Victor Campenaerts retained the UCI Hour record after Alex Dowsett failed to reach the 55.089 km he set in Aguascalientes on Wednesday, but the Belgian believes time trial world champion Filippo Ganna will eventually surpass him by a considerable distance He will eventually surpass him by a considerable distance.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he runs around 57.5 km," Kampenaerts told Het Rathoste News. 'The unfortunate thing is that it would be the last world time record for decades. No one will think of trying again."

Kampenaerts said in an interview with Sporza (opens in new tab) on this point: "Ganna is not on the same level as Dowsett or myself. He is the best time triallist at the moment, maybe the best ever. He also has the ability to chase on the track. If he tries, we will be spectacular."

Last month, Ganna said he would try for the hour record "someday," but insisted he had no immediate plans to do so, only hinted at by the Italian media in late 2022. The Italian claimed that he would challenge the Hour Record at sea level "without an 'asterisk' next to his name."

Campenaerts set a record of 55.089 km in Aguascalientes in April 2019, surpassing the 54.256 km set by Bradley Wiggins in 2015. Dowsett had held the hour record a little over a month before Wiggins, with 52.927 km at the Manchester Velodrome.

For this latest challenge, Dowsett chose to go to the highlands, as Campenaerts did in 2019. The Englishman started strong on Wednesday and at one point looked like he would break Kampenaerts' record, but stalled in the second half. He ran 54.555 km in one hour, a little more than half a kilometer short of the record.

Kampenaerts complimented Dowsett on his aggressive pursuit of the record, noting that had the Israeli Startup Nation rider ridden more conservatively, he would have been much closer to the 55 km mark.

"I enjoyed Alex's attempt," Campenaerts told Het Laatste Nieuws. 'I especially respect the way he handled it. He totally ran to break my record. He started a little too optimistic. He shouldn't have been. But then he kept the gap within the limit for a long time and was very close to me. He exploded at the end. But it was great to see him keep fighting and accelerate on the last lap. He never threw in the towel. Dowsett was a worthy opponent."

Campenaerts, who focused on time trials last year after it became clear that Wout van Aert and Remco Evenpoel would represent Belgium at the Tokyo Olympics, has been aggressive this season in the cobbled classics in Qhubeka, He took a stage win at the Giro d'Italia in Gorizia.

In 2022, Campenaerts is likely to return to Lotto Soudal and continue to pursue his potential on cobblestones, but admitted that his continued status as hour record holder may convince him to challenge Evenpoel and Van Aert in the Belgian championships next June

"If I had lost the record, I might never have ridden a time trial bike again. Now I'm thinking about riding my time trial bike on Thursday, I'm suddenly motivated to become Belgian time trial champion for the third time in June," he told Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab), joking about the record holder's honor.

"I'm glad the record is still in my possession, but records are there to be broken, not to get bonuses from the UCI. The only thing I have received from the UCI in the last two and a half years was the opportunity to celebrate in business class to China for the UCI Closing Gala."