"Torture" - Jack Bobridge looks ahead to Saturday's Hour record attempt

Jack Bobridge, yesterday crowned King of the Mountains at the Santos Tour Down Under, will switch his focus from the road to the track this week ahead of his attempt on the UCI Hour record in Melbourne on Saturday evening – a ride he expects to be “torture.”

The 25-year-old already holds one prestigious track world record in the 4,000 metre individual pursuit and is looking to better the distance of 51.852 kilometres ridden by Austrian rider Matthias Brändle last October.

He will make his attempt on the record at the velodrome at the Darebin International Sports Centre in Melbourne on the final evening of the Australian national track championships.

Bobridge expects that physically, he will feel the strain of his effort on his "hamstrings, glutes, back and shoulders," reports Rupert Guinness in the Brisbane Times, as well as having to "sit in that [position] for an hour."

He believes the last 15 minutes of the ride will be particularly challenging. "I know it's coming. You have to mentally prepare for it. I'm going to go to hell and back – probably several times in those last 15 minutes.

"It is something you have to be mentally prepared for ... it will just be torture really," added Bobridge, who won the opening stage of the Tour Down Under and spent two days in the leader’s jersey, then attacked regularly in his quest for the mountains jersey.

Bobridge rode that race as part of the UniSA-Australia composite team, and is supported in his attempt on the Hour by his new team, Budget Forklifts, which the former Belkin Pro Cycling rider has joined as he begins his preparations to ride on the track at next year’s Olympic Games in Rio.

He is confident that when he resumes track training tomorrow he will quickly adapt to the specific demands of the velodrome, saying: "I have prepared myself [for] years and years. I know my body, whether it's good or bad."

"It's all about [this] week doing the right things recovery wise – eating right, sleeping right. I have done it time and time again, so I have to do what is best."

A week after Bobridge’s record attempt his fellow South Australian Rohan Dennis, yesterday confirmed as overall winner of the Santos Tour Down Under, will himself ride the Hour in Switzerland, the home country of his team’s sponsor, bicycle manufacturer BMC.

The UCI’s rule change last year to allow modern bikes and equipment to be used have reignited interest in the Hour, with Jens Voigt the first man to break it in September in what was the final competitive ride of his career.

His distance of 51.115 kilometres was bettered soon afterwards by Brändle and other riders to have confirmed they will attempt it include Alex Dowsett, who has postponed his effort as a result of breaking his collarbone last month, and Sir Bradley Wiggins.