London will see Wiggins set hour record, says Hoy
SIR CHRIS Hoy has backed fellow cycling great Sir Bradley Wiggins to claim another piece of the sport’s folklore when he attempts the fabled hour record in London this summer.
World and Olympic time-trial champion Wiggins confirmed yesterday that he will take aim at Australian Rohan Dennis’s record on 7 June at the Lee Valley VeloPark, commonly known as the Olympic Velodrome.
Britain’s first Tour de France winner will be 35 by then, but Hoy expects Wiggins to become the fourth man in less than a year to break the record since a rule change in 2014.
“If Bradley really sets his mind to it you would not bet against him breaking the world record,” said six-time Olympic champion Hoy. “Everything he has set out to achieve, he has. There’s nobody else in the world who you would say has a 99 per cent chance of breaking the record.”
Dennis currently holds the record, having clocked 52.491km in Switzerland in February, but that mark is set to come under attack from another Briton, Alex Dowsett, next month in Manchester, before Wiggins.
London-raised Wiggins is using the hour attempt as part of his return to track cycling, and ultimately a bid for a British record eighth Olympic medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
“It’s the perfect transition from the road back onto the track for him, Hoy added. “It’s a test of suffering, because you know that you can’t ease off for a split-second. He is a machine in time-trials; he keeps that relentless pace going and that’s what you need.”