78.8 km/hr On Bicycle

A test team reached a maximum speed of 78.8 kilometers per hour with the aerodynamic recumbent bike ‘Velox3’ on Tuesday on the highway between Franeker and Dronrijp (Friesland). For this event, organized by students of TU Delft and VU Amsterdam, the A31 motorway was closed for a few hours. The bicycle was made to break the world record cycling speed of 133 km/hr. This was a try out, the real attempt to break the world record will be done in the U.S. state of Nevada later this year. The A31 between Franeker en Dronrijp is an ideal piece of road to practice: 8 kilometers long and almost straight. Before the attempt in Friesland the team was hoping for a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour. “Unfortunately we couldn’t reach that speed since we had strong crosswinds,” said Wouter Lion, chief of the student team. The ride began Tuesday morning a bit later than planned because of a lot of interested people along the route. “There were slightly more people interested than we had anticipated,” said Lion. The whole race is filmed and the images are now being evaluated for the big race in the United States. The Velox3 is a recumbent bicycle, made by engineers and sports scientists.