The Ultimate Hour
DID YOU KNOW THAT A HUMBLE SOUTH AFRICAN IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S BEST HOURRECORD RIDERS? MEET GERT FOUCHE...
The Hour – the rawest number in cycling – seems simple. Get on your bike, ride around a track, and see how many kilometres you can cover in 60 minutes. Since Frank Dodds covered 26.5km on a penny-farthing in 1876, cycling has been entranced with this mythical mission.
The first official record belongs to Henri Desgrange, who managed 35.3km and would go on to found the Tour de France. But it has been tackled regularly since, with many of the greats on the all-time list: Team NTT’s Victor Campanaerts, who rode 55.089km in Mexico in April 2019, is the current record-holder.
For two decades, the South African hour record belonged to →ames Louter: 45.490km. Then, in late 2018, a 38-year-old Pretoria lawyer took to the rough concrete of Hector Norris, in Gauteng, and rode 103 laps for a blistering 47.023km.
Well known as a hard man in Gauteng cycling circles, Gert Fouche also smashes it on the oval as a multiple SA and World Champion, so it was hardly a surprise that he’s tackled the Hour.
“It was a natural progression. I’ve always had a passion for time trials. To me, it’s pure – it’s a true reflection, you can’t hide.
“In 2015 I did my first track SAs, which I really enjoyed; the individual pursuit, especially, which is an abbreviated version of a road TT. In 2017 I went to the US and managed to win the individual pursuit, the points and scratch at Worlds, got a third in the kilo TT. I won elite individual pursuit at SAs that year, too.
“After a disappointing 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, I decided I needed to focus on something else – and the Hour was it. It took many lonely hours at the track and on the road, and then the necessary intervals, from long efforts lasting hours to 12-second sprints, all in the aero position. Aero is everything; and in the Hour, even more so.
“I managed 47 and a bit of change. The main goal was to beat the old SA record, which had stood for 19 years. I learnt a lot with that event – the prep, what it takes, and the technical aspects. But I didn’t think I would do it again.”