The course is not perfectly flat, but it is perfect for the contest. The rules for this event stipulate that the track cannot be slopped downhill by more than

The course is not perfectly flat, but it is perfect for the contest. The rules for this event stipulate that the track cannot be slopped downhill by more than 0.66%. Conveniently this track averages 0.64% downhill over the entire 5 mile duration. [1] The story about how Raymond Gauge (what an aptronym!) happened to find this particular stretch of road makes for it's own fascinating big data tale. Months of mining away on USGS tables with Celeron processors to get 10 suitable tracks. A documentary made a few years back went into the specifics with plenty of dramatic shots of him driving the lonely stretches of Nevada, New Mexico, Kansas, etc whittling down his choice candidates until he settled on Battle Mountain. The biggest limitation in these events is air resistance. Plenty of other folks have gone significantly faster on bicycles not facing a headwind[2]. Altitude helps. [1] http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/whpsc2015/whpsc_site.htm http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/whpsc2015/whpsc_site.htm [2] 207.9 mph - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_records#Speed_record_on_a_bicycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_records#Speed_record_o...