Next September, on a long straight line in Nevada (United States), the Mayennais François Pervis will try to beat the world speed record aboard a recumbent bike. Record to beat, 144 km/h! Explanations.
François Pervis, your career may be over, but you continue to challenge yourself and you are also a man of records. So you are preparing a new attempt at the world speed record?
Yes that’s it. I never stop! So there, I have been preparing in secret, for almost three years, an attempt at the world speed record in a streamlined recumbent bike. The machine looks like a drop of water, like a rocket, I lie inside and I pedal. It’s only human power and to beat the world record, you have to do better than 144 km/h.
How is the record attempt going?
Several teams from all over the world meet. These are often universities, future engineers. I work with the University of Annecy. There is a straight line in the desert of Nevada, in the United States, a road eight kilometers long, with a nice flat asphalt. It’s 1400 meters above sea level, so it also helps to go fast and break records. So we have eight kilometers to get started. And in fact, we measure the time over the last 200 meters, which gives an average speed reached. So, I have eight kilometers to launch myself and to reach my maximum speed in the last 200 meters. Basically, that’s four minutes of effort.
So it’s longer than your usual efforts on the track, where it’s rarely more than a minute?
Yes, it’s different as an effort from the sprint on the track. It’s more like a chase. For example, a runner like Filippo Ganna is a world pursuit champion but also a world time trial champion. He does road races all year round. This is the reason why I also started doing training and road races in order to ‘get strong’ and improve resistance over a four-minute effort. And then, when I get closer to the goal, I’m going to see a very specific preparation with intensities over four minutes. That’s my new challenge for this year. I was supposed to do it in 2020, but it was canceled because of the Covid and the same thing last year. But this year, normally, it’s the good one.
The difficulty is that the position on the bike is not at all the same?
That’s why I train on a classic recumbent bike (no fairing). The pedal stroke is not the same at all. I’m really lying on the bike and I have my feet in front. I do not force the same since there, I have a lumbar support. Furthermore, the steering is also very complicated because the center of gravity is not the same. The sense of balance also changes. It’s still cycling, but there’s still a blow to take and it’s not easy.
I also plan to do sessions on a three kilometer long track near Lyon from May. On this test track, I should be able to reach speeds between 110 and 120 km/h. So I can get used to the speed. The interior of the car is very small. I am confined with screens that help me see where I am going because there is no windshield. And there is no air at all so I have to have a mask with a hose that is connected to the outside of the capsule and be able to breathe properly. So you have to get used to all that.
And so, you intend to break the record?
Yes I hope. The faired bike that I’m going to ride is very accomplished. People have been working on it for ten years. The students have come up with something very to the point. And we hope that my physical qualities will be enough to break the world record. It’s a ‘man-machine’ duo, you could say that. You have to be good at both aspects, that’s for sure.