The 27-year-old Belgian is the European time trial champion and finished in third place in the event at the last world championships in Innsbruck.
British track specialist Wiggins rode 54.526km in 60 minutes when he set the record in London on June 7, 2015.
After tests at the Swiss velodrome in Granges, Campenaerts has been training at altitude in Namibia this winter with an eye on the world record. He plans to ride the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in March and arrive in Mexico three weeks before his attempt.
“I have made good progress in recent years and I am paying attention to all the details, so I hope I have a chance of bettering the record,” Campenaerts said.
“This record, the individual world time trial title and the Olympic gold are the three dreams that I want to pursue in the next few years.
“I do not think of being a better athlete” than Wiggins, he said.“The record of the hour is a unique challenge in cycling and breaking it would be a way for me to write a little bit of the history,” he said.
“In our sport, the important thing is to win. Breaking world records is not as important as in other disciplines,” he added.
The Bicentenario velodrome in Aguascalientes has repeatedly hosted track record attempts by athletes attracted by its reputation and 1,800m altitude.
In December 2013, Frenchman Francois Pervis broke the world records time for the 200m and the 1km and a German trio broke the team sprint record. Last August, American Ashton Lambie broke the record for the 4km pursuit. Last September, Vittoria Bussi, a previously unknown Italian, set the women’s hour record, covering 48.007km.
Dane Martin Toft Madsen then fell just short of Wiggins record when he rode 53.630km in an hour.
French cycling ‘doping doctor’ gets reduced sentence
A former French cycling medical advisor received a 12-month suspended prison sentence yesterday for inciting amateur riders to cheat with drugs.
Bernard Sainz, alias “Dr Mabuse”, has spent years embroiled in scandals over encouraging doping and illegally practising medicine.
The 75-year-old, who describes himself as an alternative medicine therapist, had initially been sentenced to nine months in jail in September 2017 and was told to pay a 20,000 euro ($22,600) fine.
But an appeal verdict, announced on Wednesday, saw the change in sentence and the fine reduced to 2,000 euros.
“I was expecting to be let off, plain and simple... I can’t be satisfied considering these are non-existent deeds in a doping affair,” Sainz said after the verdict.
“This obstinacy is getting to be very painful, especially when you’re 75,” he added, speaking of the prosecution.
At the appeal in December, the prosecution had demanded a heavier sentence against Sainz for engaging in doping between 2008 and 2010, with prosecutor Marc Faury saying that “sport becomes much less so when he (Sainz) is involved”.
Sainz – known as “Dr Mabuse” after the 1922 film depicting a fake doctor – has had repeated brushes with the law. He was previously jailed in connection with other doping incidents and for illegally working as a doctor.
Sainz was initially convicted during the 1998 Festina affair at the Tour de France during which police found a stash of performance-enhancing drugs in a team car, throwing the sport into turmoil. In 2013, he was fined 3,000 euros in a case linked to horse doping.
The following year, he was sentenced to two years in prison, of which 20 months were suspended, for incitement to dope and practising medicine without a licence.
In 2016, Sainz was secretly filmed by French TV giving doping instructions to cyclists. These included instructing his “patients” on the use of EPO, a blood-doping agent, and clenbuterol, a steroid.
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