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The Prologue

And there was a Great Organisating throughout the land, but as that is of no conceivable interest to you, Constant Reader, I shall not mention it again. Much. Probably.

Wednesday August 1^st

A Nice Day. Potter down to Brighton and hook up with the mob at Preston Park. This is a highly unusual track. It’s almost, but not quite, square. The four corners are all distinct and lightly banked, and the tarmac surface is new and very smooth. And it’s not level! Yep, a velodrome with a hill in it! This bizarre phenomenon clearly required investigation, and thus it came to pass that in the middle of all the Organisating, Registrating, Scrutineering and General Stuff that was going on, assorted people took to the track to give it a try. Particularly impressive were our transatlantic visitors – Sean Costin, Sam Whittingham and Rob English. While Rob and Sam were mounted upon Baron low racers of conventional appearance, Sean’s mount, called "Alchemy", deserves a mention. Carbon main frame in an "over-the-shoulder" configuration, aluminium pipework, front-drive and the rear (disc) wheel hung miles out on what looks like a normal front fork. The three of them spent a long time hurtling around the track in close formation. And dead impressive they looked too.

Not so many streamliners registered this year as might have been hoped, but Geoff Bird’s machine, whose lengthy gestation has been chronicled on these pages, was present and almost correct – it was lacking its bomb-doors but otherwise looked stunning in its silver paint job. Geoff had it running at a fairly good lick – turning laps at the same sort of speed at gNick had been managing. Scratch one fully-faired machine, though, as Walter Berger came i n looking somewhat apprehensive after his first run in the pink Birk. Although gNick and Geoff had been running in the high thirties (miles per hour, natch), Walter had found the breeze inexorably pushing his machine towards the fence heading down towards what I suppose should be designated Turn 4, and decided that it might be sensible to run his tail-faired bike instead… Steve Slade, having his second outing in Miles Kingsbury’s Little Black Number, had no such problems; though the beast sounds rath er like my neighbour’s elderly Granada when starting, he too was flogging around the track at a good clip.

Also noteworthy were the Quests. Five of them, at least, which had borne their owners all the way from sunny Flevoland, and parts beyond. All appeared to have liberal quantities of empty Coke cans and old banana skins on the floor, so it appears that, in The Netherlands at least, a velomobile can make a perfectly acceptable car substitute. Do they ha ve cup-holders? Enquiring minds wish to know…

Other notable things were the sheer number of identical matching Optima Barons campaigned by the Tim Biesemans Ligfietsen team and the only slightly smaller quantity of assorted Challenges being run by the Dutch Elan team. And the Razz-Fazz bikes – German-built ultra-lightweight rear-suspended low racers. I’ve heard weights quoted as low as 7 kg (15.4 lb.), though I imagine this doesn’t include the tail-fairing s, or much in the way of gears. And Aussie visitor Ian Humphries constructing a yellow Correx tail-fairing for his ultra-low MR Swiftlet trike. And the weather. Hot and sunny, luvverly. Michael Fish, the spoilsport, said it wouldn’t last, but you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows…

We finally got fed up with this, so went our separate ways to the university and /or the race course. The latter, home of the campsite, is at the top of one of t he larger hills in the neighbourhood. Obliged to attend to the computer up there, I took my mountain bike. A wise move, as it turned out – the only other machine with lights I had with me was the Speedy, with a bottom gear about 15" too high.

Thursday August 2^nd

Well, the weather isn’t too bad as I devour breakfast up at the race course, but by the time we start to convene back at Preston Park, the showers are blowing in from the sea at intervals both regular and frequent. And there’s a massive queue to ensure that all competitors are issued with transponders for the timing system. So the carefully-scripted timetable rapidly attains "academic interest only" status, but finally we managed to get the two-lap standing start sprints underway. Not as spectacular as the 1 km in Ghent, mainly because the track itself isn’t as exciting, but the speeds are still high, with the quickest unfaired riders turning out to be the fastest overall as well – the faired boys needing more distance to get up to full chat. However, the weather is distinctly unhelpful, and during a run by a group of the fastest riders, Sam Whittingham comes a cropper at Turn 4. Attempting to pass a slower machine, he lost control on the wet track and removed much skin from his behind. We feared that the rider he had just passed had rammed him to add insult to injury, but Sam said he’d escaped that particular fate. At which point we pause d for lunch, in the hope that the weather would co-operate more fully in the afternoon.

Which it did, a bit, but with the combination of the rain and the late running, we were sadly unable to hold the races scheduled for the afternoon. Naturally, as soon as this was announced, the sun came out, but by that time many of the Party Faithful had decamped to Hove Park to ready the criterium course for the morrow. Much pounding of stakes, stringing of mesh and humpin g of sturdy barriers ensued, with the result that by, oh, late evening the outside of the course was securely fenced in, Hard Things like posts, bins and benches were surrounded with Rockwool and the small army of helpers could return to the racecourse just in time to miss last orders at the bar L Fortunately for me, I had been beating up on the computer instead, so was able to get the odd pint in.

Friday August 2^nd

Hurrah! Lookee!! Funny light in the sky!!! Phone the police, I say!!!! Yes, the sun had come out for the crit races, and very welcome it was too. I for one did not fancy pounding around for half an hour breathing the spray from some munter’s back wheel…

A word about the circuit. Wheeee!! Hove Park occupies a small valley, and the track ran down one side, along the bottom and up the other before feeding into a couple of lo-o-o-ong downhil l corners to bring one back to the start. 1.15 miles / 1.85 km long, so a bit longer than Eastway, and most likely flat-out all the way round for most. The racing was run on a heats-semis-final basis, with qualification for the next round being assured for the top finishers in each heat plus the next several fastest on time. And so to Heat 1. A walkover for the Brits, with Ian Chattington and Steve Slade lapping all but Belgian racer Igor van Bever’s Optima Baron. I’m told that Igor is one to watch – this is only his second year of HPV racing, having gotten bored with inline skates… An interesting scrap between Rob Hague’s Greenspeed and Jaap "Jean Genie" Stolk’s Trice Micro was resolved in favour of the latter, by a couple of seconds, but Ian Humphries was the class of the trike field, and surprising a lot of people with his speed. A pity Bob Knight was unable to be present… And I don’t know what happened to our man Dennis Adcock in this heat, as I wouldn’t expect him to be that slow und er normal circumstances.

Heat 2 – I was in this one, so I’m not sure exactly happened, but Steve Donaldson was first to the chequered flag, with Walter Berger, still unfaired, glued to his tail. A minute or so back, the familiar Flevo back-to-back tandem powered by Allert Jacobs & John Poot came in a whisker ahead of Stefan Willems' Baron, with the rest of the field well spread out.

Heat 3 – the Ladies, Juniors and Denn is race – Mr. Adcock having a second attempt, this time on his tilting trike, the MTV 1. Few surprises as Rosmarie Bühler laps the field to come in ahead of Corinne van Noordenne and Swannette Tempelman. Nicole Berger edges out Luzia Niederberger by a fraction of a second to take fourth, while Dennis can only manage seventh… The battle of the Juniors goes to Stuart Slade, two laps up on Katherine Sidwell.

Heat 4 – while some of the more rapid unfaired boys lead the way, there is drama at the end of the first lap… As the course levels out, there is, in the middle of the track, a bump. It has been helpfully painted white, but hitting it is not recommended, particularly on a bike without suspension. We had earlier observed Ian Chattington do just that; the bike skipped a foot or so to one size, doubtless leading to a Scary Moment for Mr. C. Geoff Bird, however, was not so lucky, losing control after his encounter with The Bump and stuffing the machine nos e-first into one of the stout wooden posts which line that part of the circuit. Geoff appears more shaken than anything else, though later his feet will swell up to the extent that he can barely walk. The machine, however, is a write-off – not just that beautiful fairing but also the bike inside. Its boom is bent down almost into the front wheel L . The race is restarted, and at the end of it all it’s Ymte Sijbrandij, riding his unfaired Challenge Jester rather than the Quest in this event, who holds off Martin Schröferl, Rob English and Thomas Schott.

The final heat sees Denis Mario Ahrens take advantage of the light weight of the Razz-Fazz to romp away for a relatively untroubled win, ahead of reigning unfaired champion Frederik van de Walle, Elan Ligfietsen racer Ed van Vugt on the ex-Peter Groeneveld lightweight (repainted and stickered-up as a Challenge) and Sam Whittingham’s Yellowbike-customised Baron.

A s hort break, while the Author and Phil Wray demonstrate an inability to do basic arithmetic in sorting the runners and riders for the semi-finals. "When do they start?" I ask. "Three-thirty" someone replies. The Editor suddenly realises that:

1. He is in the first semi-final, which
2. Starts in six minutes time, while
3. He is wearing little of his cycling kit, and
4. Can’t find his keys to unlock his machine from the trailer. Aaarrggh!!

Semi 2 is thankfully without incident – although David Verbroekken retired his M5 Shock Proof, it was up and around the next day so it wasn’t as a result of anything violent. Ian Chattington comes in well clear of a fairly close pack comprising Igor van Bever, Frederik van de Walle, Ymte Sijbrandij, Rob English, Sam Whittingham, Steve Donaldson and Stefan Willems – separated by some fifteen seconds in total.

A half-hour break before the final – the first five finishers from each semi-final and the next fifteen on time to go through. Sensible Rosmarie decides she’s had enough, after again beating Corinne in the semi. Sean Costin, offered a chance to compete, also wisely declines. Next fastest is Ian Humphries, who accepts a place in the final "just so I can say I got that far" – which has been a remarkable achievement considering he’s on a trike. Traffic is heavy at the start, and while Ian Chattington appears to get through reasonably easily, it looks fro m our vantage point as though Steve Slade is being badly held up. As is gNick – at one point he comes through the start/finish area honking his horn and yelling at the unfaired rider in front of him, goes practically through the bush on the right of the circuit, shoots across the track onto the infield and somehow regains the circuit without further mishap. "Strewth!", says spectating Aussie racer Rebecca Gibb. "I though there’s no way he’s coming out of that bush!". A rather disgruntled gNick does finish, though, muttering darkly about the behaviour of the said unfaired rider and his dubious blocking tactics. Ian Humphries doesn’t finish, though, pulling off after four laps so as not to completely kill himself for the morrow. And nor does Steve Slade… Trying to get back on terms with Ian, he finds himself unable to lean the bike as much as is necessary on the long left-hand bend at the top of the hill – the wind will not permit it. He too visits the fence, with the "head tube" part of th e monocoque bike detaching itself from the rest of the machine and moving rapidly backwards at the same time as Steve finds his groin moving rapidly forwards… Ouch! Apart from a case of boshed squollocks, he’s otherwise undamaged, but Phil Wray and I carry the wreckage back to join the growing dead bike pool.

Happily there are no further mishaps, and Ian runs out the winner, with Denis Mario Ahrens breaking away from team-mate Martin Schröferl towards the e nd to claim a fine second overall / first unfaired. A cracking performance from Tim Costen, who came in tenth having just lost out to Stefan Willems on the line, leaving gNick and Steve Donaldson well behind. Following which there is a massive dismantling of barriers and great movement thereof down to Hove Promenade, where the 200m sprints will take place in the morning.

Saturday August 4^th

It’s bright, bu t it’s breezy. In fact, crouched in the tent huddled over the computer, it’s b***** freezing… But at least it was good to see Iain James up and around, albeit with a wicked back eye and a colossal number of stitches in his nose. From our perch, at the start of the measured 200 metres, there’s not much to see save the odd machine hurtling past and not much to do except type numbers into the box and fend off unhappy punters whose times were apparently not recorded. It’s all terribly complicated – we do n’t know who’s coming until they’re upon us, the timekeepers are at the other end of the timed section and we get our numbers off the big digital display in front of our position – except when the display doesn’t work, or when times go missing altogether L Rob English’s first run on his unfaired Baron goes AWOL, as does that of Ian Chattington, while Nils Schmidt and Frederik van de Walle steadfastly maintain that their speeds are too fast. In spite of Frederik’s being sufficient at this stage to put him in second place, one-hundredth of a second behind Ymte’s Quest, and oddly enough, exactly the same time he achieved in winning in Ghent last year.

Lunch comes and goes, and Ymte still leads. 15 year old Francis Mears, riding the veteran red Vector copy, bangs in an excellent 42 mph run to grab third place from Rob English, giving the K2 an outing. A call is put out to Mr. Chattington – "please do another run as we don’t have a time for you!". We hear that I an declines at first – too windy – but eventually he relents. A short time later, there is a mighty "Aaaaaarrrggghhh!!!!" noise of the kind often found issuing from the Chat at Full Chat, and 9.8 seconds later he clocks a 45.7 mph run to snatch the win. The last runner on the course is another veteran, this one from one of the original Aspro events of the early eighties. It’s having its last run before honourable retirement to a museum, and carries riders too numerous to count, who row the thi ng along, while a cox, perched out over the rear axle, steers the beast. It’s crewed by children this time, some of whom are handicapped, and stops the watch in 23.1 seconds – 19.3 mph.

The it’s time for the 50 metre drags, which turn out to be more like 70, but who cares… Confusion arises rapidly, as Sam Whittingham and Rob English are sharing the latter’s Bike Friday. What will happen should they both make it to the final? Suggestions include a race on hands and knees, a race on scooters down the hill from the campsite, a bare-knuckle boxing bout or my personal favourite, Lorna Wray's suggestion that they should start with a folded Brompton each, unfold it, ride the course and fold the bike up again. However, it all comes to naught, as Martin Schröferl and his Razz-Fazz see off Rob, to book a place in the final against Sam. Sam’s experience as a track sprinter is not wasted, however, and he comes in the winner. Among the Ladies, the event was won by Swannette Tempelman from Nicole Berger and our own Fiona Grove.

Sunday August 5^th

Peter Eland described the trip to Goodwood as "an hour or so's drive away along horribly congested south coast roads", but when we set off it was fine, both traffic and weather-wise. Arrive at Goodwood and set up in the paddock – proper facilities extending to covered areas to keep cars out of the sun! Luxury!! A certain amou nt of wandering around, a mass unloading of the truckload of machines newly arrived from Brighton – which genius decided to put the Quests on the top deck J ? Prize-giving ceremony for the races to date. And finally lining up for the Main Event, two hours or so of caning round the historic circuit and hopefully trying not to do a Stirling Moss, or worse, a Bruce McLaren…

Continuing the motor racing theme, seasoned F1 observers will be familiar with the si ght of Jean Alesi and / or Jacques Villeneuve rocketing off from mid-grid to get up with the Rude Boys by the first corner. My start was like that, and at the end of the opening lap I was still hanging onto the tail end of a huge bunch of unfaired machine, in spite of having come rather close to ramming the Jacobs / Poot tandem under braking into the chicane. The draft from a group that size is fantastic, but alas they began to spread into a long line, and I just couldn’t keep up. It wasn’t lo ng before the next group appeared, and I managed to hang on for a while there too, but again the pace was too hot, so off the back I went, exhorting the astonishing Ian Humphries to "stay with ‘em". He did, while I time-trialled round for a while before falling into a pack containing (but not limited to) Pete Cox on the Lune, Mike Burrows and Pat Field on their Ratcatchers, Derrick Tweddle’s Velodynamics and Paul London in the Falcon from these shores, plus Belgian Dries Callebaut, the French posse o f Jean-Charles Gosselin, Rodolphe Friemel and Alban Cassus-Soulanis, Thomas Bohn from Germany on a Flux, Swiss Heinz Alder on a neat tail faired machine which I think is a home-built, Dutchmen Jaap Stolk on the Trice Micro, David Verbroekken’s M5 Shock Proof and Arybert Lekkerkerk (machine unknown), plus at least one more rider whom I have so far not been able to identify. This is quite fun for a while, but my adrenaline-crazed rush off the start eventually catches up with me, my legs start to seize u p and I pull into the pits to retire.

Up at the front, Ymte Sijbrandij leads, but as we are lapped for the first time, Ian Chattington is sitting a foot or so off the rear of the Quest. Not long afterwards, he relieves Ymte of the lead and motors serenely off into the distance, eventually to stretch his lead to two minutes by the finish. The weather being pretty warm, and the wind quite strong, it’s a seriously fine achievement to average almost 35 mph for that kind of distance in a two-wheeler. Third over the line was Walter Berger’s faired Birk, a lap down, who must have been cooking under the machine’s huge canopy. Fourth, and a further lap behind the leaders, was a revived Steve Slade in Nigel Sleigh’s Plastic Maggot. Fifth overall, and first unfaired rider home, is Igor van Bever from Belgium, riding an Optima Baron, having escaped the attentions of Denis Mario Ahrens, Thomas Schott and Rob English in the final furlong, averaging over 28.5 mph. It’s quite difficult to keep track of who is doing what, with long lines of identikit tail-faired low-racers steaming past, especially if one has been riding for some of the time. Top triker, as expected, is Ian Humphries who ran over 26 mph for the race, and clocked in two laps ahead of an off-par Bob Knight (riding against doctor’s orders). Ladies winner is Rosmarie, having recovered from her shock defeat in the sprints; Corinne bagged second and Luzia Niederberger third. All three Junior starters – Francis Mears, Katherine Sidwell and Stuart Slade – completed the race, with Francis unsurprisingly the first home. Sadly throughout the Championships we were never able to muster more than one arm-powered competitor per event – Andrew Smart did the 1 km, but was unable to attend for the rest of the event, while Geoff Marshall could only do the sprints and the road race, which he completed successfully.

Unlike some… Apart from Yours Truly dropping out with ge neral knackerdom, other retirements included Swanette Tempelman, riding a Quest in preference to her tail-faired low racer. I’m not sure what happened here; we did see the white trike parked on its side alongside the Lavant Straight, with Swanette wielding a pump at it, but when I looked later, all three wheels appeared happy. Kees Bakker dropped out after two laps, Ian Willett after four, with his fairing attacking him, Tim Elsdale after eight and Martin Verbroekken twelve. Pete Cox broke the front a xle, or hub, or something in that general area, on the Lune, but following a swift pedal swap, he took off for the final 20-odd minutes on your Editor’s machine, in spite of the latter being rather too long and therefore excruciatingly uncomfortable. Nicole Berger also succumbed to mechanical problems – the K-drive on her Wasp breaking a crank. Undeterred she borrowed a spectating bike – a Razz-Fazz, I think, and continued to the finish. Methinks Walter might have a request on his Christmas list… Unl ucky Martin Schröferl punctured a few minutes before the end when up with the unfaired leaders, so in the results he has been credited with the same time as the last rider to finish – this being Eva von Ballmoos and her Windcheetah, who started their final lap about three seconds before Ian crossed the line…

Frantic working-out of results and final prizegivings. Some of the details were economical with the truth, but no errors in the overall Champions – Ros marie Bühler for the Ladies and Ian Chattington for the Gentlemen. And then we all went home.

Postscript

1. We had a few problems, some caused by the weather, some by Odd Things happening in the timing system and some caused by people flying off the road when trying too hard. At the time of writing, Iain James has had his stitches removed and his black eye has subsided, but says that the eye beneath is sti ll a lovely red colour and excellent for frightening small children and abusive motorists. For the other problems, we can only apologise and try to learn from our mistakes. And at least the rain was reasonably warm rain, unlike Ghent…
2. One of the Matters Arising at the IHPVA meeting on the Friday night concerned Rules and Regulations. While there are already rules covering record attempts, each organising club is at liberty to define racing categories in any way they see fit. The general ethos of the HPV movement is "the fewer rules the better", but several people have noted that it would perhaps be beneficial to try to have a single set of regulations to at least cover international events within Europe. IHPVA Chair Ben Wichers Schreur will be gathering and circulating thoughts on the matter in due course. As Knud Jahnke pointed out, in an e-mail exchange following the event, it would be nice if "you can just pack your machine and go somewhere, knowing that you will not require an extra brake or a different helmet or such."
3. Next year the World Championships return to North America, being scheduled for Brantford, Ontario. Rob "Westcountry Recumbents" Hague has been making noises about a possible group booking to attend – interested parties should contact him (see the advert elsewhere in this issue). The Europeans will be in Lelystad, The Netherlands, wot is a jolly fine venue as w e found out in 1995, and not difficult to reach from the Hoek van Holland by HPV. Anyone up for a convoy?