That motor was not hidden, any more than yours was. that large hub on the rear wheel was the motor, and it is as much a hindrance as a help. the weight of those bikes is amazing! so when his battery dies, he will be working *hard* to overcome the weight, as well as the inductive drag. On the other hand, his bike does not pretend to be anything other than what it is: an easy to ride bike for short distances. Hidden motors tend to be mounted in the seat tube, and are intended to defraud tests of speed and strength. Not the same thing as an e-bike at all. That aside, those are really pretty roads, and your "motor" seems to be fairly well tuned, yourself. That hill you climbed early on, I'm sure I would have lost a lot more speed on. And without the quite visible motor on the e-bike, he would likely have never gotten close to you. Where are you? Somewhere in the Midwest? The size of the houses, and particularly the plots of land suggest something like that, anyway.