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AGAINST THE CLOCK

Everything in cycling settled by the clock — the Hour Record, the time trial, and the watches that ended up on the wrist. This is the home for cycling's oldest obsession: the race against time.

14 articles · 12 podcast episodes

THE SHORT ANSWER

Everything in cycling settled by the clock — the Hour Record, the time trial, and the watches that ended up on the wrist. This is the home for cycling's oldest obsession: the race against time.

Every other sport keeps score. Cycling keeps time.

You can lead a Grand Tour for three weeks and lose it by eight seconds. You can ride an hour alone on a track, against nothing but the clock, and walk away calling it the hardest thing you've ever done. The sport has measured itself this way since 1893 — set by the same man, in the same year, who went on to invent the Tour.

This is the home for all of it. The Hour Record, and the riders who couldn't leave it alone. The time trial — the race of truth, where there's nowhere to hide and the clock doesn't lie. And the strangest chapter of the lot: a sport that drills holes in bottle cages to save grams, now strapping a small fortune to the wrist.

Cycling and time. It's the oldest obsession we've got.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Hour Record in cycling? The Hour Record is the furthest distance a rider can cover in exactly one hour on a velodrome, from a standing start, with no drafting and no pacing — just a rider, a track, and the clock. It's regarded as cycling's purest test of sustained power and aerodynamics. As of 2026 the men's record stands at 56.792 km (Filippo Ganna, 2022) and the women's at 49.254 km (Ellen van Dijk, 2022). Read Dan Bigham on what amateurs can actually learn from chasing the clock.

Why is the time trial called the "race of truth"? The individual time trial is nicknamed the "race of truth" because there's nowhere to hide — no teammates to shelter behind, no wheels to sit on, no tactics to mask a bad day. It's one rider alone against the clock, so the time you post is the exact measure of your form. The French name for the discipline, contre la montre, means literally "against the watch." See our guide to riding a faster time trial.

What watch does Tadej Pogačar wear? Tadej Pogačar wears Richard Mille, the ultra-high-end Swiss watchmaker he became an ambassador for in 2022. He races in one of their ultra-light models — built from materials like carbon and titanium so it weighs only tens of grams — even during Grand Tours. The watches can cost several hundred thousand euros, which is exactly why the partnership turns heads in a sport that agonises over every gram.

Why do pro cyclists wear watches when the sport obsesses over weight? Mostly sponsorship. Luxury watchmakers pay riders and teams handsomely, and a watch visible on the wrist through three weeks of a Grand Tour is worth far more than the grams it costs. It also helps that modern high-end sports watches are engineered to be extraordinarily light — often under 40 grams — so the real weight penalty a rider carries is close to nothing.

Which watch brands sponsor pro cycling? Richard Mille is the most visible through its partnership with Tadej Pogačar, but the clearest case of a watchmaker backing a team is Tudor — the Rolex sister brand that title-sponsors the Tudor Pro Cycling Team. Fittingly, the team was founded by Fabian Cancellara, a two-time Olympic time trial champion and four-time world champion against the clock. The man who spent his career racing the watch ended up putting a watchmaker's name on the start sheet.

ARTICLES

Community7 min read

Zwift Made a Watch With No Battery: The Bravur × Zwift Collaboration

Zwift is software. A world of watts and pixels that lives on a screen. So the strangest thing about its new watch is that it does none of that. Bravur, the Swedish brand that hand-builds mechanical watches in Båstad, has put a Zwift orange second hand on an automatic calibre — no battery, no data, just a sweep hand and a tarmac-textured dial. It's the most analogue thing the most digital brand in cycling has ever made.

Community10 min read

The Casio and the Ten-Mile TT: A Love Letter to Cycling's Cheapest Watch

Tadej Pogačar wears $350,000 on his wrist. The fastest club rider in your county probably wears $20. The Casio F-91W has timed more personal bests, broken more hearts, and told more truths than every Swiss tourbillon combined. This is its story — and the culture it helped build.

Community11 min read

Omega, the Boards, and the Thousandth of a Second: Timing Cycling's Fastest Events

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny finished the individual sprint so close together the naked eye couldn't split them. The photo finish camera could — by six thousandths of a second. Omega built that camera. They have been building cycling's most precise clocks since 1932.

Community10 min read

The Six-Figure Wrist: Richard Mille and the Modern Peloton

A sport that drills holes in bottle cages to save grams now sends its biggest stars up the Tourmalet wearing $350,000 watches. Richard Mille's bet on cycling is absurd, calculated, and working — and it says a lot about where the money in the sport is heading.

Community10 min read

Rolex and Cycling's Great Absence: The Sponsorship That Never Happened

The Daytona is named after a racetrack. The Yacht-Master after the sea. The Submariner after the deep. Rolex stamps its name on motorsport, tennis, sailing, golf, and equestrian. It has never stamped it on cycling. The absence is one of the strangest in sports sponsorship — and Tudor, Rolex's own sister brand, is the reason it stays that way.

Community10 min read

Breitling's Top Time Coppi & Bartali: The Watches That Honour Cycling's Greatest Rivalry

Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali divided Italy more cleanly than any election. Breitling has put the rivalry on the wrist — two limited-edition Top Time B01 chronographs, one celeste, one blue, both carrying the in-house Calibre 01 that happens to be the engine inside Tudor's cycling chronograph too.

Community9 min read

Tudor's Bumblebee and the Watches That Timed the Tour de France

Tudor is the only watch brand in history to put its name on a professional cycling team jersey. Now it has a new chronograph to match. From Longines stopwatches in the 1940s to Festina's implosion and Richard Mille on Pogačar's wrist — the watches that shaped the Tour.

Community8 min read

Tudor Pro Cycling: The Watch Brand That Crashed the Tour de France

Most watch brands pay a champion to wear the product and take the photograph. Tudor built a team instead — riders, a bus, a former world champion running the operation. From a standing start to all three Grand Tours in under four years.

Community12 min read

Against the Clock: Cycling, Watches, and the Oldest Obsession in the Sport

Football keeps goals. Tennis keeps sets. Cycling, almost alone, keeps time — and has done since before the Tour de France existed. A feature on the sport's oldest obsession, from Merckx's massage table to the watch on Pogačar's wrist.

Coaching9 min read

Ryan Collins: Eight World Records and the Three Tweaks Behind Them

A car wrote off Ryan Collins' Olympic bid in 2017. In 2024 he averaged 46.6 km/hr for six hours on an indoor velodrome. Three training and fuelling changes did most of the work.

Coaching11 min read

Alex Dowsett On Thirteen Years As A Pro: What Amateurs Take For Granted

Six-second-anticipation crashes. Bike fit changes that put 400 watts in a TT bike rider's legs. The hard-border road rules in the US that British and Irish amateurs do not respect. What thirteen years on the World Tour teaches a rider to see.

Coaching10 min read

Uli Schoberer Invented The Power Meter. The Sport Has Spent Forty Years Catching Up.

Before 1986, cycling had no language for measuring effort except heart rate and lactate tests at the lab. One engineer in Ulm decided that was not good enough. The strain-gauge crank he built in his workshop changed how the sport trains.

Community11 min read

Dan Bigham on Aerodynamics: What Amateurs Actually Need to Know

Dan Bigham held the UCI Hour Record. He's also head of engineering at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Here's what he says actually matters for amateur aerodynamics.

Coaching4 min read

How to Ride a Faster Time Trial: Pacing, Position, and Preparation

Time trialling strips cycling back to its purest form — you against the clock. No drafting, no tactics, just sustained power and aerodynamics. Here's how to get faster at it.

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MAKING A DECISION?

COMPARISONS

Road Cycling vs Gravel Riding

Road riding builds higher sustained power and aerobic capacity. Gravel builds broader fitness — more core engagement, bike handling, and functional strength. Both build fitness; road is more training-efficient, gravel is more fun for many riders.

Single-Sided Power vs Dual-Sided Power

For training, single-sided is accurate enough. For known imbalances or bike fitting, dual-sided justifies the premium. Most amateurs should start single-sided.

Road Bike vs Gravel Bike

80%+ tarmac and racing: road bike. One bike for everything: gravel is more versatile. For most recreational cyclists, gravel is the better single-bike option.

Carbon Frame vs Aluminium Frame

Carbon is lighter and more comfortable. But a good aluminium frame with quality wheels outperforms cheap carbon. Money saved on aluminium is often better spent on coaching or a power meter.

Clipless Pedals vs Flat Pedals

Clipless offers a small efficiency advantage and better power transfer. Flats are safer for beginners and better for commuting. Most road cyclists benefit from clipless once comfortable.

KEY TERMS

GLOSSARY

Aerodynamic Drag Bike Fit Drafting (Sitting in the Wheel)Rolling Resistance Q-Factor

THE CRAFT, DELIVERED WEEKLY

The best of against the clock: cycling and the race against time — evidence-based, once a week. No fluff.