Joss Lowden became the first woman to take on the UCI Hour Record in five years when she attempted to best Vittoria Bussi’s 48.007km, in Grenchen, Switzerland today. Earlier in the year she already shaved off 150m from the record at the Manchester Velodrome but the record wasn’t an officially sanctioned attempt by the UCI. Apparel manufacturer Le Col came on board to develop and supply a custom-made Le Col x McLaren Project Aero skinsuit which claimed to be faster than any other suit on the market.
Over the first half of the attempt, she clocked a pace of around 48.2km/h, riding from 10 to 17 seconds ahead of Bussi’s record. She then increased the intensity as she approached the final laps, and was almost 25 seconds ahead of Bussi’s record with a quarter of an hour remaining. She then took this up another notch in the final 10 minutes and kept her foot on the pedal to notch up a distance more than 300 metres over the previous record.
Directly after having broken the record, she commented: “You start to question the preparation for it, question why I put it off the back of the road World Championships, three races, a lot of people said that wasn’t good preparation for an Hour Record. They weren’t wrong, but the point was, it was enough to do what I needed to do, and what I wanted to do. I am pleased with how it went and that I pushed through with my plans.”
