September 17, 2009 (Battle Mountain, Nevada) – It has become a September tradition in the small world of recumbent bicycle racing. Riders from around the world converge on SR 305, the long, flat stretch of Nevada highway that has hosted the World Human Powered Speed Challenge for a decade.

It was there that Canadian Sam Whittingham set another world record and on Tuesday, Sept. 15, Whittingham did it again, recording a 136.63 kph run, beating last year’s mark of 132.5 kph, and once again confirming his status as the fastest self-propelled man on the planet.

This year, there’s fresh pavement on the stretch of highway used for the competition and Whittingham is piloting a new iteration of the Georgi Georgiev-designed Varna streamliner bikes that have become dominant in the sport. For veteran race watchers, the question was not ‘if’Whittingham would go faster than ever, but ‘when’. With this record-breaking run so early in the competition (Day 2 of 6) things bode well for even faster runs later in the week. “I put out a hard effort,” commented Whittingham, “but I didn’t time this run very well.”

Timing is crucial because the course features a four-mile run-up to the 200 metre timing zone. Racers must exert a huge effort to spin their massive chain rings up to optimum rpm before passing through the speed trap. But they also need to reserve enough energy for a final push when it counts. In the rarified air of the high desert, inside a sealed capsule with almost no air getting in or out, it’s easy to miscalculate and lack the necessary kick at the end of the run.

There’s plenty of talk at the event about the possibility of an 85 mph (136.8 kph) run with the new pavement, but Whittingham remains skeptical… and unwilling to jinx things with an over-confident prediction. “It took me eight years to get from 80.5 (mph) to 82.5,” he says. “To now go another two and a half (to 85 mph) is going to be pretty hard.”

The custom bike builder and former track racer has been a force to be reckoned with at the International Human Powered Vehicle Association-sanctioned event (IHPVA) for a decade. His most notable achievement to date – claiming the $25,000 deciMach award last year as the first man to ever go faster than one-tenth the speed of sound under his own power.

Official release from the Lander County Tourism Bureau here.