The A Race in the Park & Cycle Vision Event in Meppen
Diversity on and along the race track by Dieter Hannemann, Uli Bentlage and Jan Kranczoch in Infobul, the periodical of the HPV Club, Germany, translation J. Kranczoch, photos Anke Wiechmann Magazin von HPV Deutschland und Future Bike
www.hpv.org
human umanpowered oweredvehicles. ehicles.org
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Projekt Pony4
•HPV Ideenschmiede •40 Jahre Leitra - Teil 1
•Sonnenwende-Tour •Tandem-Tour
•A race in the park •Termine/wer macht was?
Meppen
future bike ch
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tandemclub ch
www.futurebike.ch
From June 29th to 30th 2019, the integrative race days called “A race in the park” took place for the second time. Thanks to the dedication of the promoters, namely the Bentlage brothers, their families and an allied team of recumbent enthusiasts from the Emsland region, this marvelous venue could be booked anew after the premiere in 2017. However, this year it still conveyed a new spirit, as for the first time the event was conducted in combination with the Cycle Vision HPV convention. The privately owned track, basically designed and used as a race circuit for cars, provides excellent road surface conditions on a winding and challenging course yet featuring some “full-throttle” sections and always enough options to overtake in a safe manner. Its long-drawn bends, a straight top speed lane, a downward sloping chicane, narrow curves to be mastered with staggering tilt angles (regrettably only on single track vehicles…) and a short but grueling climb constitute a perfect race ambience. Pedaling your rounds, you can hardly avoid gazing at the impressive cooling tower silhouette of the abandoned gas-fired power plant, casting its shadow on the terrain. Compared to 2017, the number of participants remarkably increased to 160. This was predominantly caused by a rising rate of starters from the Netherlands and Belgium, pointing to the fact that the Meppen race track is located right at the heart of the HPV-philic Western Europe lowlands. The race agenda in total offered twelve heats for various types of HP-vehicles such as recumbents, velomobiles, uprights, race scooters, handbikes and handicap cycles. Hence, riders of all kinds, different ambitions and performance abilities were invited to line up for a contest or joint ride of their choice. Those who wanted to race for merits,
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Line-up for the race ‘10 rounds counterclockwise.’ could collect assessment points for the multinational BeND competition series. To outline the integrative character of this meeting by examples, me (Jan) and my son (aged 9, with Down‘s syndrome) enjoyed the applause during our ride with a special tandem bicycle on Sunday afternoon, whilst my wife was entertained to form
a team with an 80-year-old lady by use of two coupled Hase Kettwiesel trikes – and all proudly finished the full distance despite strenuously high temperatures. Some hours earlier, dad (as individual rider) had a tough 1-hour-race with his unfaired carbon recumbent.
