Speed | SUSO

Varna Diablo

One man can cycle faster than anyone else on earth.

You’ve probably seen them, the guys who kick back almost flat on those recumbent bicycles, darting in and out of traffic, too low to show up in people’s mirrors and - to my eyes at least - perennially on the verge of losing control. Georgi Georgiev’s Canadian company Varna builds a whole range of them; one, not for public consumption, is the Varna Diablo III, a bike that, ridden by Sam Whittingham, broke the world record for a human powered vehicle last week out on the flats of the Nevada desert at the annual World Human Powered Speed Challenge.

Competitors usually afford themselves only one run a day; the exertion is too great. But as the sun began to set over Nevada last Thursday, Whittingham saddled up for a second run, and, on a road that’s deteriorated over the last few years, broke the record at 82.3 mph: “I was flying down the course and was getting bumped around like crazy. It was one of the scariest runs of my life.” Whittingham had already broken the record three years in a row between 2000 and 2002. Clearly he wanted it back.

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Categories Endeavour Tags speed

By on 26/9/08

Lightning Bolt (couldn't Resist!)

"HE'S GOING TO RUN 9.6, THERE'S NO QUESTION. HE'S 21; HE'S GOING TO GET STRONGER; HE'LL GET BETTER WITH COMPETITION; HE'LL LEARN THE EVENT. HE'S A PHENOMENAL TALENT." ATO BOLDON

In my mind, the Men’s 100 Metre Sprint is without doubt the purest form of sport. What else could be more decisive, more dramatic, more precise than a straight line race to decide who is the fastest person on the planet? I grew up watching the dark scandal of Ben Johnson in Seoul, the brutal fluidity of Carl Lewis in Tokyo, the outright ecstasy of Linford Christie in Barcelona. On saturday night in New York, a record-shattering, groundbreaking new king of speed was crowned.

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Categories Sport Tags ATHLETICS determination Olympics speed Sport SPRINT

By on 2/6/08

Mastery In Monaco

"IT'S A BADGE OF HONOUR. IF YOU DON'T COME OFF THIS TRACK WITH PAINT ON YOUR TYRES YOU HAVEN'T TRIED HARD ENOUGH." MARTIN BRUNDLE

Is anyone else getting a little tiny bit tired of the Lewis Hamilton post-race persona? It’s that meeting-the-parents, slimy kind of maturity that just seems to rub me up the wrong way. The faultless analysis of his pit strategy, the holier than thou praise for his team, the underlying arrogance that makes Formula 1 racing about him and no one else. Media sentiment is still very much on his side and, in spite of my bitter undertones suggesting that this has all gone to his head, so it should be.

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Categories Sport Tags Cars determination driving Motorsport speed Sport

By on 27/5/08