Rohan Dennis has become the first Australian to hold the hour record with 52.491 kilometres, smashing the previous hour record set by IAM rider Matthias Brandle (51.852 km). Under the new UCI regulations, the Hour Record has become hot property in cycling with Jens Voigt marking his retirement in September 2014 by being the first cyclist to beat the 50km mark (51.115 km).
The 24 year old BMC rider has racked-up achievements on the track and on the road, most recently the overall victory in the Tour down Under which also elevated him into the number one place in the UCI rankings. With massive team support on the track in Aigle, Switzerland, Dennis rode consistently and made victory appear effortless.
“There was a lot of pain. I couldn’t really enjoy it too much to be honest,” said Dennis directly after finishing.
I was probably going a little bit too hard the first half, but I was pretty comfortable,” Dennis said. “I got halfway and was still good. I thought my pacing was fine. Then, we decided after halfway we would squeeze it a little bit and try to pick it up by point one, point two (seconds) for the lap, which was really what I was holding the whole first half anyway. So I just held the same pace. The last 50 laps we basically decided it was going to be max anyway.”
