Thirty years after making the United States Olympic Cycling team and twentyyears after winning the DuPont Prize for human powered speed and ten yearsafter retiring from professional cycling, Fast Freddy Markham has stunnedthe cycling community by winning the Dempsey-MacCready Prize at the NissanOne Hour Challenge in Casa Grande, AZ, on July 2 2006.

Press Release - Markham nails Dempsey-MacCready Prize

Markham won the event with a new world record speed and brought theOne Hour Title back to the United States for the first time since 1990,the last time Markham held it. Markham averaged a record 53.43 miles froma standing start, this beat the old mark held by Canadian Sam Whittinghamby more than a mile.

The Dempsey-MacCready Prize was established in April of 1999. It wasa large cash prize for the first person to pedal 90 kilometers in one hourfrom a standing start. Since no one achieved the target speed of 90 kilometers,$40,000 was split up between the three farthest attempts to date with Markhamwinning $18,000 for first, Sam Whittingham won $12,000 for second, andMatt Weaver won $6000 for third

The Dempsey-MacCready Prize was hosted by Nissan who donated their highspeed auto test track in southern Arizona. The Nissan Challenge was createdas the last opportunity to win the prize before it elapsed.

More than thirty attempts worldwide were made on the Dempsey-MacCreadyPrize. Some attempts were made by professionals and top amateur cyclistswitch did produce several world records.Fast Freddy Markham, no stranger to setting records or winning prizes,produced an upset win, since at age 49, nobody considered him a strongcontender for the One Hour Title, a title which Markham set on three previousoccasions, the last however in 1989. This latest world record was Markham’stwentieth in a career that saw him become the first bicycle rider in historyto break 50 mph, 60 mph and win the $18,000 DuPont Prize for exceeding65 mph in 1986.Markham lives in Soquel, California and is the owner of Easy Racers,Inc. the nations largest recumbent bicycle manufacturer and builders ofall the record setting bicycles he used in previous world records.