In July 1993, Graeme Obree broke the world hour record, one of the toughest things you can attempt in the world of cycling. Only the top names even dream of doing it.
It was previously held for nine years by Francesco Moser, with a distance of 51.596 kilometres (32.06 miles). Obree's record lasted less than a week, being broken by Englishman Chris Boardman. Obree retook the record in April 1994 [Wikipedia].
In the colorful documentary below, we get a glimpse of the healthy rivalry between a confident Boardman and the relentless Obree. Obree didn't have a team sponsor to provide him with a special bike for the event. It was crunch time then!
The impetus made the hitherto unknown amateur cyclist an engineer, leading him to produce his own bicycle out of tubings from a friend's workshop, bearings from a washing machine and a single bladed fork designed by Mike Burrows. The super narrow bottom bracket would eliminate any conventional geometry so he angled his chainstays at a radical 45 degrees!! He named the machine 'Old Faithful'.
The rest is history.
Many thanks to user EVANS1978 on YouTube for the upload.
P.S : If you enjoy videos like these, you can lose yourself on YouTube. You can watch my collection here on VodPod, or watch random videos from the same on the left side of this page.
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He was an intersting guy. I do think it was fair that the record went back to Moser who used standard equipment. After last weekend, I have a new respect for how much difference aero gear makes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great info and video. Now I know "the rest of the story"...
ReplyDeleteGreat footage. I read about Obree a few years ago and watched the movie recently ... inspiring and sad story.
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