Thomas Dekker joins queue of riders aiming for Hour record in 2015

Thomas Dekker, currently without a team for the 2015 season, is the latest man to confirm plans to attempt the Hour record. The 30-year-old, who has been released by Garmin-Sharp, says that his bid to set the furthest distance ridden in 60 minutes may signal the end of his career.

He told the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad that he plans to go for the record next spring, although a venue has yet to be decided upon.

“It will be one of the hardest tests of my life, but that doesn’t matter to me,” continued Dekker, who was banned for two years from July 2009 for using EPO.

“I’m not afraid of it,” he said. “I’ll put everything else to the side for the next few months. I’ll put everything I have in me into that one hour. Am I going to make it? Yes, of course.”

The Dutch rider admitted that he had struggled since returning from his doping ban, and said: “The attempt on the world record is a wake-up call to myself,” he said. “There are no excuses, nowhere to hide. It’s very simple; you either beat it or you don’t.”

The current record stands at 51.850km, set by IAM Cycling’s Mattias Brändle last month to beat the 51.115km that Jens Voigt, in the final challenge of his long career, set in mid-September.

Voigt became the first rider to hold the record under the current rules, introduced by the UCI earlier this year, to permit the use of modern track bikes and aerodynamic equipment.

His Trek Factory Racing team mate Fabian Cancellara had previously signaled his intention to aim for the Hour under the former rules, but put his plans on hold after the rule change.

Other riders who have said they plan to have a crack at the record include world and Olympic time trial champion Sir Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky, reportedly attempting it on Mallorca next summer, and Movistar’s Alex Dowsett.

BMC Racing’s Taylor Phinney, Alex Rasmussen, a former team mate of Dekker’s at Garmin-Sharp and now with Danish team Riwal, and Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Tony Martin, have also expressed interest in aiming for it.

So too has the Czech rider Ondřej Sosenka, whose record of 49.7km, set under the former rules, had stood for nine years until Voigt broke it. Sosenka said last month that he planned to try and regain the record in 2015.

However, with his career having ended in 2008 following a doping ban, the 38-year-old has been outside the UCI’s biological passport programme, which riders attempting the Hour have to belong to.

The previous regulations, introduced in 1999, required riders to ride a bike and use kit similar to that available to Eddy Merckx when he set the record in 1974.

They were drawn up after riders including Miguel Indurain, Francesco Moser, Graeme Obree and Chris Boardman battled for the record in the mid-1990s, pushing the boundaries of aerodynamic bicycle design and riding positions.

In 2000, Boardman who had held the record of 56.375km under the rules applying until 1997, became the first man to clinch the Hour under the revised regulations, riding 49.441km in Manchester to beat Merckx’s 1974 record by just 10 metres.

Dekker, overall winner of Tirreno-Adriatico in 2006 and the Tour de Romandie the following year while riding for Rabobank, said he decided to attempt the Hour record the day he was learnt that his contract with Garmin-Sharp would not be renewed.

"I was disappointed, but it has also opened new doors,” he said, adding that while he was not finished with cycling, he didn’t see himself riding “for a small Italian team,” as he put it.

“The attempt on the world record is something else,” Dekker said. “Ambitious, and all or nothing: that suits me," he added, saying that if he beat the record, that might be the time to bow out of the sport.

His manager, Martijn Berkhout threw out an invitation to companies within the bicycle industry to support the record attempt.

“How do we give him the fastest bike possible? Which position is the most aerodynamic?  Which helmet? Which paint? Which wheels? Which is the fastest velodrome in the world? He is not attached to a team, a bicycle brand or a sponsor, so we are open to all ideas," he explained.