April 16, 2019 (Aguascalientes, Mexico) – Lotto Soudal rider, Victor Campenaerts from Belgium, set a new UCI hour record at the Aguascalientes Bicentenary Velodrome in Mexico on Tuesday, breaking the previous record by cycling legend Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2015. Campenaerts covered just over 55km in the 60-minute window, breaking the previous 54.526km distance set by Wiggins.

“I’m super happy. I think if I looked at a list, that I’m in now I’m between the greatest cyclists in history. I really focused on this for a long time and I’m really happy that I took the record and happy that I could break the magic 55km,” said Campenaerts in a Lotto Soudal release.

The 27-year-old Belgium native said that he had the record in his sights for some time adding that, “I worked really hard and really long for this. The team supported me and gave me 100 percent confidence, and I think it’s important to give a good response to this confidence.”

Every detail of achieving the hour record was fine-tuned to give Campenaerts the best possible advantages. The Aguascalientes velodrome was specifically chosen for its altitude (1,800m), making one of the fastest tracks in the world due to its reduced air pressure. Although faster, the oxygen conditions require adaptation. Campenaerts slept in an altitude tent leading up to the event to get his body used to the higher altitude, which evidently seemed to pay off.

“It was really hard, especially because I was a bit optimistic in the first 30 minutes. You have to be optimistic but after half an hour, it was really important to set a new pace a little bit slower. I think I did great, I slowed down a little bit, but I think I was at almost at every part of the race I was a little bit faster than Wiggins,” he concluded.