From the link maxericson provided[1], we can get numbers for their pilot with and without hand cranks, and from Andy Coggan's power profiling spreadsheet[2], we

From the link maxericson provided[1], we can get numbers for their pilot with and without hand cranks, and from Andy Coggan's power profiling spreadsheet[2], we can compare those to documented numbers for competitive cyclists: UMD pilot, no hand cranks: ~6.5 w/kg for 60 seconds UMD pilot, with hand cranks: ~8 w/kg "Untrained" cyclist: ~6 w/kg "Good" cyclist (average amateur racer): ~8.2 w/kg "Exceptional" cyclist (domestic pro): ~10.35 w/kg "World class" cyclist: 11.5 w/kg Of course, this isn't quite apples-to-apples, given the different seating posture. I would suspect that the prone position loses them some power (from experience, there's a lot of body emglish that goes on in an all out 1' effort on a bicycle), some of which (and maybe more, hard to say) may be brought back by the hand cranks. I suspect that their reason for not hiring the cycling talent is that, for UMD, this is ultimately an educational endevour. The point isn't just to claim the prize, but to have students do it. 1 - http://www.agrc.umd.edu/gamera/gamera2/gamera2-human-power.html http://www.agrc.umd.edu/gamera/gamera2/gamera2-human-power.h... 2 - http://home.trainingpeaks.com/media/69406/powerprofiling_v4.xls http://home.trainingpeaks.com/media/69406/powerprofiling_v4.... . This is the standard reference for bike racers, and comes from Coggan's records of hundreds of cyclists. edit: formatting