Originally due to aim for a new hour record this week at the Astana velodrome, the location for the track World Cup which runs from November 4th to 6th, Kazakhstan’s Andrej Kashechkin has announced he is postponing his bid.
“It's a goal I set, it is not for right now but I will try to set the appointment for next season,” he stated. He didn’t elaborate on the reason he will not follow through on the goal.
At the end of September it was announced that the 31 year old Astana rider will chase the target, although it was initially interpreted by some as being a bid on the current world record set by Ondrej Sosenka six years ago.
A representative for Kashechkin clarified the issue to VeloNation, saying that the rider would aim to lay down a mark in the velodrome in Astana, Kazakhstan rather than targeting Sosenka’s mark of 49.7 kilometres.
The attempt was due to take place during the days of the World Cup. Kashechkin was said to have been training for it with the coach Jaume Mas.
The Kazakhstani rider returned from a two year ban in 2010 and competed with limited success for the Lampre-ISD team. He then completed a rare mid-season transfer this season, switching across to the Astana team. His goal was to captain the team in the Vuelta a España and he said before the event that he considered a top five finish could be possible.
However he was never in that sort of form and instead ended up riding support for Fredrik Kessiakoff. He finished 89th overall, while Kessiakoff became ill and weakened in the second half of the race, ending up 34th.