 |
5.55.7 |
50.60 |
|---|
| 10 |
12.21 |
11.53 |
50.49 |
|---|
| 15 |
18.33 |
18.01 |
49.95 |
|---|
| 20 |
24.42 |
24.07 |
49.76 |
|---|
| 25 |
30.47 |
30.10 |
49.72 |
|---|
| 30 |
36.59 |
36.17 |
49.61 |
|---|
| 35 |
43.10 |
42.25 |
49.51 |
|---|
| 40 |
49.17 |
48.32 |
49.45 |
|---|
| 45 |
55.27 |
54.38 |
49.42 |
|---|
| 1 hour |
48,653 km |
49.431 |
49.431 |
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One can use the split times to plot the average speed at a
given distance or the intermediate speed. Merckx had started incredibly
fast, since he wanted to
break Ole Ritter's 5km, 10 km and 20 km records (Remark: Ritter had set his
records on a special ride separate from his Hour attempt!). His
first km in 1.10 (which gives 51.43 km/h) is still the record mark for the
first kilometer in an hour record attempt (Rominger in 1994 and Boardman
1996 started also faster than 1.11).
His trainer urged him to slow down after 10 km. The graph shows that
probably
he went too slow and then increased his speed again, finally settling to a
quite stable pace from km 25 to the end. At the end of the attempt he had
enough power to increase his speed a bit.
It is quite remarkable that due to his fast first kilometer his
intermediate
speed was well below the average speed for the rest of the attempt.
Back to hour record page
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