Wiggins set the current benchmark of 54.526km in London in June 2015, when he became the fifth rider to break the record since the UCI modified its rules to allow for use of modern aerodynamic equipment in 2014.
Campenaerts, the current European time trial champion, will be the seventh rider to take on Wiggins’ record. The Belgian will ride between 18.00 and 19.00 CET in Aguascalientes, Mexico, where the reduced air density at the altitude of 1800 metres will help his speed but hamper his oxygen consumption.
Speaking on his Eurosport podcast, Wiggins seemed convinced his record would fall.
“I think if he starts, he’ll do it, because you don’t start the Hour Record unless you know you’re going to do it, because it’s so quantifiable,” Wiggins said.
“The first thing you do is go and ride 10 or 15 or 20 mins at pace and see what it feels like. If that feels all right, you do a half-hour trial, maybe a 45-minute trial. When I was speaking to him back in December, they’d already done 30 minutes at pace and felt comfortable, so I think he’ll break it.
“He’s been working on this for a long long time with a good team of people around him. He has not gone all the way out there to start it and fail. There is no second place; you either do it or you fail in an Hour Record. So if he starts, they’ll be confident he’s going to break it.”
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Wiggins, a former Olympic and world time trial champion, not only thinks his record will fall, but wants it to.
“I think it would be good for the sport and good for the record. We’re coming up to nearly four years this year that I’ve had it and you don’t want it to lie dormant for too long like Chris Boardman’s did,” he said.
“You want the sport to progress and move along and new people to establish records for other people to then come along and break. Good luck to him and I’m sure if he starts it he’ll break it."
