Chris Boardman's successful attempt to set a new world hour mark turned out to be a marvellous sporting spectacle that had the crowd on its feet in the closing stages.

His gutsy, stirring effort during the final minutes will live long in the memory and for once a sportsman who's been at the very top of his profession was able to enjoy a fairytale ending to a long career.

As an attempt to beat the distance ridden by Eddy Merckx at altitude on a so-called conventional bike in 1972 it was thoroughly engrossing, yet it seems bizarre that the blue riband event of cycling has been reduced to this.

The UCI, cycling's world governing body, have tried to turn back the clock because they feared the record was being influenced too much by high tech bicycles and elongated riding positions rather than by the ability of the athletes themselves.

In my view this is a mistake which will only harm the evolution of the sport.

Ridiculed

Eddy Merckx himself has ridiculed the new rules, which stand in the way of progress.

As he says, you can't really compare riders from different eras given improvements in training and diet as well as advances in materials and technology.

Should pole vaulters use bamboo poles for world record attampts rather than modern fibre glass, or should Maurice Green wear shoes identical to those worn by Jesse Owens in the one hundred metres?

The answer is no, and I believe there's nothing wrong with allowing the World hour record to be at the cutting edge of technology. It's wrong to ban equiptment and machines from the hour record, when similar bikes are being ridden in other events at the World Championships.

The irony is that in trying to ensure the record is all about the rider's abilities, we're still all talking about the bike. Will someone trying to set a new mark in fifty years time have to use the same type of bicycle as Chris Boardman today?

Surely not. Can you imagine if progress had been halted when the penny farthing was still in vogue.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the rule changes, it was still a marvellous ride by one of Britain's best ever cyclists and he still holds the absolute record of 56.375 kilometres set in Manchester four years ago.