Photo of the day - 30: Joss Lowden, new hour record holder

Photo: Matt Alexander/PA Wire

Congratulations to Drops-Le Col rider, Joss Lowden who broke the women's hour record at the Velodrome Suisse, in Grenchen, Switzerland. The distance she covered in one hour, 48.405km, beat Vittoria Bussi's hitherto record of 48.007km achieved in 2017.  

The 33-year old from Lewes, East Sussex had had her eye on the record for many months since she unofficially broke it last year while training at the Derby Velodrome, so she knew she would be capable of doing it again. However, doubts always set in during the preparation. Lowden, who is a road racer and one of the team captains at Drops-Le Col/supported by Tempur team, has been having a good season having won the Tour Feminin in Czechia and placing 5th at Brabantse Pijl. A week before her world record attempt, as part of her preparation she competed in the mixed relay time trial, the time trial and the road race at the World Road Cycling Championships in Flanders, Belgium. 

What is impressive about this record is that it beat other records that were achieved at high altitude. Apart from Bridie O'Donnell who cycled at 46.882/hour in 2016 in Adelaide, all the other hour records were broken at around 2,000 metres altitude - either in Mexico or in Colorado, USA. Joss Lowden's record was not completely at sea level as the Velodrome Suisse is at 450m altitude, but it is far from high altitude. This record also beat the ultimate speed of 48.149/hour, set by Jeannie Longo in 1996 but was not recognised by the cycling governing body (Union Cycliste Internationale) due to her having adopted the banned "Superman" position.

Given that Joss was constantly ahead of schedule throughout her ride, it seems that she would probably be strong enough to break her own record in the future. So who knows, we may see her again in the Velodrome Suisse.

Can-do Girls! - Women's World Hour Record Breakers

Bridie O'Donnell - record breaker!

In the current issue of Cycling Weekly is my feature on the women's World Hour Record. I'm not mentioning this purely as a shameless plug, but I guess there's no harm in spreading the word!

The main reason why I give a call-out to this piece I wrote is because I was genuinely really impressed at the efforts that the different women made in their preparation for the event.

Of course, in history many women have attempted this feat, some of them, including current record holder, Evelyn Stevens had the backing of their professional team.

However, I wanted to give particular mention to the two women who broke the hour record in this recently - Molly Shaffer Van Houweling and Bridie O'Donnell.

Molly, a Dean and Senior law lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley broke the record in September of last year, and the record stayed until it was broken by Bridie O'Donnell, a doctor from Melbourne, in January during the Tour Down Under.

Although they are both very strong athletes at masters level in their respective countries, they are amateur athletes who had to juggle full time jobs, training for their regular local competitions, go round knocking on doors to obtain funding for the challenge, as well as live a home-life with their families.

Molly Van Houweling and husband Rob, set up a Kickstarter crowd-funding scheme to raise funds to carry out the project, which involved several trips to their temporary mountain base to acclimatise, and a few trips to the velodrome in Aguascalientes to do dry runs and attempt the pan-American record along the way. Even with financial help from friends and family they still had to use a large chunk of their own funds.

As for Bridie O'Donnell, she didn't do crowd funding but went round knocking on doors of local businesses and her bank to help with the cost to register with the biological passport scheme. As well as that, she spent valuable training time chasing up equipment suppliers around the world for the various components she needed - something that you would never imagine Bradley Wiggins doing in the run-up to his preparation to break the record last year. As for going up to a mountain base? Travelling from Australia up to a mountain base in the US or in Mexico was completely out of the question. So her attempt was done at sea level in a more local setting of Adelaide where she let the crowd, enthused already by the Tour Down Under, be her performance enhancer! She had to hope for the best as there had been no dry run, and her own coach had initially thought the odds were stacked against her.

Molly Van Houweling with Rob

There is always so much pressure on any athlete when they are attempting such a feat - particularly with the eyes of the world on them. But knowing that you got there by the good grace of friends and family and many other generous people who have given their free time to help you along the way, that must give an extra sense of motivation, but an even greater onus not to fail.

So I admire the fact that these two women were able to break the World Hour Record and get their name into the history books.

It just goes to show, it can be done even if you are not Bradley Wiggins or Jens Voigt!
  







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10 Fast Facts on.... World Hour Record Holder, Evelyn Stevens

Last week the American racer Evelyn Stevens broke the women's hour record, beating the time set by Bridie O'Donnell just over a month ago. On her Specialized bike with a standard Shiv frame the Boels Dolmans rider covered 47.98km in 60 minutes around the 7-Eleven Velodrome in Colorado Springs. So who is Evie Stevens?

Apart from being the third woman to break the World Hour Record under the revised UCI rules after Molly Shaffer Van Houweling and Bridie O'Donnell, and being the team-mate of World Road Race Champion Lizzie Armitstead here are a few more fast facts.

1. Evelyn's first ever bike race was at a cyclo cross event in 2007. She didn't win and crashed loads of times.

2. Evelyn got into road cycling when she attended a local women's cycle training session in Central Park, New York in 2008 after her sister suggested it.

3. She only turned professional in 2010 aged almost 27, two years after taking up road racing seriously, and after a career working in investment banking.

4. Evelyn is an ambassador for World Bike Relief, a charity that aims to improve the lives of underprivileged people around the world by providing bicycles.

5. Her coach is Neal Henderson, who also coached BMC's Rohan Dennis - another rider to break the World Hour Record.

6. Evelyn is good friends with another BMC team rider, Taylor Phinney and she stayed with his parents in Colorado while there to make her world hour attempt.

7. Her husband, Brett works for Twitter.

8. Other professional racers who are interested in the hour record are waiting until after the Rio Olympics, but Evelyn has used her world hour record ride as a way to help her hopefully in the Olympics, by way of improving her power on the flat.

9. The track at Colorado Springs was 333.3m, which is shallower than the Olympic tracks, but better adapted for Evelyn's riding style as a non-track rider.

10. During her hour record different parts of her bike, including the bottom bracket had the grease removed in order to make more marginal gains on her speed when riding.

Congratulations!


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Another inspirational women's hour world record!

It's been just over four months since Molly Shaffer Van Houweling broke the women's world hour record in Mexico, and we now have a new standard to beat. Australian former professional rider Bridie O'Donnell put in a most impressive ride just a week ago at the Super-Drome in Adelaide, to cover 46.882 kms in the 60 minutes - thus breaking the American's record by 609 metres.

Add the rides by these two women to the attempt made by Dame Sarah Storey in London last February, that makes 3 attempts at the world women's hour record in less than a year. I think this is a very positive thing for women's cycling. A lot of airtime has been devoted to men's attempts at this record, and women's exploits in this holy grail of performance cycling have been ignored.

So it's great that three women have raised the profile of the women's game since last year by targeting the 12-year old record, hitherto held by Dutchwoman Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel.

What I find particularly impressive is the fact that in the case of the latest two attempts at the hour record, the protagonists were not professional cycle racers. Molly Shaffer Van Houweling is a professor of law at University of California, Berkeley, while Bridie O'Donnell is a former professional who juggles her daily life between amateur cycle racing and working as a physician.

For Bridie, according to her blog, preparation for her hour attempt was a labour of love of numerous month. While support came from various players in the cycling world, a number of them gave up their free time to help her.

Although Bridie has a pedigree as a time triallist (She is a former Australian National Time Trial Champion), until July of last year she had not ridden in a velodrome. Not useful if you are going to taken on this ultimate challenge!

However, when you look at what other activities Ms O'Donnell is involved in it is clear that she is a high achiever. As well as time trial championship titles she is a seven-time national rowing champion, and also completed Ironman Hawaii. This complements awards she received in her medical work too. So, if anyone was going to succeed in breaking a record, on paper Bridie O'Donnell was in pole position to do it.

But like with a phrase which I was often told when I lived in France, Il faut le faire. Basically, you have to get out and do it. [Or maybe Just do It, as a certain sportswear manufacturer might say!] It's one thing to be capable, but when you're in the moment and the eyes of the world (or at least a packed velodrome) are watching you it can be quite a scary place and you can easily lose heart.

So I say, Grand Chapeau and Bravissima to Bridie O'Donnell.

It would be good to see the battle of the hour record continue. A few professional riders have expressed an interest in attempting this record. World Team Pursuit Champion, Joanna Rowsell-Shand, and former World Time Trial Champion Lisa Brennauer among them, though they won't make any steps towards doing so until after the Rio Olympics. This could have left a window open for more non-professional racers to throw their helmets into the ring, so we could see more inspirational rides from women who have dared to dream.


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Female Cycling Legends

One day one photo - 3

photo by UCI

Quite a few interesting results came through over the weekend from the world of cycle racing: Fabio Aru won the Vuelta a Espana. He has probably got nearer than anyone else this year to doing a grand tour double after having finished in second place at the Giro d'Italia in May. Edvald Boasson-Hagen won the Tour of Britain, making him the first person to win the stage race twice in its modern era. La Vuelta became the second of the grand tours to stage a women-only race on the final day of the competition. Yesterday's race held on the windswept roads of Madrid was won by Ale Cipollini rider, Shelley Olds. It was great to see all of these events on TV. Another American made history across the Atlantic, though this piece of history has gone somewhat under the radar though. A new Women's World Hour Record was set over the weekend by the Molly Shaffer Van Houweling at the velodrome in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Ever since Jens Voigt reignited the competition by breaking the hour record almost a year ago to the day, the quest has rolled on in earnest amongst the male gladiators of cycle sport. Things have been a lot quieter on the women's front however, with no one apart from Dame Sarah Storey attempting to break Leontien van Moorsel's 12-year old record. I rember that Saturday afternoon in February in a crowded velodrome at Lee Valley, London, watching in hope as Sarah battled her way around the track only to fall short of the 46.065km hour record by two laps. Meanwhile, in Mexico Van Houweling was beavering away in the background making her bid for perfect-hour glory by breaking the US Women's hour record.

The 42-year old law professor from the University of California, Berkeley, eventually broke the world hour record in July when she clocked 46.088km. However, this record could not stand as she had not been registered onto the biological passport programme for long enough for her time to qualify. But on Saturday night, all the stars were aligned for Molly Shaffer Van Houweling to put her day job behind her, take to the boards again - and clock 46.273km. Boom! Now I think that's worth writing about!

I don't imagine this will get the column inches that Bradley Wiggins had when he broke the record, but I do hope a few more people shout about it. I also hope that more women step forward - maybe Dame Sarah Storey will make another attempt, or maybe world time trial champion Lisa Brennauer will try it or even other home girls like Joanna Rowsell or Katie Archibald. It would be good to see the women's hour record chased with the same zeal as on the men's side.


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