Meredith’s one hour of power for new junior record
A teenage cycling starlet has set a new British junior record after riding for one hour straight.
Fred Meredith, from Welshpool, completed a total distance of 49.184 kilometres from a standing start around the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome in South Wales.
The 17-year-old – who rides for the Shrewsbury-based Holohan Coaching race team – went 0.6km than the previous benchmark over the course of his 60-minute ride that was streamed live on Facebook.
His distance is just 300 metres shy of the former world record held by Tour de France legend Eddie Merckx and British cycling hero Chris Boardman.
The Welsh junior time trial champion had the support of British hour record holder Dan Bigham, coaching from former professional Liam Holohan and British Cycling.
He suffered a puncture just three laps into his first attempt, but regathered his composure to hit the ground running second time around. And he remained bang on the time required, smoothly easing past the previous mark of 48.5km, an unofficial world record for his age. Dane Mikkel Bjerg is thought to have been the only junior to go further than Meredith over an hour, in his two failed attempts to beat the world record in 2017 and 2018.
After a host of rule changes, the hour record has come to more prominence in recent years, with Sir Bradley Wiggins taking it with 54.526km in 2015, only to be surpassed by Belgian Victor Campenaerts’ 55.089km four years later.
