When the unpredictable Danish Pro Ole Ritter travelled to the newly made wooden Olympic track in Mexico-City in October 68, he started a new chapter in the fascinating saga of the Hour Record. Since the beginning in 1893 when Henry Desgrange set the first official record in Paris, every successful attempt bar one had been at or near sea level. The exception was by an American W.W.Hamilton, who in 1898 had been the first to cover 40kms. in an hour at Denver Co, 1600m above sea level. Any old-uns on the CR list members remember him! Mexico is 600 metres higher than Denver. Moving on Ole Ritter was no slouch having beaten Anquetil, Gimondi, Merckx and Bracke in a 45km time trial stage in the Giro. At that time the hour was held by Roger Riviere 47.346km Vigorelli Rome 1958. Before Ritter got his crack at the hour Bracke surprised everyone by getting the record at the Vigorelli. In the same week as Bracke's remarkable and surprise performance news was filtering through to Europe of several successful World Hour Record attempts by amateurs during the Pre-Olympic meet on the concrete track at the sports centre in Mexico-City. Guido Costa was in Mexico to help the Italian sprinter Sartori who took the kilometre record there. The more outstanding rides there were by the reigning Olympic pursuit champion Jiri Daler CZ who set new figures for the 4000 & 5000 metres. Prior to Costa trip to Mexico he was helping Ritter train for a World Hour Record attempt. On Guido Costa's return he advised Ole Ritter to wait until the new wooden Olympic track was ready in Mexico City. His advice was to make his record attempt immediately before the Olympics. In his last race in Italy he came second to our Hugh Porter in the world professional pursuit championship at Rome. After 3 weeks acclimatization and training in Mexico Ritter tackled first the 5000m, then the10 & 20k world records on the same day getting all 3 records. The hour was scheduled for a week later. Ritter was very consistent in his ride keeping close to his scheduled of 6m 10s for each 5k's. He lifted his speed in the final 15 minutes and broke Bracke's record by 560m, about one and two third laps. He had shown that with enough time to acclimatize to altitude a rider benefits from easier penetration through thin air. It was worked out that an extra 2.5% was to be gained at altitude. The Peugeot's lads were not slow to work this out and applying this theory Bracke could do at least 49k at altitude. So Gaston Plaud the Peugeot's team manager made plans to take Bracke to Mexico. Before going he beat Hugh Porter in the 1969 world pursuit championship in Antwerp. This made up Plaud's mind and the rider, manager and support crew left for Mexico on Oct.18th 1969. There were loads of rows, but all seemed well when Bracke made his first attempt on Nov.13th. After 5000k he was up on schedule with 6m 7s, but he soon faded and climbed off after 13k almost coming off on the wet track. Three days later he went back for a 30 minute trial. Slow start 6m 12.7s which seemed to help, but he slowed after the 10k mark and stopped his effort. He went back to the hotel and said i am finished I want to go back home. they persuaded him to stay and have some medical tests done which showed he needed a lot longer to adapt to thin air. A last ditch attempt was made on Nov.9th. but this only lasted for 13 minutes. Bracke couldn't even match the pace he had set in Rome. Loads of money had been spent on the 3 week trip and as a result Peugeot the sponsor got a loads of bad publicity and a thoroughly demoralising time for this wonderful rider. Nobody was to try for another three years until Eddy Merckx finally decided to make an attempt. Part 2 to follow. PS if I am boring the b----cks of you please feel free to say off list and I won't bother with the rest.
Thats all for now. Keep those wheels spinning, in your memories if not still on the road. Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK.