World Championships 2019 - 19-21 July - Nandax - France

[Supertramp]

All results here: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AgXvOxWTuf6KgbM17X38xjvQevb1MA
Larry must have been so tired the first day from travelling and not sleeping (because of jet lag, heat and lots of nervously chattering cyclists), but then he did fantastic in the three hours. The first ranks were impossible to reach with competitors like Stijn and Marvin and Hajo and also Marco, and the course was also not slowing down enough the fully faired/partly faired racers.
Had the time of my life there and really enjoyed meeting Larry in person, not to forget all the other friendly competitors, the brilliant organisation team and the crowd of cheerful helpers that were literally everywhere.
Martin

 

[ed72]

Larry did very good, I think he is in the first 20 athlets of the UF category but the classification has not been published yet. This is a video of the first race:

Congratulations on a great hill climb time.....especially you had problems with the mass start and not being able to pass the riders.

 

[DavidCH]

I didnt enter the race... one thing or another. Just blocked... found out later that my cleats had perished so probably good I didnt enter. It was quite an eye opener for me. I had my bike boom and bottom bracket too aero. It helps if your bottom bracket is level with your shoulder. And the boom at a less horizontal angle. The road chip here is very harsh and the roads are more bumpy than I'm use to. So I did what I could to help Larry.

There was a hill climb event that I kept on blowing up on. I was fighting the bike constantly trying to keep it going straight. It was a pretty big hill... totally unforgiving. The road cambered steeply in places so it was being a master of spin (obviously not quite there yet). I had a qring 36t chainring on a 32t cassette sprocket. I tried the hill twice with the very aero config - almost horizontal boom. And blew up with 2 km to go. Changed the angle of the boom as best I could and pumped the tires up to 70psi but only did this after the race.

Much better handling and I could relax a little more going up the hill. Third time lucky and I got up thr 600m hill; but its 38c today so not for the faint hearted.

There were about 130 contestants. There was the hill climb and there was a standing start sprint over 1km for fastest 200m and then again a 1km sprint.

Never done a standing start. A standing start is with someone holding the back of your bike when you have both feet clipped in. A good thing to practice before coming to one of these events. If you can do it without fumbling with the pedals then you save a huge amount of time.

Both the hill start and sprint times were used to work out start grid positioning. And of course it starts on quite a hill so you need to get going first time otherwise you start at the back.

It has been an incredible experience seeing the dedication of everyone. The winners all had 3% body fat. There were like 10 or more velomobiles... lots of trikes, and recumbents home made with fairings and without.

The big unforgiving hill

 

[markciccio]

As for my own race, at the end of the competition I was 4th overall in the UF class. Much, much more than I expected.
Maybe without that problem with my pedal in the first uphill race I could reach the final podium but who knows...
I am very happy because I built my own bike, a low racer "Rev HTH" and I haven't tested it a lot.
It was a great championships and I hope I can do better next year even if the first two riders where very fast,almost unattainable. And it was great to talk to Larry and many other friends.

Here is a photo of Larry on the Zokra KA:

And a picture of me and my HTH:

 

[DavidCH]

Here are some incredible pictures.

Fighting for first place up a nightmare hill in a velomobile!


Pretty sure its Stijne Van de Maele. Different league - superfit


Larry paced himself brilliantly


And finished in style in the epic 3hour. (It was terribly hot when they finished)

 

[ElyDave]

As for my own race, at the end of the competition I was 4th overall in the UF class. Much, much more than I expected.
Maybe without that problem with my pedal in the first uphill race I could reach the final podium but who knows...
I am very happy because I built my own bike, a low racer "Rev HTH" and I haven't tested it a lot.
It was a great championships and I hope I can do better next year even if the first two riders where very fast,almost unattainable. And it was great to talk to Larry and many other friends.

Here is a photo of Larry on the Zokra KA:

And a picture of me and my HTH:

Here are some incredible pictures.

Fighting for first place up a nightmare hill in a velomobile!
View attachment 8118

Is this Marvin... bombing up the hill. Different league - superfit
View attachment 8122

Larry paced himself brilliantly
View attachment 8123

And finished in style in the epic 3hour. (It was terribly hot when they finished)
View attachment 8121

is that a bamboo Cruzbike behind you? there is a company in the UK that facilitates bamboo builds, but I've not seen them come out with a recumbent yet

 

[Bentas]

Congratulations Larry , must have been an awesome experience, your looking very much at home on the beautiful Kougin.

 

[RojoRacing]

What class is DF? don't tell me you guys let a DF bike beat the whole field?

 

[ed72]

Towards the end of the video Larry says something like he could only do 240 watts on the climb. Since the climb was around 12 minutes, he might have been feeling the jetlag because his FTP is north of that.

What class is DF? don't tell me you guys let a DF bike beat the whole field?

I think DF stands for Daniel Fenn, velomobile designer. Could be wrong. I think he also raced on his uber light Alpha 7

 

[Supertramp]

is that a bamboo Cruzbike behind you?

It is a homemade bamboo bike: http://velorizontal.1fr1.net/t24817-td-bambou-whpva-2019

 

[Supertramp]

don't tell me you guys let a DF bike beat the whole field?

There was also an upright Felt time trial machine in the unfaired field for comparison. Did ok but did not beat the whole field. Must be Richard Schaffenroth's DF velomobile you've read about.

 

[markciccio]

The rider with the upright "DF" Felt was just in front of me in the uphill races but a the end was 8th in the UF class. He could not reach more than 50 km/h in the 200m and km standing races, that was his biggest issue. In the 3 hour race we where together for 8 laps out of 9. I was slower on the climbing but faster on the flat. In the last lap I decided to keep my 5th position and let him go.

This is my video of the second day:

 

[ak-tux]

is that a bamboo Cruzbike behind you? there is a company in the UK that facilitates bamboo builds, but I've not seen them come out with a recumbent yet

I think, that's should be a french DIY bamboo MBB built by a lady called Oryanne. The build details are in the french forum http://velorizontal.1fr1.net/t20072p200-td-bambou-carbone

 

[Supertramp]

Larry's bike ready for the return trip


And, for comparison, Australian vs. French geo:

 

[markciccio]

 

[LarryOz]

Congratulations on a great hill climb time.....especially you had problems with the mass start and not being able to pass the riders.

I finally got home yesterday after my long trip, which included HPVA race in Northbrook, IL on Sat - where I crashed due to huge wind gust on track.
I am trying to write up a full report. but thought I would tell a little about my sorry output in the hill climb.
Martin may be correct - maybe a little bit of jet lag, or the 4 hours of continual travel to get to the racing site, maybe having ridden around too mujch during that day and the day before as well, high temps and maybe some nervousness thrown in.
I really thought I would be able to put out about 280 watts for 14-15min of this climb (and would have placed much better (Martin blew my doors off on the hill climb), but all I could output was about 240, and it was not that I was not trying. My HR averaged 177 for the nearly 17 minutes it took me to do the climb, maxing out at 187bpm - I could not have really gone much harder. The fastest rider (I think it was Stijn) did it in an incredible 11:40'sh - Absolutely amazing. Many trikes and even some velos were much faster than me as well. It was awesome to see,
I am working on my video of the climb and will post soon.
I had such a great time meeting everyone, especially Martin - who made his own fantastic FWD-MBB bent! It is fabulous and he was fabulous on it.
Got to meet David from Spain on his Vendetta. Too bad he was geared a little low and was unable to do the hill climb.
It was a wonderful experience and I hope to do it again next year - maybe be a little more ready

 

[LarryOz]

Congratulations Larry , must have been an awesome experience, your looking very much at home on the beautiful Kougin.

Yes - truly awesome experience!!! Soooo many great riders and great people. Got to meet the overall winner last year (Charlie) - who designed and rode the POB!
It was amazing to just see that Zockra bike. I would have bought it if I was tall enough. I did get to meet Malric too - and surprised he knew who I was - small community indeed. He even showed me his "latest" creation he was building for one of the top contenders at this event (for next year). He does not really build any longer - just for special cases, etc.

 

[Supertramp]

Larry, I beat you in terms of heart rate, I knew my limit and immediately forgot about it. The HRM showed 120 at 38°C before the start because of heat and adrenaline, it was my first race after 2017. I allowed myself an extra 10-15 BPM for the heat and still went beyond that.
Both of us were placed in the rear of the grid according to our higher registration numbers. And the hill start wasn't for everyone obviously, there was a massive jam of riders fumbling with their pedals and weaving all over the place. No way to pass, so the race was not won but lost by time of registration.

It was amazing to just see that Zockra bike. I would have bought it if I was tall enough. I did get to meet Malric too - and surprised he knew who I was - small community indeed. He even showed me his "latest" creation he was building for one of the top contenders at this event (for next year).

Sorry I missed that. But I know there was a lowracer from Zockra made for Geoffroy Lelievre :http://malricsworld.blogspot.com/2017/08/24h-paul-ricard.html
There wasn't a lot of info, the only thing I read in the french forums was that he had a wipeout in a long distance relay race and that the bike was going back to Zockra for some changes.
Larry, I would have liked to see you try one of the french bikes, but none of these was adjustable. I do believe there is a handling advantage to them, I've seen Oryanne ride away on her Bamboo MBB no handed on a slope. I'm not that good yet, but I can ride mine hands free easily.

 

[ak-tux]

..
Larry, I would have liked to see you try one of the french bikes, but none of these was adjustable. I do believe there is a handling advantage to them, I've seen Oryanne ride away on her Bamboo MBB no handed on a slope. I'm not that good yet, but I can ride mine hands free easily.

Whether it's the French head angle of 55-60 deg. or the cruzbike and Itallian (Marco's) 68-72 deg head angle , the rider can learn to ride hands free even up a slope. The human brain and body is amazing, it can adapt to almost anything, given sufficient time.

Look at Marco riding up a climb hands free here with a standard 71 deg head angle:

The difference in my opinion is the steering responsiveness and the amount of flop. Shallower head angle is a bit sluggish to steer IMHO but probably less twitchy for the learner. I can also ride up a reasonably steep slope hands free on my DIY MBB with a 68 deg. head angle.
In terms of the engineering, I think the shallow head angles (like 55 deg) puts alot of stress around the headtube/downtube joint and the fork for and FWD MBB, may be not a big deal for light weight riders though .

 

[Supertramp]

Didn't want to start a discussion about geo, this is definitely not the place. I'm just sorry there was no opportunity for Larry to test ride bikes in the homeland of the Traction Directe. Comparing different concepts gives ideas and insights that can hardly be foreseen theoretically.