The Hour record: riders, distances and rule changes.

The early record (1893 to 1933)

Wikipedia, seen only as a search summary, credits Frank Dodds with a first recorded hour distance of 26.508 km on a high wheeler in 1876; that is unconfirmed. Bikeraceinfo's list of the UCI Hour record begins later, with Henri Desgrange, later the founder of the Tour de France, who rode 35.325 km in Paris on 11 May 1893.

All rows are from Bikeraceinfo. It says Egg and Berthet traded the record in 1912 and 1913 before Egg's ride of 1914, which then stood until 1933.

The recumbent that broke the record (1933)

In 1933 Francis Faure beat Egg's mark on the Velocar, a recumbent built by Charles Mochet. Ahmed, Qureshi and Khan, in Social Studies of Science (2014), say Mochet had designed the machine to meet the UCI's rules, so it could not be faulted under them.

The UCI then redefined the bicycle by its dimensions and annulled the Velocar's records. When it did so is disputed: the 2014 paper says the challenge succeeded at the UCI's 58th Congress on 3 February 1935, while popular histories seen only in search summaries give 1 April 1934. The full story is on the UCI and the governing bodies.

Bikeraceinfo's list leaves Faure out. After Egg it shows Jan van Hout's 44.588 km at Roermond on 8 August 1933, and notes that van Hout's ride was not certified by the UCI.

Milan, altitude and Merckx (1935 to 1972)

From 1935 the record moved to the Vigorelli velodrome in Milan. Bikeraceinfo lists these rides; the exact days for the 1950s were not checked against the UCI.

Merckx's distance is 49.432 km on Bikeraceinfo's list; search summaries of other sources, including Wikipedia, give 49.431 km. We did not find the UCI's own figure.

The aerodynamic era (1984 to 1996)

In January 1984, in Mexico City, Francesco Moser rode 50.808 km on the 19th and 51.151 km on the 23rd on aerodynamic equipment. Bikeraceinfo lists these under its later "Best Human Effort" category. A fast sequence followed, again from Bikeraceinfo, with days not checked against the UCI:

• Graeme Obree, 51.596 km, Hamar, listed as 7 July 1993
• Chris Boardman, 52.270 km, Bordeaux, 23 July 1993
• Graeme Obree, 52.713 km, Bordeaux, listed as 4 April 1994
• Miguel Indurain, 53.040 km, Bordeaux, 2 September 1994
• Tony Rominger, 53.832 km on 22 October and 55.291 km on 5 November 1994, Bordeaux
• Chris Boardman, 56.375 km, Manchester, listed as 9 September 1996, in an extended "Superman" position

Back to Merckx's bike: the rule of 2000

road.cc, reporting in 2014, explains that a UCI equipment rule of 2000 required Hour attempts to use a bike and riding position equivalent to Merckx's ride of 1972, and to Keetie van Oosten-Hage's ride of 1978 for women. The rule applied backwards, so time trial bikes and aero extensions were excluded. Rides from 1972 onwards on modern equipment were moved into a separate category, and Merckx's mark of about 49.4 km became the record to beat again.

The name and date of that separate category vary:

• road.cc calls it "Best Hour Performance".
• Bikeraceinfo calls it "Best Human Effort" and says the UCI created the two categories in September 2000.
• Search summaries of Wikipedia and Cyclist magazine place the change in 1997 (unconfirmed).

Under the traditional-bike rule, Bikeraceinfo lists Chris Boardman's 49.441 km in Manchester on 27 October 2000 and Ondrej Sosenka's 49.700 km in Moscow on 19 July 2005.

The 2014 reset

road.cc reports that on 15 May 2014 the UCI announced, with immediate effect, that Hour attempts could use any bike that complies with its endurance track bike rules in force at the time. The change reinstated the earlier rides of Moser, Obree, Boardman and Rominger as Hour records set under the rules of their day, and named Sosenka's 49.700 km and Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel's 46.065 km as the marks to beat. road.cc quotes the UCI President of the time, Brian Cookson, as saying the record should benefit from technological progress.

The men's record since 2014 (UCI)

This list is the UCI's. Bikeraceinfo gives slightly different figures for two rides, 51.115 km for Voigt and 55.546 km for Bigham.

Search summaries of Cycling Weekly say Charlie Tanfield of Great Britain tried to beat Ganna at Konya, Turkey, on 14 August 2025 and fell short with about 53.97 km; summaries give 53.967, 53.976 and 53.964 km, none confirmed on a page we read. Search summaries also say William Bjergfelt set a C5 para-cycling Hour record of 51.471 km there the same day, also unconfirmed.

The women's record (UCI)

The UCI's women's list, in its release of May 2025, begins with Leontien van Moorsel of the Netherlands.

The UCI's women's list starts in 2003. Search summaries say Elsy Jacobs of Luxembourg set a women's Hour record in 1958; we could not confirm it.

The record now

The UCI's 2025 release names Ganna (men) and Bussi (women) as the holders. We found no new men's or women's Hour record set in 2026 in searches up to 22 October 2026, but the UCI has not confirmed that none was set. The track events that share the Hour's bikes are on track cycling, and the dates above are in the timeline.