Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Eric Ware Becomes the Fastest Minnesotan

Next tri-season I'm planning to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'll be all out of bubblegum (Google 'They Live').

How do I intend to kick ass? By biking at over 70 MPH, of course.

On September 17, Eric Ware became the fastest Minnesotan, pedaling his Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) over 71 MPH! His feat, accomplished at Nevada's Battle Mountain Human Powered Vehicle Race, also makes him the 8th fastest human. The winner of the men's event clocked a world record speed of 82.4375 MPH. The winner of the women's event covered the course at 75.458 MPH.

The Battle Mountain race is timed over a 200m distance. Racers are allowed to build up speed over 5 miles before entering the speed "trap". The Human Powered Vehicles they race are recumbent bikes fully enclosed in an aerodynamic shell.

A documentary film crew covered the event for their short film "Human Power". Check out some early footage on YouTube.



Eric races at the NSC Velodrome for the MN Cycling Team in the Cat 4/5 field.

1 comment:

cdnhollywood said...

That is so cool. When I was in engineering, the SAE group was working on bikes like this. I was always interested in that work, but the lead cyclist was also a mechanical engineer. Being an electrical engineering student, and a crappy cyclist, I was out. :(

Very neat stuff.