By Douglas Beattie
LONDON (Reuters) - Briton Bradley Wiggins added the UCI world hour record to his extensive cycling career honors tally on Sunday when he covered 54.526km in the London Olympic velodrome to smashed the mark set by fellow Briton Alex Dowsett last month.
Wiggins -- who undertook six weeks of intensive training ahead of the blue riband event for the furthest distance traveled in one hour -- rode into history in front of six thousand noisy fans, destroying the 52.937 set by Dowsett in Manchester.
The 2012 Tour de France winner, four-time Olympic gold medalist and multiple world champion on road and track, covered 219 laps in 60 agonizing minutes, maintaining his record-setting pace despite concerns about the slight slowing effect of high air pressure in London.
The 35 year-old took the record -- which has been held in the past by Eddy Merckx and Chris Boardman -- with a controlled and highly assured performance, albeit just short of the 55km which Wiggins himself had targeted.
