The WHPVA record committee has just approved a 2009 attempt for the Megameter (1000 km) and 24 hour land world records. Beating the old mark of 23:02:00 hours for 1000 km and 1041.25 km in 24 hours of Canadian Greg Kolodziejzyk by more than 30 minutes and 20 km, respectively, the German Christian Ascheberg now holds the new records. His new marks are 22:25:09 hours for the Megameter and 1069.07 km in 24 hours. While the record could only be approved now, he actually set these records already on 1. August 2009 on the Eurospeedway race track in Germany.

However, Australian Jeff Nielsen has already submitted results from a new record attempt run on 3 April 2010. His time of 21:36 hours for the Megameter and 1107 km in 24 hours are in the process of approval by the WHPVA record committee right now.

It took 11 years since Germany's Axel Fehlau's world record setting run of cycling 1021 km in 24 hours, for someone to surpass his mark. Only in 2006 canadian Greg Kolodziejzyk increased the 24h distance to 1041 km. Since then, two people have increased the record mark, german Christian Ascheberg with 1069 km in 2009 and australian Jeff Nielsen riding 1109 km this spring. While the two latest records are still in the process of ratification by the WHPVA, the next attempts are already on the horizon: On the weekend of 31. July/1. August 2010 the Eurospeedway Lausitz in Germany - location for Christian Ascheberg's 2009 run - will be the world's center for long-distance record hunters. At least 6 people will attempt to set new world records for 6h, 12h and/or 24 hours. The course is a very flat 5+ km car racing course, and from its layout and tarmac quality it is possibly the best location for long-distant record HPV attempts in all of Europe.

While this event is by invitation only, if you are interested to also participate in this event, please inquire with the organisers at http://www.droplimits.de (website in german only at this point, but english is spoken) for details.

WHPVA Land World Championships 2010

The 2010 WHPVA World Championships for land vehicles will take place on Jersey already on 28-30 May 2010. This beautiful compact island off the coast of France in the the english channel already sported recumbent events in the previous years and put together a competitive racing schedule, including a hill climb, criterium, sprint, road time trial, two criterium races and a drag race. Registration is open and racers are welcome!

It’s a Human Powered Vehicle, a wonderfully broad spectrum description which in the cold hard light of reality, mostly, but not entirely, refers to those non-conformist wheeled vehicles that are called recumbents; in all guises, from the record breaking streamliner down to the long-distance tourer.

It’s a Human Powered Vehicle, a wonderfully broad spectrum description which in the cold hard light of reality, mostly, but not entirely, refers to those non-conformist wheeled vehicles that are called recumbents; in all guises, from the record breaking streamliner down to the long-distance tourer.