Candy Cranks

downtown airport/skyline

This past Tuesday, David J, Tylor, Bryce, and I crossed the Missouri River and headed north to the Downtown Airport. There’s a lap around the airport that’s roughly 3.7 miles. Our goal was to ride for an hour and see how far we could get.

A history lesson for those who are unfamiliar. Frank Dodd’s for the first person to ride for a conservative hour and record his distance. This was in 1876 and he rode for 16.47 miles. In 1972, Eddy Merckx set a record of 30.715 mi which stood for 12 years. The current record stands at 30.9 mi which was set in 2005 by Ondrej Sosenka.  Due to advancements in equipment and other technologies between the Merckx record and present day, the Union Cycliste International [UCI] has established to classes of records.  There’s the UCI Hour Record [which requires competitors to use the same equiment as Merckx. They can not use time trial helmets, disc or tri-spoke wheels, aerodynamic bars, or monocoque frames] and the Best Human Effort aka the UCI “Absolute” Record.

Merckx Hour Record Bike

Our hour ride went pretty okayyy for the first attempt. We probably should have rode the opposite direction, the head wind was so strong if I would have stopped peddling my bike would have come to a hault. Also, none of us drank enough water before hand. I would not recommend racing against yourself slightly dehydrated in 103 degree sunny weather.  ha! Our final results were as follows.  David J and Tylor both rode about 18.9 miles. I rode for 15-ish, I stopped with five minutes left to vomit [so shocking, I know!] Bryce gave in half-way through so his distance is unknown.  Despite the vomit, the ride was exactly what I needed. I’m convinced I could sustain on endorphins and vitamin d alone. We’ll be repeating this ride next Tuesday as well. Meet us at Broadway Cafe around 4 if you want to ride with us!

Tylor and Bryce waiting for the train on the way back to midtown.