Students from Delft University of Technology and VU University Amsterdam have successfully broken a world record for speed with their uniquely designed VeloX3 bike!
Months of hard work fell into place for the Dutch team along a 200 metre route stretching across the Nevada desert (USA), when cyclist Sebastiaan Bowier broke the world record in their very last attempt during the competition earlier in September.
The long term collaboration of the Human Power Team, formed of technical students and top Dutch cyclists, successfully led to cyclist Sebastiaan Bowier reaching record breaking speeds of 133,78 km/h in their advanced VeloX3 bike.
High speeds reached by Bowier were 0,6 km/h faster than the previous world record holder the Canadian Sam Wittingham. Despite having his high performance record surpassed, Wittingham still placed second in the race.
Additionally the Delft-Amsterdam team placed third with another excellent speed of 127,43 km/h captured by cyclist Wil Baselmans.
"We knew that both the technical and human aspects were right today: it is highly gratifying that the potential for success ultimately became reality, even though we faced a pretty strong strong headwind," says Wouter Lion, the team’s leader.
Leading up to the race, trainer Jelle de Jong and a team of Human Moverment Sciences from the VU University helped cyclists reach their peak fit performance levels with about 15-20 hours of cycling, per week.
Working together, the Dutch Human Power Team used computer simulations to test the extraordinary compactly of the super aerodynamic VeloX3, featuring just 1/10 of the resistance of a regular cyclist.
With the unique shape of the VeloX3, cyclists must ride positioned laying down instead of the typically upright stance. Furthermore, the VeloX3 shell was covered using a special coating to reduce drag, exactly like high speed Forumula 1 race cars.