60 km, 11500 metres of ascending, five fjords, nine mountains, this is the setting of the beautiful, but tough route of the Viking Tour. Over 140 participants, young and old, among them four recumbent riders on their M5 Carbon High Racers. (the fifth, Robert Carlier, unfortunately couldn't participate for personal reasons). The weather was untypical for Norway: loads of sun and temperatures above thirty degrees centigrade. Only during the final stage dark clouds and thunderstorms dominated during part of the day.
The positive attitude of the other participants with respect to the recumbents was striking. Lots of attention and admiration that we had the courage to go into the mountains... After the first few stages a road biker concluded: I think it goes faster. When Herke Wendt (40) had won two stages, astonishment really kicked in. What's happening here!?. But after the success of the recumbent still no sign of any envy, victory was fully acknowledged. Herke, in fact the "true Viking" due to the lack of a shirt, was mentioned separately during the award ceremony as the most rapid. Cheering seemed a little louder when his name was called.
Around the parked M5 Carbon High Racers bystanders where often checking out the technique and all kinds of questions were asked at the M5 Team. Some even took a test ride.
The M5 Team participated along a field of participants in which also a strong group of professionals took part. The leading group rode en climbed fast every day. Still Herke established the highest average stage speed twice with his M5 Carbon High Racer, 35.9 en 36.9 km/h. Both times in mountain stages with finish on top of the mountain.
The whole M5-team passed the finish without technical malfunctions. This is given the circumstances not completely obvious. The road of the prologue was in such bad condition that you were almost thrown off your bike. Kind of ascending in a river bed. Wheels coming loose from the underground due to pot holes and grooves. In later legs the bikes also took heavy impacts. Speeding through gravel on 8 bar racing tyres seems a request for flats and for wrecked rims. En what about climbing: full power on the pedals, chain as tense as a string, 12 percent, 14 percent, every revolution maximal stress on the propulsion system. Subsequently down again: kilometres of intermittent braking, expecting the rim to get red hot. But at the end of the stage only the rider is wrecked: the bike is only dusty and ready to make a new start next day.
En route road bikers could be seen struggling with their usual discomforts. But then, they have to, because "climbing on a recumbent is impossible"... In the past it has been demonstrated often then ascending on a light recumbent is fine, but thanks to Herke Wendt it has been emphasized again.
Winning a stage twice with ample lead to well trained athletes shows that climbing is just no problem. And the superiority of the recumbent on flat terrain and during descends was already no longer a subject for debate.
Ascending, preferably with a few percent slope on nice tarmac, is simply spectacular: the bike remains incredibly stable, everything feels save, under control. Carefree enjoyment on the M5 CHR's while racing down a mountain. Where road bikes ascended with 70 km/h, the recumbents went (while free-wheeling) 30 percent faster here, in this case up to 94 km/h.
The Viking Tour was an endurance test for the participating M5's and their riders. Obviously, Herke was the undisputed star. In the classifications Bram was on average at a third from the top and in the top 5 of his age category. Despite his lack of training kilometres Wout was close to Bram. Daniel not only finished the whole tour, but also managed to leave about 50 of the 150 participants behind.
Our muscle soreness has diminished again and the harshness of the Viking Tour proved to be insufficient to destroy our bikes. Bram is now considering to bring a spare rider next time instead of a spare bike
Bron: M5-ligfietsen.com
Zet daar nou eens een ervaren profrenner is die gewend is geraakt aan de M5 CHR, dan rijd je fietsjes van 20K in de vernieling met een (intussen) oldtimer M5. :-) Zoals @365cycle al aangaf, steek miljoenen in de optimalisatie van de CHR en die fiets wordt alleen maar beter.
Bij een gelijkaardig artikel stond er nog dit te lezen: result of our fast take-off was that the much younger and stronger athletes didn't pass us until we were at 700 metres. The overtaking speed was clearly lower than at the beginning of the Viking Tour. Just imagine: younger (say 30 years), stronger (400 Watt in stead of 295 Watt) and lighter riders on M5 Carbon High Racers... Any difference would simply be eliminated!!
The positive attitude of the other participants with respect to the recumbents was striking. Lots of attention and admiration that we had the courage to go into the mountains... After the first few stages a road biker concluded: I think it goes faster. When Herke Wendt (40) had won two stages, astonishment really kicked in. What's happening here!?. But after the success of the recumbent still no sign of any envy, victory was fully acknowledged. Herke, in fact the "true Viking" due to the lack of a shirt, was mentioned separately during the award ceremony as the most rapid. Cheering seemed a little louder when his name was called.
Around the parked M5 Carbon High Racers bystanders where often checking out the technique and all kinds of questions were asked at the M5 Team. Some even took a test ride.
The M5 Team participated along a field of participants in which also a strong group of professionals took part. The leading group rode en climbed fast every day. Still Herke established the highest average stage speed twice with his M5 Carbon High Racer, 35.9 en 36.9 km/h. Both times in mountain stages with finish on top of the mountain.
The whole M5-team passed the finish without technical malfunctions. This is given the circumstances not completely obvious. The road of the prologue was in such bad condition that you were almost thrown off your bike. Kind of ascending in a river bed. Wheels coming loose from the underground due to pot holes and grooves. In later legs the bikes also took heavy impacts. Speeding through gravel on 8 bar racing tyres seems a request for flats and for wrecked rims. En what about climbing: full power on the pedals, chain as tense as a string, 12 percent, 14 percent, every revolution maximal stress on the propulsion system. Subsequently down again: kilometres of intermittent braking, expecting the rim to get red hot. But at the end of the stage only the rider is wrecked: the bike is only dusty and ready to make a new start next day.
En route road bikers could be seen struggling with their usual discomforts. But then, they have to, because "climbing on a recumbent is impossible"... In the past it has been demonstrated often then ascending on a light recumbent is fine, but thanks to Herke Wendt it has been emphasized again.
Winning a stage twice with ample lead to well trained athletes shows that climbing is just no problem. And the superiority of the recumbent on flat terrain and during descends was already no longer a subject for debate.
Ascending, preferably with a few percent slope on nice tarmac, is simply spectacular: the bike remains incredibly stable, everything feels save, under control. Carefree enjoyment on the M5 CHR's while racing down a mountain. Where road bikes ascended with 70 km/h, the recumbents went (while free-wheeling) 30 percent faster here, in this case up to 94 km/h.
The Viking Tour was an endurance test for the participating M5's and their riders. Obviously, Herke was the undisputed star. In the classifications Bram was on average at a third from the top and in the top 5 of his age category. Despite his lack of training kilometres Wout was close to Bram. Daniel not only finished the whole tour, but also managed to leave about 50 of the 150 participants behind.
Our muscle soreness has diminished again and the harshness of the Viking Tour proved to be insufficient to destroy our bikes. Bram is now considering to bring a spare rider next time instead of a spare bike
Bron: M5-ligfietsen.com
Zet daar nou eens een ervaren profrenner is die gewend is geraakt aan de M5 CHR, dan rijd je fietsjes van 20K in de vernieling met een (intussen) oldtimer M5. :-) Zoals @365cycle al aangaf, steek miljoenen in de optimalisatie van de CHR en die fiets wordt alleen maar beter.
Bij een gelijkaardig artikel stond er nog dit te lezen: result of our fast take-off was that the much younger and stronger athletes didn't pass us until we were at 700 metres. The overtaking speed was clearly lower than at the beginning of the Viking Tour. Just imagine: younger (say 30 years), stronger (400 Watt in stead of 295 Watt) and lighter riders on M5 Carbon High Racers... Any difference would simply be eliminated!!
