Victor Campenaerts proud to keep Hour Record: 'I'm glad it is still in my possession'

Victor Campenaerts sill holds the Hour Record with a distance of 55.089 km, after Alex Dowsett's attempt on Wednesday night came up short by 500m.

The Belgian set the record in April 2019 at the Aguascalientes Velodrome in Mexico, the same venue in which Dowsett attempted the challenge. Following the news that he retains the title of holding the Hour Record, Campenaerts offered his condolences to Dowsett. 

Campenaerts told Het Nieuwsblad: “He feels the pain of the effort and the pain of the disappointment, although I think he can be proud of his achievement.

"I'm going to message him soon: respect that you fought to the end. Respect for riding on trying to break my record and not playing it safe. Because I know he can go faster than 54.555km. Had he played it safe, he would have been stranded somewhere around 54.8km anyway."

Before Dowsett's attempt, Campenaerts gave the Briton a '50 per cent chance' of breaking the record. The 30-year-old also claimed that he wouldn't try and win the title back if Dowsett's attempt had been successful, with his priorities changing over the last few years. 

However, the soon-to-be Lotto-Soudal rider is also proud that his record still stands. Five riders have now tried to break Campenaerts' 55.089km record since 2019, with all them unsuccessful. 

"I'm glad the record is still in my possession, but records are simply there to be broken," Campenaerts said. 

“It's also not that I get a bonus from the UCI for every day I hold the record. The only thing I got from them in those two and a half years was the opportunity to fly in business class to China for the UCI closing gala.”

Previously, Italian rider Filippo Ganna has suggested that he will attempt the Hour Record in the near future, and Campenaerts fully expects the two-time world time trial champion to smash the record. 

He said: “We will not have to ask ourselves whether Ganna will improve the world Hour Record, but with how many kilometres he will do that. But the more riders that bite their teeth on my Hour Record in the meantime, the more prestige it gets.

"This proves that I'm a good rider, doesn't it?“