Ellen van Dijk 2022 Hour Record Attempt

Live stream is starting in the next hour (17:00 CET)

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She is absolutely crushing it…her position discipline is impressive, especially this late into the attempt.

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In the pocket. See that posture…

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She is starting to deviate a but form the ideal line…but who wouldn’t at this point? She is up on the record by a minute, she just needs to finish now.

Don’t think she is gonna crack 50km, though…

Well done!! 49.254km!!

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wow, interesting. I’m an ignoramus in all things track…didn’t know the rider doesn’t have access to data…talk about FTP test !!!

Amazing she barely deviated from her position. I didn’t see her sliding up and down the saddle or raising her head up much at all. A truly incredible effort, and while smashing the record, it’s close to 50km that I think there will be a lot of interest in the future.

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Does anyone follow her on Strava? I see she has a private account, curious if she’s posted a ride file/Power file?

Super impressive effort! Immense control and power.

Wonder who else could go for it? Dygert?

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During the broadcast they mentioned they’d publish a lot of the data, so hopefully we’ll see it. Lizzy Deignan said she guessed she was holding 300-310, which would make sense, Ellen is a pretty big rider, according to procycling stats, 1.82m, 71kg (6ft, 156lbs).

Marlen Reusser, Sarah Gigante, Chloe Dygert, and Emma Norsgaard are all very strong TT’ers. Think it would help to have experience with track riding but I wouldn’t discount a really strong road tt’er. I think Ellen has a pretty good case to come back and try and break 50 also.

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My guess was 300W too :ok_hand:.

Will be cool to see. They went to a lot of effort. Loved the bike.

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What an incredible feat! What a rider. I can’t get over the mental discipline that she employed to achieve what she did. Chapeau

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What a massive effort. :astonished:

It isn’t just the power, but the consistency — without a power meter! Holy smokes. You think you know pacing? Think again!

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Aye, but you’ve only got one gear.

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I’ve never ridden track, but with a single fixed gear, only one rider on the track etc. it’s a pretty controlled environment. I’m sure she knew “a lap of x seconds is an effort of Y watts”. Also, even though you are not allowed computers on the track I’m sure any pro is very good at monitoring their cadence. Similarly “a cadence of X in this gear under these conditions is a output of Y”. Not to say it’s easy, because it sure isn’t, but I’d bet she had a really good idea of what she was putting out.

You also have your coach telling you if you’re up or down on your pace every 20 seconds.

Mike

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All of this is true, but we are talking about a consistency that is down to tenths of a second per lap. And I think it is easy to drift off target over the course of one hour. Just changing your cadence by 1 rpm could mean the difference between breaking the record, blowing up or making the record. And doing that for 1 hour. That’s what amazed me when I watched Alex Dowsett’s attempt, too, the consistency of pros is off the charts.