6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships Results Prove the Cruzbike Vendetta is the Fastest Road Bike on the Planet

The 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championship (WTTC), held annually since 2011, attracts the top long distance cyclists from around the world. They come to race on the desert roads around Borrego Springs, California and rack up as many miles as they can in 6, 12, or 24 hours.

5 of 6 individual recumbent road bike records at the World Time Trial Championships are held by Cruzbike Vendetta racers

I raced the 6-hour event in 2016, logging 127.2 miles and setting the recumbent record. I remember the heat in the afternoon brought my pace down to a crawl and almost took me out of the race, but I stayed in until the end. That record stood until 2019, when Cliff Federspiel destroyed it with a 145.2 mile effort. Both Cliff and I were riding Cruzbike V20s. With the 2023 WTTC now in the history books, I thought it would be a good time to review the course records for recumbents.

The WTTC format is the time trial, with no drafting allowed. This makes each racers performance rest on their own abilities, without the complicated social dynamic that drafting races involve.

I downloaded all the WTTC results since 2011 and imported them into a spreadsheet to do some thorough number-crunching. There are 1500 entries across 12 years, with 77 of those being recumbents. Of the 77 recumbent entries, 17 are Cruzbikes. How do the Cruzbike racers stack up?

Of the six solo recumbent categories (6-hr, 12-hr, and 24-hr events, for men and women) Cruzbike racers hold five of the course records. Here they are:

• Men’s 24-hour Jason Perez: 510 miles | Race Report
• Men’s 12-hour Cliff Federspiel: 272.4 miles | Race Report
• Women’s 12-hour Maria Parker: 230.4 miles | Race Report
• Men’s 6-hour Cliff Federspiel: 145.2 miles |  Race Report
• Women’s 6-hour Maria Parker: 117.6 miles

It should also be noted that Cliff’s and Maria’s recumbent records are also the fastest for anyone in their age group, regardless of the bike type. And Cliff’s 12-hour record eclipsed the record set by another Cruzbike racer, Kevin Gambill, who went 248.4 miles in 2016.

Honorable mention also goes to Cruzbike racers Jeffrey Ritter and Marshall Cooperson. Jeffery has the fastest recumbent time in the 12-hour event for his age group, while Marshall has the fastest time for ANY bike in the 6-hour event for his age group.

It’s hard to find an annual racing event that allows recumbents to compete AND keeps good records online. The WTTC is such an event and anyone interested in comparing performances of different recumbent bikes should pay attention. The racers on the non-Cruzbike recumbents include serious racers such as Sandy Earl, Jim Verheul, Rich Putich, Joe Pixley, Alan Johnson, and Ron Swift. If anyone doubts the claim that the Cruzbike V20 is the fastest road bike on the planet, they should take a look at the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championship results.