London is reportedly set to welcome a brand-new e-bike racing series called the EBK this summer.
Organised by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), the global governing/sanctioning body of motorcycle racing, the series will focus on promoting sustainable travel. Cycling Weekly also reported that it would aim to make e-road bike racing more mainstream.
While the format has not yet been announced, it is expected that the rounds will last for 45 minutes. Bikers would reportedly be given enough battery power to cover about half the race.
Thirty male and 30 female riders will be welcomed, with the athletes split into 10 teams and competing against their own gender. The racers will be asked to use de-restricted e-road bikes supplied by the Swiss brand BMC.
The organisers have already started to recruit crit (short for criterium, a lapped race on a closed circuit set in cities) racing’s biggest names, including WorldTour pros, to take part.
Speaking about the race to Cycling Weekly, three-time Olympic champion and EBK ambassador Ed Clancy said: “I’ve always liked crit racing. It’s about how we manage the battery power and how to integrate that with human performance.
“We’ve got another element to it now. We’re going to have a finite amount of battery power for these races, right? So we’re going to have to think carefully about where we deploy it.”
He said he hoped the series would grow and become well-established. The former Olympian said it might even inspire technological advancements. “Engineers and technicians will develop apps off the back of it,” he said, “where you can say, right, I’m going to ride the commute bike from Sheffield to Manchester, I’ve got X amount of battery power and we know the wind direction is coming from here, we know the air temperature is this.
“You’ll have an app on the bike which can deploy the battery life as effectively as possible over the terrain ahead of you.”
The exact date of the race has not yet been revealed, but it is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
