Like Chris Froome in an unconventional riding position, the Summer seems to have flown by (I’m an engineer, similes do not come easily). Thankfu

Unconventional aero. How did he go so fast?

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2021-05-27 01:00:02

Like Chris Froome in an unconventional riding position, the Summer seems to have flown by (I’m an engineer, similes do not come easily). Thankfully there’s been a bumper crop of sporting spectacles to sate our appetites. In this post I’d like to focus on a pet topic of mine, cycling aerodynamics.

Right at the start of the Summer we saw Chris Froome pedal to his third Tour de France victory. He grabbed an initial lead over his rivals while flying downhill in an unconventional tuck position.

The interest surrounding the move had many speculating on the advantages gained and even some computational analysis which concluded that the safer, standard descent style may have been quicker (his extra speed could have been down to the use of a 54 tooth front ring as opposed to his usual 53 tooth ring).

It wasn’t Froome’s risky descending which caught my imagination though, it was a video I spotted a short while back which showed a much riskier (and arguably much more effective) descending technique.