Britain’s Dan Bigham shattered the hour record by completing a distance of 55.548km around the Tissot velodrome in Grenchen, Switzerland on Friday.

Bigham, an aerodynamicist and race engineer for the British team Ineos (NS: INEO ) Grenadiers, set the pace to perfection on his Pinarello prototype track bike, beating Belgian Victor Campenaerts’ record in 2019 by almost half a kilometre. huge margin.

Five runners had tried to break the record since then and failed. The most recent was Alex Dowsett in November 2021.

Bigham collapsed on the track after his record-setting run and before being congratulated by his family who were watching inside the empty velodrome.

“I tried to go 16 seconds a lap for the second half hour and that’s a bit of a drag as I’ve never done 16 for a half hour before,” Bigham said after catching his breath.

A silver medalist in the team pursuit for England at the Commonwealth Games, former national champion Bigham has built a reputation as one of the best in the business of cycling aerodynamics, having graduated in Motor Sport Engineering from Oxford Brooks University.

He has ridden and worked for British Cycling before being hired by the Danish cycling federation and helping their track chasers break world records.

Bigham, 30, owns the Wattshop cycling performance business and joined the Ineos Grenadiers technical staff in January.

His fiancee Joss Lowden had broken the women’s hour record last year, although it is now owned by Ellen van Dijk.