Dan Bigham to do Hour Record - "I’m in a really good position"

With Filippo Ganna postponing his Hour Record attempt, INEOS Grenadiers are having Dan Bigham take up the opportunity to challenge Victor Campenaerts' time in a battle to replace the current record holder.

“The UCI Hour Record timed by Tissot has been a massive thing in my life for the past few years, since I first attempted one as a student in 2014," Bigham said in his announcement. "I’m excited about the prospect of seeing what I can do against the clock again, with the support of the team behind me".

Bigham is a long-time track specialist and time-trialist on the road. He has however in the last few years switched his position as a professional racer to one of a performance engineer at INEOS Grenadiers where his work revolves around the team's time-trial capabilities and enhancing them as much as possible - together with the likes of World champion Filippo Ganna, Ethan Hayter and Geraint Thomas. He's finished second in the British national time-trial championships this year however, as he occasionally still races at a high level but without a team sponsor.

“Physically I’ve moved on since becoming a part of the Ineos Grenadiers. As much as my workload is high, it’s been nice to have everything I do consolidated within one place," he revealed. "It means I can be so much more organised in how and when I can train, while having the full support of the team – not just in allowing me to train, but enabling me to train efficiently".

eHis capacity to train at full-time and have the technological advantages of his position and contacts with the team's suppliers have him in the best position he could hope for, as he describes: “And having access to all of the team’s partners has been massive for me. The amount of support that Pinarello have put into this project by bringing a new, incredibly high-level bike to the table in such a short space of time is pretty astronomical". Furthermore, "we’ve done a huge amount of skin suit testing with Bioracer over the past six months too. It’s been really impressive and I feel like I’m in a really good position on that front".

He will have the difficult but possible task of beating Victor Campenaerts' effort which currently sits in the throne, with a distance of 54.723km in the famous Grenchen velodrome, in Switzerland.