How This Cyclist Hit 184MPH and Set the World Record

[Music] I get to be the first woman in the world to set this record to become the fastest human on a bicycle okay I can most certainly have died doing this the violent nature of the wind was almost closing in on and it was a terrifying ride my name is Denise Mueller qur'anic I am a mother a CEO and a competitive cyclist I'm going after a record that is held for 23 years by a man named Fred Rumble burg the overall land speed record on a bicycle of a hundred and sixty seven miles an hour I think people are confused by this record they just can't fathom a cyclist going 170 miles an hour this record is unique as it requires a motorized vehicle in front of me to bore a hole through the wind that draft creates a pocket of air on air pocket that I surf and that allows us to go 167 miles per hour it's not a safe endeavor at all I'm John Howard and I have been a cyclist most of my life if I held the record from 1985 until about 1995 I love training with John because John's like a diesel I'm a sprinter [Music] this is not the first time I've done it in 2016 I was the first female to go after the pace bicycle and speed record I'm out there to take the overall record in 2018 men have done it since 1899 I get to be the first woman it was a no-brainer I'm doing it there is not many cyclists out there that would want to even attempt this I I think it's safe to say that almost every everyone that's ever attempted this has had close calls this is a dangerous venture and she could get hurt yes I believe it was Jean Claude Rood who crashed in some form of a training or drafting accident and he died [Music] in 1988 Fred ramble berg was going after John Howard's record and he crashed I was there when it happened he went up in the air his bike went even higher I'm gonna estimate at least 10 feet off the salt catapult through the air and it was it was horrible watching this he scraped him off the salt got him to the hospital he was in intensive care for three days I was afraid we might actually lose Fred the risks I really don't discuss with my family they do think it's a bit crazy but they also know that I do a lot of homework to make sure I'm as safe as possible the sense of responsibility is a huge weight I'm Shay Holbrook and I'm a professional racecar driver and I am Denise's pacing driver for the pace bicycle land speed record the force of the wind would definitely not allow me to go over probably good thirty or forty fifty miles an hour that is why there's a race car so I can draft behind it I see that she's with me I start to accelerate if she starts to back out I have to hold so it's this constant fluid motion of us going back and forth they have to be able to literally read each other's minds you have to have that really really tight trust when we first met the first conversation we had was supposed to be super brief we ended up being on the phone for an hour and a half we just had such great vibes the car we chose was the the exact car that Fred used back in the 90s and so I get the opportunity to break Fred's record with Fred's car the bicycle is not a normal bicycle by any means it is a hundred percent custom it has only one purpose and that's to be ridden very very fast [Music] we have what's commonly referred to as a double reduction gearing and what that means is that gear will travel a hundred and thirty eight feet per revolution of the pedals and then we also have 17-inch motorcycle rims and motorcycle tires so when we got out there there were still many things that were left undone the car was sitting for 23 years having last run when Fred used the vehicle we had a lot of last-minute things to get this ready we had a leak in the front right tire we had to fix that we had to put a new tack in we had to get the camera systems we did get the fire system a lot of people have been stressed you put all this time and to show up and not be able to do the damn thing I mean that would be a failure and I think a lot of people's eyes as it certainly would be mine getting that yellow sheet of paper saying that we have passed Tech was an enormous relief you're gonna be here this is a car running for you it's good yeah not that it's running really well thank you [Music] all right here we go first time pulling to the line Bonneville is the place where you go to set records it's very humbling to be in line at Bonneville when the conditions are good at Bonneville it is extraordinarily fast cars that are going 480 some odd miles an hour people come up and go you're doing this on a bicycle you're nuts so I'm sitting at the line I'm getting ready to go and a lot of nurse came into a play that's not that's not they call it the call of the salt that it's a very deep anxiety-producing experience when you hear the ground shake [Music] that huge power plant that's about to rock it up the salt with you behind it I'm trying to be very focused I'm trying to breathe push out any thoughts of negativeness of falling and crashing I mean you could have the engine blow the transmission seized we could blow a tire and have shrapnel come in throwing at me at a hundred and some odd miles an hour [Music] Shay starts out I get towed we are on track it's all coming back this is possible I'm able to do this we're moving closer to the goal then I get the signal from Shay that we had pre-arranged the red light says release and at that point I'm realizing something just wasn't right the moment I left the line with within two feet I knew the GPS mile-per-hour wasn't working I knew we were in trouble because I was gonna have to guesstimate what speed we were going I started having to pedal and pedal and pedal so hard [Music] you're about 105 yeah go get her do you think that it was so hard because we were going so slow I'm not supposed to release till 110 I'm not able to push the pedals you wouldn't I was pushing back the pedals like someone had put the hardest gear in all my life on the bike and made me go up once I figured out what it occurred on that run and the sense of relief became I knew okay we're good to go it's time to go for the record not until I found out what happened okay so you thought you I thought we might my GPS was wrong and she was going 130 and I was working my butt off once I get that beard where I can legitimately turn it over we're golden and I felt a bit of the draft a people joins me today oh okay okay oh okay I did find out there was an issue that absolutely had to be dealt with and now there was a rear tire on the dragster one of those huge 32 inch tires and it was leaking air next steps right now we have a tire issue that we'll need to deal with we're done for today [Music] you know I always cut the black wire so on Saturday morning we are there trying to find our solution for our tire and we're working towards that and here comes the wind's blowing about 20 25 knots right now it's impossible to run over those circumstances and now everything's shut down the event is stopped there goes an entire day of opportunity it really ended up sinking in that this may not happen we may have just had our only opportunity behind the dragster with the bike and it was a failure basically let's say something happens to the dragster if the car is erratic if I don't feel it's controllable I'm gonna have to leave you oh yeah because I may have chunks coming back or whatever you never know what's gonna go the next morning John Shea and I are on our way out to the salt flats Shea is looking at the fact of what happens if something she's in control of causes an issue and how she needs to deal with it and when Fred Mel I didn't fall because he fell he fell because the car was never the right car I cannot imagine what it's like to have that responsibility of a cyclist behind you that if you do one wrong move you're taking that person down we take our ebikes out and it's just Shea and I you have to have that camaraderie and that really really tight trust she's kind of like the sister I never had that turned into like being on the same frequency [Music] [Music] when I'm at the start line it is no more trial run let's see how we do it is let's try for this record so we get up to the line and we're about next to go and then all of a sudden delay there was debris on the track definitely don't want to hit any debris we're sitting there at the start line ready to go and it's just waiting it's almost like everybody around her is nervous they've got jobs to do but you look at her she is always calm always collected nothing seems to bother we're giving the go-ahead and each is ready okay you ready they're drawing clear and those engines start [Music] the 100 mile-an-hour run and this run are completely different the wind is so much more intense it was a lot rougher ere I start going to the right a little then I'm the left and it's almost like I was a pinball in there in slow motion and what if the name is cloth I've always been trying to to drive in such a way to be within her limits so one 55.9 something average theme so the new women's record is 155 miles an hour and but that's not why we're here we're here to break the overall you feel that I can still pull you faster right oh yeah we'd at least beaten my coach John Howard's record I know got my eye on friends coming up will be the project feed when a newer Coronet that vehicle is being driven by Jay Holbrook I think I'm actually gonna have to talk about this dragster I have to put the foot legitimately to the floor getting to the start line and getting prepared to go this run is just like any other run I'm ready and he is underway right now everything is different from the moment we take off the speed at which we increase is phenomenally faster about 130 miles an hour now we're going 140 miles an hour there is the potential that she pulls the bike so fast I can't hold on to it I'm not going to leave with regrets like I had two years ago [Music] it is release time here we go [Music] and they're approaching the mile board here and they've got intense very quickly she released and pedaled all the way by herself for now mother too in the second mile kind of here one cryptic Reverend Phil bark the vibration continues to increase I'm feeling the air hitting me on the left and the right it's a guessing game am I gonna be able to hold getting louder and louder mile-marker three and if you go through the third mile all this fine salt and it is pelting the back of my throat I'm inhaling it through my nose four and I had a few moments where my front wheel came very close to the side of the fairing on the left when you see the knee out you know there's day real and present threat five and she says we're done and I butt up against the vehicle with my bump bar and she's slowing me down about 70 some-odd miles an hour in less than a mile I didn't know if I was able to keep that bike upright that much longer I literally prayed at 110 miles an hour I separate out the back end of the air pocket and allow the wind to slow me down the first thought was I survived it honestly was I survived now all I can hope for is that this one was something that was fast enough to break the record you 180 I think six on the last mile the last mile speed you're officially the world's fastest bike see the timing slip just solidified everything that we did it the thing you're gonna see is now the fastest human on a bicycle 183 no.1 on a bicycle has ever ridden as fast as I've ridden at a hundred and eighty three point nine miles an hour and it feels pretty darn good nobody's done it not it is she's the only person in the world what did you do one eighty three point nine eight you wanted 271 I wanted one seventy we got one eighty three I just wanted to go hundred and seventy didn't realize you're gonna pass the whole hundred and seven DS and go straight into the 180s this is something I will remember for the rest of my life damn nothing is out of reach if you're willing to do the hard work for it set a goal do the work and enjoy the ride [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Wall Street Journal

Views: 3,253,841

Rating: 4.2597432 out of 5

Keywords: cyclist, Denise Mueller-Korenek, fastest human on earth, fastest human on bicycle, world record, Bonneville Flats, Cycling, WSJ Documentary, Jason Gay, Sports, 184 mph, bike, bicycle, fastest biker

Id: CoUmgMhn2iY

Length: 20min 48sec (1248 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Shadowkiller00]

This is hardly impressive except that she didn't die. It's like saying a skydiver is under human powered flight during their fall.

A car pulled her along with the air vortex behind it. She didn't get herself to that speed under her own power, she just kept herself in the vortex.

But a single bad wiggle and boom, she dead. That is impressive. Let me fix it:

"TIL a woman rode a bicycle at 184 MPH without falling and didn't die."

[u/nw1024]

Hahaha cheating

[u/onjefferis]

I have a KHS.