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the hour - sporting immortality the hard way. michael hutchinson published by yellow jersey press £12.99 282 pages, paperback.

how fast can you cycle in an hour? with a moderate wind pushing from the back, i might just manage around 40km, though if i have to turn and come back then that would be a lot (and i mean a lot) less. so since everybody's cycle computer shows what speed they're pedalling at in either miles per hour or kilometres per hour, it is, indeed, no real surprise that there is a world record for how far a cyclist can travel in one hour.

many of the greats from the past and relatively recent past have at least had a go at this record, but in order to do so, you can't simply start at the round church in bowmore and head towards ardbeg - the traditional place for breaking such a record is in a velodrome. any one you like really.

so why should you be interested? well, since this website took its name from at least one of the exploits of the great graeme obree, the fact that he broke said hour record on two occasions ought maybe to be reason enough. and his so-called 'superman' position helped britain's other hour record holder, chris boardman, to put the record into a category of its own.

now this last statement is not hyperbole. our sport is governed by the union cycliste international who appear, with alarming regularity, to be living in a universe not altogether connected to our own. after boardman had travelled 56.375 kilometres in one hour, the uci decided that not only was the obree inspired position on the bike outlawed, but the clock should be arbitrarily turned back to 1972, when eddie merckx managed 49.431km on a round tubed colnago track bike specially constructed for the attempt at altitude in mexico city.

so boardman's fifty-six something became the 'best hour performance' and all subsequent attempts had to be a la merckx. boardman did sort of have the last laugh by using just such a bike to record 49.441km at sea level in manchester at the turn of the century before retiring as a professional cyclist.

chris boardman's initial attempt one what is now the best hour gave him the profile to move from a highly respected british time triallist (a euphemism for 'obscurity') to a professional stage racer with the french gan team, subsequently (and still) known as credit agricole. similarly for the scottish maverick, graeme obree, 'cept he relinquished such a career (ostensibly alongside fellow scot and washingmachinepost hero, robert millar) in le groupement after it was forcibly suggested that he might like to contribute to the team 'medical fund'. since breaking the hour record had become a credible career move for a rider already at the top of the time-trialling game (something almost entirely confined to the united kingdom), the idea not unnaturally occurred to michael hutchinson, qualified as a lawyer, but forging a convincing career as a sponsored time triallist in the uk.

this book 'the hour - sporting immortality the hard way' is easily the most entertaining book i have read since tony hewson's 'les nomades du velo anglais' and much like the latter, is an excellent read whether you have any real interest in cycling or not (though for the sake of self esteem, i shall assume that you would not be reading this far into the post if you did not have at least a passing notion).

hutchinson is an excellent writer and storyteller. the book is well paced - on receiving the copy, i could not figure out how on earth anyone could fill 282 pages about travelling round in circles for an hour unless the herbal tea was stronger than they had imagined. believe me, there is scarcely a sentence too many and i laughed out loud enough to worry my family since that is not an activity they would normally associate with my reading cycling literature.

michael claims early on that he had more interest in the boardman method of achievement, everything by scientific and minute analysis rather than the bowl of cornflakes and marmalade sandwiches favoured by obree, but from the narrative it is simple to to detect a change over the course of michaels' own preparation for the attack on the hour. obree: 'he wasn't an eccentric at all. he was a genius'. hutchinson often uses the 'what would graeme have done?' comparison several time throughout the book.

by the time we reach the chapter on hutchinson's time to cycle for an hour, it is clear that the pedalling bit may well have been the easiest part - the book could almost have been subtitled 'sod's law applied to cycling' - several things that definitely should not have gone wrong did go wrong, most largely outwith the control of the hapless cyclist. if michael hutchinson did indeed keep the sense of humour during the preparation period for the hour record attempt that he so finely displays in the written word, then he deserves our admiration.

this is a great read about a fascinating subject and will appeal well past the relatively narrow world of cycling and cyclists. it's available from prendas ciclismo for the very modest sum of £12.99 and is, in my humble opinion, money very well spent.

this website is named after graeme obree's championship winning 'old faithful' built using bits from a defunct washing machine

as always, if you have any comments on this nonsense, please feel free to e-mail and thanks for reading.