Jens Voigt Archives - Cycling Passion

And the hour shuts up: Jens Voigt breaks the Hour Record

Jens Voigt breaks the Hour Record by 1,410 meters at the Vélodrome Suisse in Grenchen. The recently-retired German, who turned 43 on Wednesday, covered 51.110 kilometers (31.76 miles-205 laps) in one hour on 18 September 2014. The previous record was 49.700 km (30.88 miles) set by Ondřej Sosenka of the Czech Republic in 2005 in Moscow.

Voigt said after the record that: “51 kilometers in an hour, it’s a lot more than I had imagined. I gave it everything in the last 20 minutes. I knew that I still had the energy, that I was ahead of the mark. I felt euphoric – it was the last 20 minutes of my sporting career. I was super-motivated. Now I am on the list of all the famous names, I am so proud to join the likes of Merckx, Indurain. It’s fantastic to finish like this.”

Jens Voigt borrows a child’s size bike after crashing his own, Tour de France 2010

Today’s historic photo of the day is about one of the most iconic figures of cycling history – Jens Voigt. When he was riding for Saxo Bank team, he participated in the Tour de France 2010 edition as a domestique to his leaders, the Schleck brothers.

After completing his domestique duties on the mountainous stage 16, he crashed heavily on the descent of the Col de Peyresourde, and his bike became destroyed. After getting back up, he realized that all the team cars had passed and that he would not be handed a new bike. Desperate, he borrowed a bike much too small for him, from a children group’s car which was following the race. He rode on it for about 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) before reaching a policeman who had another bicycle which had been left for him by his team.