The current record is 184 ¼ laps so we have been training for more than that. The pace I have set is for more than that, so we just have to decide our strategy in the next couple of weeks and how information will be delivered to me.
Conditions on the day will also make a difference. Everyone needs to prey for bad weather. Air pressure will go very low in very bad weather and that creates a different environment as it is thinner air so it is easier to ride through. You could potentially have a bigger gear and potentially go faster. So there are things that can happen that you have to be reactive to on the day of the event.
I think it is different for women than it is for the men, potentially because our races are a lot shorter. Men frequently get 55km time trials in stage races so they are frequently in a time trial position under pressure for around an hour while fatigued in the middle of a stage race. So that gives them the ability to know what it’s like to do the hour. With the female time trials, if you look at our national championships last year, we only had 13 miles, it was half the distance of the men’s. We rarely get time trials above 25km in length so it is quite difficult to know you have to confidence to do it.
It calls into questions the campaign the women have had over the past few years, certainly Emma Pooley has spoken about this before she retired, of increasing women’s racing in distance so that they have something a little more equal to the men. If women’s racing becomes longer they may feel they have the physical attributes for a challenge like this.
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I am most nervous about being able to finish it [the hour record]. You can train, you can be in the right place. Trying to emulate what the last 15-20 minutes are going to be like is really difficult without causing too much fatigue. If you do the actual hour it needs to be far enough away from the event to recover from it and want to do it again. It is the unknown of how your body will react after all those laps when you really need to dig in and push deep. You know you have to hold position, hold the black line, there is not swinging up team pursuit style, there are no roundabouts like a time trial, it is literally that one position.
The unknown will create those butterflies. But if you know you are going to do something it wouldn’t be an exciting challenge to do. Part of the event is the unknown.
The hour will be the start of an incredibly exciting year. I have the World Championships on the track for paracycling four weeks later and then the time trial and road racing season starts. We will fit in a quick holiday so I last the season. Then we have a big season on the road as a team. The Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International team has 12 riders, four of those will be at the World Track Championships in Paris, so we have a lot of riders with big ambitions so we have a big plan which includes the Women’s Tour and the National Championships and some other international and domestic races.
Dame Sarah Storey will attempt to break the world hour record at round 5 of the Revolution Series at the Lee Valley VeloPark on 28 February. Sarah’s attempt at the prestigious hour record is part of a full weekend of elite racing over 27/28 February, with tickets ranging from £10 to £45 and are available to buy at cyclingrevolution.com or by calling 0844 854 2016.
