No spoilers* but overall a great example of re-setting ones focus if original goals goes astray (e.g. pandemic). Enjoy!
*OK, spoilers here!
51.3 km/hr;
beat old record by 5.5%;
only 7% slower than current WR Hour.
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Heās definitely going to try to break world record, this was an amazing effort with little time to prep.
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Super impressed with his effort, but āonly 7%ā slower is quite an understatement. He would need to ride 3.7k more to tie Victor, that is massive! Altitude will definitely help, but itās still quite a long way to go.
Also, i donāt know how long the current HR will stand for. Huub Wattbike have been after the record all year now, but didnāt attempt yet, because they couldnāt travel to South America. These guys are pretty good at what they do, and there are rumors about Ganna having a shot also. I feel like heād trouble the 56k if he does. His engine is just unprecedented.
Still, all the respect in the world to LS. A very impressive athlete who I have followed and admired for several years now.
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I donāt think heāll be aiming for the WR, but he said he hopes someone breaks the Canadian record soon so he has a good reason to try it again. 
Not at all an understatement.
Victor is dedicated cyclist, LS is an athlete who has to cycle, run, and swim, and had very little track and Hour-specific experience, as well as less-than-specialised/perfected equipment.
Iād say that might account for a good chunk of that 7% deficit (e.g. just black line deviation alone might account for perhaps 15-20% of that extra 3.7km).
If LS dedicated a year to the WR Hour record heād smash it. But he wonāt. He loves head-to-head competition way too much to give up his day job for a singular and solo pursuit.
Inspiring nonetheless!
Plus ā 61x13!!! 
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7% arenāt linear however. Every additional āpercentā gets exponentially harder. I have no clue what power LS did, but the WT pros have fired out some serious watts (Brad Wiggins with an estimated 440W).
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I watched it live. Interesting because if it was any cyclist on the planet I wouldnāt have watched it. Thatās not true, I would watch Nate give it a whack. Iāve never done a tri but heās my favorite endurance athlete by far. Humble, personable and open with his data and training. His head bobbed around, he had almost no training on that bike or on the track, had just set a running PB 5K the prior weekend and still goes out and just smashed it.
If he wanted the World Record I do believe itās his for the taking but that doesnāt pay the bills.
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LS is entertaining but saying he would beat the WR if he wanted to, is almost a bit disrespectful to those who went a few kās further.
Going 3.7k further is massive! In fact that delta is what you would expect between a mid of the field pro cyclist and a world class time triallist/track rider. Remember: no gears on a track bike. To go further you have to wind up a bigger gear or pedal much faster. Thatās quite a task.
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Iād really wanna see Ganna go at it. He has the track experience and certainly has the legs. Handling keeping the cadence high is very difficult over 1 hour, and he would certainly spin the pedals like a washing machine.
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Iām pretty much that way with everything heās dipped his toe into, like the e-racing starting with the CVR World Cup and then the various Zwift race events heās doneāno interest in them unless heās racing then I go out of my way to watch them. 
I had no interest in watching previous hour record attempts either. Iām a triathlete and a Canadian so eventhough he makes some frustrating decisions at times I just respect his work ethic and ability to push himself to the limit so much (or #nolimits in his case ).
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Not really.
BW sea-level record 54.5km vs LS sea-level record 51.3km, a 6% difference (vs 7% VC at altitude).
Not bad for a triathlete with 6 track sessions and standard/borrowed gear vs a single-sport cyclist with decades of track experience with specialized gear. No one thought Jensy was ādisrespectfulā when he claimed he could break the WR ā and did. LS just went further than JV. We know has the engine, he only lacks all the fine tuning. Imagine what heād do at altitude.
But, like I said, he enjoys racing far too much to give it up for a serious WR attempt. Iād actually love to see some other tri monsters have a go at the record. Over all, Iāve enjoyed all LS COVID exploits.
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I think heās going to inspire some more Canadians to go after the record now and I could definitely see some other tri pros jumping on the bandwagon now that Lionel has broken through and set the bar. Sebastian Kienle would be a good candidate since he has a big support system behind him to do it (he was just on the velodrome this week doing aero testing, which isnāt the first time heās done that, but also not on a track bikeā¦) and is one of the longstanding uber-bikers of triathlon.
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Iām actually enjoying the burgeoning trend in cycling of cross-discipline domination.
Tri guys taking track records. CX guys taking Classis road races. Roadies going tri.
2020 has really exploded things!
Whatās the thing with the percentages? It doesnāt mean much. Sanders āonlyā rode 7% farther than Ollie Bridgewood of GCN at sea level, and he ādidnāt evenā average 300 Watts for the hourā¦
7% more or less can be several dozens of watts. 440 Watts for an hour for Brad, that is CRAZY!
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Watts arenāt everything either. During testing LS said he was putting out the same watts as Dowsett did in his WR ride yet was 3km/hr slower. Iām sure with a lot more track and aero time and testing and specialized equipment (and altitude and longer track) at his disposal, LS would put in a much faster time. 
Of course he has loads of headroom for improvement.
Just not world record levelā¦
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I think he would do the same time of one hour 
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To put in into a little more perspective, he would have been lapped by Campenaerts every 4 minutes.
Mike
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1.07^2.7 = 1.20.
IOW, all else being equal heād have to generate about 20% more power to match the current WR.
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Good thing all else isnāt equal. 
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