As Filippo Ganna prepares to break the UCI Hour Record on Saturday, the current holder Dan Bigham is well aware of the paradoxical situation he finds himself in.
“I think it’s unique in the history of the Hour Record that the guy who holds the record is also the guy who’s trying to help somebody else to break it,” Bigham tells Cyclingnews.
The 31-year-old Brit broke Victor Campenaerts’ previous benchmark in August, taking the record to 55.548, but he has shared every secret, every last marginal gain, with the rider who has long been expected to knock the record out of the realms of the mere mortals.
Bigham, as well as being an elite-level rider in time trialling and on the track, has held a full-time back-room role as performance engineer at Ineos Grenadiers since the start of this year, having previously used his scientific background to work as an aerodynamics consultant for major teams, brands, and federations.
The Hour Record has been a long-standing passion of Bigham’s. He made a self-supported attempt last year that was unratified given he wasn’t part of the UCI’s drug testing programme, and was given the financial backing of Ineos to have a crack this year.
The catch was that he was to be a pawn in a bigger play, a guinea pig for the much-anticipated attempt from the two-time world time trial champion.
Ahead of Ganna’s ride, Bigham tells Cyclingnews about the project, and how the “nerdy engineer” is helping the “flamboyant Italian” to go further than anyone has before.
Cyclingnews: You’re in quite a bizarre position – what’s that like? I guess there must be some degree of mixed feelings?
Dan Bigham: I started thinking about that this morning actually. I guess, in a way, you could say it’s win-win. The process has always been about Filippo trying to break the record. For me, it was a case of having a go at the record in that process as well. I’m very happy with everything I did in mine, it was the best I had and to break the record was an incredible feeling. But then you switch hats from being an athlete to being an engineer. It’s nice to see what I can do to help someone else go the furthest they can go. And I’m just excited to see what one of the best athletes we’ve ever seen in cycling can do.
CN: Can you tell us more about this whole project and when it all began?
DB: The project itself really began when I joined the team [ahead of 2022]. I made it clear from the outset that the Hour was something I wanted to do, and something I’d do off my…
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