Longo Breaks World One-Hour Record
November 7, 2000 - 0:0
MEXICO CITY Veteran French rider Jeannie Longo broke the world one-hour record with 44.767 kilometers.
She beat the 43.501km set by Australian Anna Wilson on a conventional bike in Melbourne on October 18. "This is something special that I have enjoyed a lot and that I wanted to get back. Now I've done it and I will try and do it again in the week," Longo said.
Longo also holds the world one-hour record of 48.159km for a high-tech machine which she set on the same Mexico City track in 1996. The 42-year-old Frenchwoman said she had wanted to stop after 20 minutes into the run because she felt hampered by the wind.
"I wanted to abandon the attempt but my trainer and husband (Patrice Cipralli) didn't let me and said I was doing well and that I should carry on." Longo, a multi-women's Tour de France winner, world champion and Olympic medalist, said she would stay in Mexico another week to try to improve the mark. "I'm going to keep on training and I hope to try it again. I feel fantastic and very confident." She said recent rule changes by the governing International Cycling Union (UCI) did not affect her and she respected them.
"If the UCI doesn't now take into account the records that were made with special bicycles it doesn't matter. I still have the old record and now I also have the new one, and no one can take that away from me." (Reuter)
She beat the 43.501km set by Australian Anna Wilson on a conventional bike in Melbourne on October 18. "This is something special that I have enjoyed a lot and that I wanted to get back. Now I've done it and I will try and do it again in the week," Longo said.
Longo also holds the world one-hour record of 48.159km for a high-tech machine which she set on the same Mexico City track in 1996. The 42-year-old Frenchwoman said she had wanted to stop after 20 minutes into the run because she felt hampered by the wind.
"I wanted to abandon the attempt but my trainer and husband (Patrice Cipralli) didn't let me and said I was doing well and that I should carry on." Longo, a multi-women's Tour de France winner, world champion and Olympic medalist, said she would stay in Mexico another week to try to improve the mark. "I'm going to keep on training and I hope to try it again. I feel fantastic and very confident." She said recent rule changes by the governing International Cycling Union (UCI) did not affect her and she respected them.
"If the UCI doesn't now take into account the records that were made with special bicycles it doesn't matter. I still have the old record and now I also have the new one, and no one can take that away from me." (Reuter)