It’s been a while since Filippo Ganna set a new Hour Record in 2022 at a staggering distance of 56.792 kilometers, beating Dan Bigham’s new record of 55.548 kilometers from less than two months earlier. Since then, nobody has built up the courage to challenge Ganna, until this week when a member of UK’s golden team pursuit team Charlie Tanfield gave it a go on the velodrome in Konya, Turkey.
The 28-year-old explained that he would attempt to ride a “negative split” – going at a slower pace than the world record at the beginning and gradually speeding up towards the end. However that did not work out and the Brit rode his fastest 250m lap already around 19 minutes into his attempt, just under 16 seconds. Around the 38-minute mark, he begun to slow down and by 44 minutes in, his lap splits were up above 17 seconds.
Ultimately, the counter stopped at 53.967 kilometers, beating Martin Toft Madsen’s 2019 attempt by one meter. Tanfield has now historically ridden the seventh best distance, fourth among British riders.
“It’s a beast,” he said of the challenge. “It’s such a hard event that unless you are passionate about it, I really don’t think you would be willing to put yourself through the suffering and the preparation you have to do to actually get to the start line.”