Jack Bobridge set to confirm Hour record attempt

Australia’s Jack Bobridge is expected to confirm tomorrow that he will attempt to break the UCI Hour Record – the day before British rider Alex Dowsett is thought likely to unveil his own plans to have a crack at it.

The Herald Sun reports that the Orica-GreenEdge rider is set to reveal his plans at a press conference in Melbourne tomorrow, while Dowsett’s Movistar team has called a press conference in London for Friday morning.

Following the UCI’s rule change earlier this year to allow modern track bikes and equipment, Jens Voigt set a new record of 51.110km in September, broken the following month by Austria’s Matthias Brändle, who rode 51.852km.

Unlike those two riders, Bobridge is a track specialist and one of the best of his generation, a double Commonwealth champion in the team and individual pursuits, and he has also won world championships in those events.

The 25-year-old is already a world record holder. In February 2011, he broke Chris Boardman’s 15-year record for the individual pursuit – considered by many to be ‘unbreakable’ given it had been set on the subsequently banned Lotus bike designed by Mike Burrows – with a time of 4 minutes 10.534 second.

Like Sir Bradley Wiggins, Bobridge aims to compete on the track at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and he has moved from Belkin Pro Cycling to Australian Professional Continental outfit Team Budget Forklifts to begin his preparations.

Full details of Bobridge’s record attempt will appear on Team Budget Forklifts’ Facebook page after tomorrow’s press conference, which starts at 2pm in Melbourne (3am in the UK).

Speaking at the Commonwealth Games in August, Bobridge said his coach Tim Decker had encouraged him to have an attempt at the Hour Record.

“It’s something I’d be interested in doing,” he said. “Wiggo has said quite a few times he wants to have a go at it, so it might be a thing of letting him do it and then having something to chase.

“There’s nothing in concrete but it’s something Timmy and I have talked about for sure and it’s just getting the time and place and conditions to do it.”

Wiggins has subsequently been reported as planning his own assault on the record next August, so as things stand it could well be Brändle’s record Bobridge will be looking to beat.

With his track pedigree supplemented the endurance levels honed through five years in the WorldTour with Garmin, Orica-GreenEdge and Belkin, few would bet against him breaking it.