Italian Filippo Ganna smashes cycling's one-hour record
The Olympic gold medallist etched his name into the history books covering 56.792km. Ganna improved on the 'best human effort' mark held by Chris Boardman since 1996.
Cycling Track 
Double world time trial champion Filippo Ganna made a successful assault on the UCI Hour Record in Track Cycling at the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen, Switzerland, on Saturday (8 October).
Ganna smashed the previous mark reaching a distance of 56.792km in 60 minutes, going 1.244km further, and in the process, he erased Chris Boardman's 'best human effort' record of 56.375km.
The Olympic team pursuit gold medallist came into the challenge aiming for the mark of 55.548 kilometres held by team-mate Dan Bigham of Great Britain. Bigham, who is Ganna’s performance engineer, set the previous mark in August this year.
The 26-year-old Italian started conservatively, with the lap times flashing red, indicating that his pace was outside Bigham’s record. But Ganna built the innings from lap 75 onwards as he dipped inside the mark.
At the halfway point, Ganna had covered more than 27 kilometres and was 10 seconds inside the record. He built up a cushion of more than a minute before he started plateau as the time in the saddle started to take its toll.
But Ganna pushed through the pain and held on to claim a remarkable piece of history to unify the mark previously held by Boardman and the record under 'new' UCI rules.
Speaking after achieving the incredible feat, Ganna hinted that he could take another stab at the record.
“Next time, if I am maybe in a better part of the season, with fresher legs, I can go further,” Ganna told the UCI. “This result is amazing, and now look at the recovery and celebrate it all together.”