Brief history on the Hour Record: a single man mounts his bike and attempts to ride faster and for a longer distance over the course of 60 short but sweating seconds. In the world of bicycling, this event is one of the most pure and unabashed - just a man riding a bicycle for a full hour on a nicely banked velodrome. Merckx made the event famous in the 70s by shattering all prior records by entire kilometers and whole minutes (rather than the mere fractions of seconds that most hope to overcome.) For the next few decades, numerous people would threaten Merckx’s record but no one would come close to breaking it — except Moser.
Throughout the book, Conconi presents statistical data alongside a somewhat personal bit of narration and the facts combine with the stories to create a portrait of a determined racer. The arc of the story charts the first few trials, the many hours of training, along with some of the more advanced technologies that Moser and his team were hoping to employ. For instance: did you know that Moser was the first to experiment with lenticular wheels (solid, non-spoked disk wheels)? Or, perhaps you always wanted to understand the theory behind Moser’s strange bicycle frames with their steep angles and strange bends? The book covers a lot of the technical data behind why the team chose the bicycles and wheels they used during their Record Attempts.
Below are some scans of several pages of the book. Please click on an image to see the larger version. If any of this sounds even remotely interesting, you will certainly enjoy reading this book. It is a rare oppurtunity to learn a lot about one of cycling’s most famed characters.
- Created by the genius mind of Brian in: Book Report
2 comments to “Book Report: Moser’s Hour Records”
B Raymond,
Wonderful post. Just a quick note though. In the second paragraph you wrote “seconds” where you meant to write “minutes.”
Best,
-Andy
Andy,
Thank you for the comment! And, thank you doubly for the editting help.
-Brian
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