The World Hour Record attempt by Sir Bradley Wiggins is being shown live.
Wiggins, the 2012 Tour De France winner will attempt to better the distance of 52.937km set by Alex Dowsett in Manchester on May 2nd, this Sunday at the Lee Valley Velodrome in London.
Sky Sports Two and Two HD and Freeview Channel Pick TV (Channel 11) with a live stream on the Sky Sports website and Sky Sports You Tube channel, will be showing the attempt.
Coverage of the attempt will be from 6pm to 8pm, with the attempt starting at 6.30pm and all tickets for the event sold out within minutes of going on sale.
Wiggins will need to complete 221 laps if he is to become the new record holder and told Sky Sports: Pace judgement is everything in the hour record. “If you can ride 16.1 or 16.2-second laps constantly for 221 laps, and not go 15.9s or 16.4s, it’s keeping it on the line every lap, lap after lap.
“The most efficient way is to keep the power [constant], and that in itself is a skill. If you look at Alex Dowsett’s [graph], he went like that [upward line] because he went faster, but people like Thomas Dekker [who failed in an attempt in February 2015] were all over the shop.
“It’s like sitting on the motorway in the fast lane revving it in third gear, braking really hard, revving it. It’s just a case of putting it in cruise control at 70mph and sitting. It’s the most efficient way for a record like this.
“And when you get something like that, that’s perfection. It’s a skill in itself. How does Ronnie O’Sullivan play snooker the way he does? You can’t explain it.”
Wiggins also feels that air pressure could be a factor as to whether he is successful and said: “If the conditions are right on the day. They would have to be really right. A lot of the hour record is dictated by temperature and air pressure. Air pressure is everything.
“I’m not a weather man, but if you have really low pressure, under 1,000 [grams per cubic metre], you will travel a lot further on the day – anything up to 1km for the same power.
“The weather forecast for the first week in June is abnormally low pressure for London for that time of year, which is fantastic. That has dictated everything. You could go a kilometre either way depending on air pressure.
“If the conditions are right, it’s possible. The goal is to break the record first and foremost. I wouldn’t underestimate the record that Alex has done.”