While Bradley Wiggins will attempt to set a new world hour record on Sunday, Ireland's John Lynch, above, will be taking on the domestic hour record tomorrow, Saturday. His will be paced behind a derny motorised bike used for keirin track races.
While the eyes of the international cycling community will be on London on Sunday for the world hour record attempt of Bradley Wiggins, one Irish rider will be making his own piece of ‘hour history’ at home before the Briton.
John Lynch will take to the outdoor veldrome at Sundrive Rd in south Dublin tomorrow, Saturday, to set an Irish marker for the derny, or paced, hour record.
It will be the first time it has ever been attempted in Ireland so once the 35-year-old from Kildare completes the event he will set a new marker.
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And officials from Cycling Ireland will be on hand to ratify the distance he achieves. His effort will hopefully spark renewed interest in the hour record at home.
Former international rider and Rás winner Tommy Evans holds the national record for the traditional, unpaced, hour. He set a marker of 46.166km back in 1999.
Tomorrow Lynch hopes to reach between 56km and 60km, though says the realistic bracket is between 56km and 58km.
Self employed carpenter Lynch last month completed his 10th Rás despite working up to 70 hours per week in the run up to it and rising at 5am to fit training in.
But while he is a very strong road rider who has won plenty of races, most of his success has come on the track.
A power rider, Lynch is an accomplished road man but has been very successful on the track (Photo with thanks to Liam Ruth)
In the last two years alone he was won 10 medals at the National Championships, four of them gold.
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He has been training behind the derny on the track in recent weeks; paced by Liam Walker, the chairman of Lynch’s Kilcullen Murphy Surveys club.
“We’ve been talking about it for a while and the Duane Delaney Memorial is on tomorrow so we felt during the break in racing we’d give it a go,” he said.
”If nothing else, hopefully it will get a bit of interest going again in the hour record.
“We’ve been going to the track and doing around 1½ hours; a nice steady warm up and then maybe some 20 minute efforts at race pace.
“It’s also about figuring out the lines around the track because at that speed; it’s all slightly different doing 56 or 58kph.
“You’d be racing at 50 so depending on the wind tomorrow we’ll do between 56 and 60. The world record is 66 indoors.
“We’re aiming to ride steady for the first half and then pick it up and pick it up. But steady is still 56k per hour.
“It’s also hard to get shelter off the derny in the crosswinds; you can to keep tight, not more than a couple of inches away.
“And you have to move around the back of it as you go around the track to maximise the shelter depending on how the breeze is hitting you.”
Anyone wishing to witness this unique effort tomorrow, Saturday, should be at the track for 12 noon.
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