Ganna in trouble? Britain’s Tanfield gears up for Hour Record attempt: “I’ve watched every single attempt”

British cyclist Charlie Tanfield will take on one of cycling’s most demanding challenges this Thursday in Konya, Turkey, when he attempts to break the prestigious Hour Record. The 26-year-old, fresh from winning silver in the team pursuit at last year’s Paris Olympic Games, will ride against the clock inside the Konya velodrome, which sits 1,200 meters above sea level. The attempt is part of a special event organised by British Track Cycling.

The record Tanfield is chasing has belonged to Filippo Ganna since 2022. The Italian, riding for INEOS Grenadiers, set an imposing standard of 56.792 kilometres, a mark that has stood for over three years. Tanfield knows exactly what he’s up against. “I’ve watched every single attempt in the modern era. I could tell you the way that they rode them, and the splits they were riding to,” he told Cycling Weekly.

This has been a long-held ambition for Tanfield, dating back to 2018. Back then, he would sit with his housemate and then-team-mate Dan Bigham, poring over data and imagining the numbers needed to surpass Bradley Wiggins’s then-record. “Dan would have his spreadsheets and stuff. We’d put in the numbers and fantasise about how fast you could go over the hour. That sounds so sad,” Tanfield laughs, “but it did light a spark in me that it could be a thing I could do in the future.”

He admits that, despite their shared history, there’s been no direct advice from Bigham for this attempt. “There’s been a bit of banter,” Tanfield says, but he’s chosen to prepare independently. “I quite like to learn things for myself. It’s quite important that I develop as a rider myself through this process.”

In the run-up to Konya, his training has been a mix of altitude work and heat conditioning rather than endless track sessions. Earlier in the year, he based himself in Andorra, staying at British Cycling coach Cameron Meyer’s apartment. “I was basically riding down the mountain, training on the turbo trainer, then riding back up the mountain, back up to 2,200m, where I was staying,” Tanfield said.

Back home in the UK, he shifted to heat preparation, using a tent in his back garden. “When the sun’s out it’s pretty hot – it’s like 45 degrees in there,” he explains. Managing core temperature is central to his pacing strategy. “It doesn’t make sense to go out flatline, because you will just overheat. As soon as your core temp gets up to like 38, 39 degrees, you’re losing 20 or so watts off your threshold. It really compromises you.”

Tanfield is fully aware of the demands involved. “It’s a beast, it’s such a hard event that unless you are passionate about it, I really don’t think you would be willing to put yourself through the suffering and the preparation you have to do to actually get to the start line,” he says. The preparation has pushed him to the limit. “There have been a lot of times where I’ve thought, ‘What the hell am I doing? This is absolutely outrageous.’ It’s so difficult. I cannot describe how hard the mark has been set up. But as I’ve got closer and closer, I’ve got a little bit more confident. It’s exciting, just to see exactly how quick I can go.”

For Tanfield, the allure of the Hour Record goes beyond numbers and pacing. “It’s a really iconic event, and the history of the people who have done it over the years, they’re all, within their own right, legends of the sport,” he says. “They’re all the best riders of their generations, really, all the top guys. It would be cool to compare myself against those and give it my best shot.”