Dan Bigham set to target Victor Campenaerts' Hour Record again

Dan Bigham is to attempt to break the Hour Record next week, it has been announced. He will ride again at the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen, Switzerland next Friday, 19 August.

The British rider, who currently holds the national Hour Record, also works for Ineos Grenadiers as a performance engineer. The squad announced the news of Bigham's second attempt in a press release on Friday morning.

He first attempted the Hour Record last October, at Grenchen, where he set a new British record of 54.723km, nearly 200m further than Bradley Wiggins' 54.526km from June 2015 in London.

However, this fell short of the 55.089km set by Victor Campenaerts in 2019. Last year, Bigham said: "In power terms, I only need seven extra watts. I can put seven watts more in, or save seven watts with better drag, improved aerodynamics and efficiency. Or I could do three-and-a-half watts each.

“How I split those seven watts doesn’t matter. I have an idea where I can make those gains, but it’s not easy."

The 30-year-old has spent 2022 helping evolving and optimising Ineos' time trial performance, working alongside two-time time trial world champion Filippo Ganna; the Italian is also rumoured to be attempting an Hour Record at some point in the near future.

Bigham said that being part of the team had helped him prepare for a second attempt within a year.

"The Hour Record has been massive thing in my life for the past few years, since I first attempted one as a student in 2014," he said in a statement. "I’m excited about the prospect of seeing what I can do against the clock again, with the support of the team behind me.
 
“Physically I’ve moved on since becoming a part of the INEOS Grenadiers. As much as my workload is high, it’s been nice to have everything I do consolidated within one place. It means I can be so much more organised in how and when I can train, while having the full support of the team - not just in allowing me to train, but enabling me to train efficiently. It’s been great to bounce ideas off so many fantastic people within the team and I’ve been welcomed with open arms.
 
“And having access to all of the team’s partners has been massive for me. The amount of support that Pinarello have put into this project by bringing a new, incredibly high-level bike to the table in such a short space of time is pretty astronomical. We’ve done a huge amount of skin suit testing with Bioracer over the past six months too. 

"It’s been really impressive and I feel like I’m in a really good position on that front. Some of the ideas that we’ve implemented across the whole package have been left field but wholly adopted. It’s been such a progressive project to be involved in."

The team's deputy principal Rod Ellingworth said that Ineos were looking forward to using what Bigham learned from his run in future racing.

"From the moment Dan joined the team we’ve been all in to support his attempts to break the Hour Record," he said. "His work both on and off the bike has been hugely beneficial to the team’s performance across 2022 and we’re excited to see how the lessons learned from this attempt can help us further push the boundaries of our performances.”