Attempt by Campenaerts to better own Hour Record not possible in current climate

NTT’s Victor Campenaerts shares a joke with former Lotto Soudal teammate Thomas De Gendt during the 2020 Paris-Nice
NTT’s Victor Campenaerts shares a joke with former Lotto Soudal teammate Thomas De Gendt during the 2020 Paris-Nice (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

NTT's time-trial specialist, Victor Campenaerts, is not about to attempt to beat his own Hour Record, set in April 2019, any time soon. The Belgian had apparently considered trying to beat his record of 55.089km this April at the London velodrome during the coronavirus lockdown, but the idea was shelved as being unworkable in the current climate of the pandemic.

The two-time European time trial champion's new NTT manager, Bjarne Riis, said on Thursday that an attempt by Campenaerts to try to beat the record he set last year – breaking Bradley Wiggins' 2015 distance of 54.526km – would have been "a nice idea", and that the team would have liked to have backed him, but it wasn't deemed possible.

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