Australian Bridie O’Donnell broke the UCI Hour Record in Adelaide today, setting a new distance of 46.882km at the Adelaide Super-Drome, which bettered Molly Shaffer Van Houweling’s (USA) previous record by 609m. The former Australian time trial champion paced her ride perfectly, measuring her effort with the help of her trackside team and at the halfway mark was exactly on her target distance of 93 laps of the 250m velodrome. Bridie’s lap times began to suffer in the last quarter hour as the immense effort took it’s toll, but she continued strongly to take the record by a significant margin.
We’ve have been working with Bridie over the past few months to develop an aerosuit for use in her record attempt, using a development of the suit that Movistar Team’s Alex Dowsett rode in his successful UCI Hour Record attempt last May. Bridie’s record breaking aerosuit features innovative new features developed with the aero experts at Drag2Zero and which have been extensively tested in their facility at the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One wind tunnel in Brackley and made at our headquarters in Livingston, Scotland.
Endura’s aero program is ongoing with further developments in materials and construction techniques coming for Movistar Team, Cérvelo Bigla Pro Cycling Team and roster of long distance triathletes over coming months. Endura have also introduced cutting edge aerosuits available to riders through their custom clothing program and will be launching the Endura Drag2Zero QDC triathlon range in coming months.
Speaking to the UCI, Bridie said: “All this wouldn’t have been possible without the crowd and the team that supported me throughout the project. I can’t believe I broke a world record… I tried not to think about my feelings. Yesterday I felt very nervous. Today people reassured me, telling me that it was all about the pacing. I tried to focus on that and not to be distracted by anything else.”
