The hour : sporting immortality the hard way

It's the only cycling record that matters: one man and his bike against the clock in a quest for pure speed.

No teammates, no rivals, no tactics, no gears, no brakes.

Just one simple question - in sixty minutes, how far can you go?

Michael Hutchinson had a plan. He was going to add his name to the list of record-holders, cycling's supermen.

But how does a man who became a professional athlete by accident achieve sporting immortality?

It didn't sound too hard. All he needed was a couple of hand-tooled bike frames, the most expensive wheels money could buy, a support team of crack professionals, a small pot of glue, and a credit card wired to someone else's bank account.

Still, getting the glue wasn't a problem...