Endurance Innovation

84 - Dan Bigham

Episode Summary

Reynolds numbers, drag crises, computational draping oh my! British time trialist and track athlete Dan Bigham joins Andrew and Michael to talk about his upcoming hour record bid and all the beautiful, nerdy work that goes into into it.

Episode Notes

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• 4:15 Dan’s interest in the sea level hour record
• 8:00 sea level vs altitude hour attempts
  • At altitude, reduce aero drag by ~20% to 25% (at world record hour speeds) while only losing 10% of aerobic capacity
  • The higher the speed the greater the benefit of altitude. That is, the faster the event, the higher up you want to go
• 12:15 at Dan’s speed, 1W saved in his setup = 50m of extra distance in the hour attempt
• 12:30 the physiological demands of Dan’s hour record
  • A Watts / CdA of 2250, which works out to ~370W @ a CdA of 0.164!
  • Living on your TT bike
  • Train at a race-relevant internal inertia (cadence)
  • The potential role of central nervous system (CNS) fatigue
  • Learning to maintain that optimized position for the duration of the event
• 24:15 the sitting up vs aero tradeoff when climbing
  • ~15W benefit to sit up vs aero position, which for Dan makes enough of a difference at ~27kph
  • The value of a stretch during a position change is not to be undervalued
• 28:30 the value of efficient cornering 
• 30:15 the role of CNS fatigue in performance in an hour record attempt
  • Not well understood at present
  • Dan’s group is studying this effect by taking measurement of nerve impulses to the driving muscles over time and looking at changes
• 36:45 the effect of non-round chainrings
• 40:00 Dan’s non-aerodynamic optimizations
  • The more aerodynamically optimized you become, the more reason there is to look at equipment
  • A new, secret crank set
  • Drivetrain lubricants, chain, cog and chainring design 
• 51:30 Dan’s aero optimization
  • Skin suits
  • Front ends / cockpits
  • Aero sensors
• 74:30 some psychological demands of an hour record bid

Check out Dan's retail venture WattShop as well as his Instagram page for products and updates on his upcoming hour attempt.