Just over a month ago a big event took place. It was the farewell of Jens Voigts career, with his attempt on the Hour Record. For you who don't know, the hour record is nothing less than riding all out during 60 minutes and the result is your distance. And a new record he did, Voigt pedaled 51,110 km during one hour. Now, that record is being aimed at by Matthias Brändle and IAM Cycling. A serious attempt that is.

I had the opportunity to interview Matthias Brändle just a day before his attempt, tomorrow September 30th. Matthias joined IAM Cycling in 2013 and has had a really strong last part of the season 2014. He took 2 stage wins in Tour of Britain and if the world of cycling didn't know Matthias Brändle before that, they certainly do know him now!

I was of course eager to ask a lot of questions, but I had to stick to a few since I didn't want to take too much of his time this close to the actual attempt. I began with asking him when the decision for the hour record attempt was made and where the idea originally came from?

The idea had been around for a long time, in his mind, but it became a concrete thing just before Il Lombardia. And the strong performance at Tour of Britain of course added to this, it gave a lot of motivation and self confidence for Matthias. When asking about the Voigt attempt and how big a role it played Matthias means it played a role in actually realizing how the attempt would be and he could in his mind go through the performance.

Training for such a hard attempt is crucial, and according to Matthias he has done a lot of specific training on the roads in Austria and spent five days on the track just to prepare himself. Wind tunnels of course play a role in today's cycling, and wind tunnel tests were already made in September and his position will be as on a TT bike.

When tomorrow dawns Matthias will concentrate on staying on a good mood and rhythm. Trying new things preparing for such event is not something he wants to do. Pacing is maybe one of the most important things when doing a max effort for 60 minutes. Usually he is a cyclist that likes to go full from the beginning until the end during a race. But tomorrow Matthias believes in beating the record by not starting too fast. His goal will be of course to beat the record but also to reach 52 km if possible. Matthias is also confident on the Scott Plasma 5 that he will be riding.

As a cyclist myself, asking for the Watt data first felt as a no go, but my will won this time, so I did ask if Matthias would share with us after the attempt. I got the answer I expected, but at least I tried. What is important to know is that this really is a dream for Matthias, it's not just something he does to beat the legendary Shut up legs guy, this is Matthias dream, to do the record. During a 60 minute long, exhausting almost non-human like effort, a rider needs to find inspiration and motivation from somewhere on those hard moments. Matthias will derive his motivation from the people on the track and the staff that will be there supporting him.

So what more can we do than wish Matthias all the best of luck for the hour record attempt! I am sure he will be more than glad to see as many spectators as possible at the WCC centre in Switzerland. The event is open for all with free entrance!

For us who are not able to get there, we still can follow the hour record attempt on:

Eurosport 19:45 Finnish time, 18:45 CET
UCI Channel here
Scott Website

To get yourself in the right mood, check out the neat teaser for Matthias Brändle Hour Record Attempt!

Good luck Matthias, los geht's!

Related sources:

Matthias Brändle - Hour Record Attempt