 |
| The fastest women on a bike: Ellen Van Vugt |
DESPITE falling over in his pod during the first heat and missing
the second heat while the pod was being repaired, Canadian Todd Reichart became
the fastest man in the third heat of the 16th annual human-powered vehicle races
in Nevada last week.
Competing against cyclists from England, the Netherlands, Slovakia,
Italy and the U.S., the 33-year-old athlete set a top speed of 137,9 km/h in the
annual World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Nevada last week.
He was pedalling in a recumbent bike designed and built by Aerovelo
engineering.
Reichart shattered the previous record of 133,8 km/h, set by
26-year-old Dutch cyclist Sebastiaan
Bowler, just as Aerovelo said they would when they announced their intention to compete last year. He pedalled an eight-km run-up to build up speed before entering the 200 metre stretch on what Nevada’s Department of Transportation billed as the flattest and smoothest roads in the world.
Bowler, just as Aerovelo said they would when they announced their intention to compete last year. He pedalled an eight-km run-up to build up speed before entering the 200 metre stretch on what Nevada’s Department of Transportation billed as the flattest and smoothest roads in the world.
 |
| Team Aerovelo (from left) Tomek Bartczek, Alex Selwa, Victor Ragusila, Todd Reichert (the rider), Cameron Robertson and Trefor Evans. |
Recumbents.com report this highway was repaved in 2009 and “special
consideration for this particular section of road to ensure utmost smoothness”
for the sensitive recumbent bikes.
Pedalling at an altitude of 1 408 metres,
Reichart shot over these
two rugby fields in 5,22 seconds to beat Bowler’s record by 4,152 km/h.
It is not Aerovelo’s first record, with the silverware in their
cupboard including a land speed record for college-built and college-piloted
vehicles in 2011 (116,9 km/h) and the Atlas human-powered helicopter that won
the Sikorsky Prize in 2013.
The tiny tear-drop shaped recumbent bike in which Reichart put his
back into it is called Eta, which cut through the air one percent faster than
the team’s 2012 bike called Bluenose.
Like the other top competitors, the latest recumbent bikes do not
make any allowances for the human shape in a quest for the lowest possible wind
resistance. Reichart could only view the road ahead using a GoPro camera in the
nose, linked to a video monitor mounted above his head.
The Netherland competitors did go home with honour, however, as
Ellen Van Vugt set a new trike record of 87,63 km/h.
