HPV World Championships 2015

The weekend of 22nd August (the day of the Crafted Classique where I did the 100km sportive) and the 23rd (when I went on the Sky Ride around Ipswich and then travelled to Germany for the Eurobike exhibition) saw the World Championships for Human Powered Vehicles, which this year was held in the Belgian town of Maasmechelen.

The first event was a 200m sprint (on the Friday evening), which came after a 1km “run up” on a straight, flat road. The speeds – given in km per hour – of the winners in the Mens, Fully Faired (i.e. velomobile or similar) are quite stunning:

The 100 km event on the Saturday morning comprised laps of 3.4 km with just 4 corners and long straight sections, with 2 slight slopes; one of 120m at 2% gradient and the other 600m at 1.5%. The raced ends when the first person completes 30 laps. The top 5 results plus the first two UK participants were:

The final event was held on Sunday morning was a 1 hour time trial around a route of 1.9 km around a winding course with one short 80m climb of 6%, with the following numbers of laps being completed:

Winners of each event were awarded 200 points, the runner-up got 199, third place received 198, and so on down the table. Points for the different events were then totalled to provide the following overall standings:

Well done to the two top British participants in this gruelling weekend of racing.

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