The Rider's Dominance in Drag
The Rider's Dominance in Drag
Frame Thanakan Olympian Rider and Thailand National Champion
Body Shape and Size: The rider, on the other hand, is much larger and can't be as easily streamlined:
Frontal Area: Your body, even in the best aerodynamic position, takes up more space than the bike.
Positioning: How you sit on the bike dramatically affects drag. The classic "tuck" position, with arms down and head low, significantly reduces the area exposed to wind.
Lower and Narrow: Here's where it gets even more interesting:
Lowering: By getting lower, you reduce how much of your body is exposed to the wind. The lower you go, the less air you push out of the way, thus lowering your CDA.
Narrowing: Making yourself narrower, by tucking in your elbows and knees or using narrow handlebars, decreases the width of your frontal area. This also reduces the CDA because less air has to be displaced.
Proportion of Drag: This means that around 70-80% of the drag comes from the rider. Even if you have the most aerodynamic bike, if you're not in an optimal position, you won't go as fast.
Tegshbayar Batsaikhan Olympian TT Rider
Why This Matters
Focus on the Rider: Knowing this, cyclists and teams focus heavily on:
Aerodynamic Gear: From helmets to suits that reduce drag.
Training: Learning to hold aerodynamic positions longer, focusing on being lower and narrower.
Testing: Using wind tunnels or computer simulations to find the best setup for each rider, aiming to minimize both height and width.
Performance Gains: Small changes in the rider's position or gear, particularly in how low and narrow they can get, can lead to significant time savings in races where seconds matter.
Conclusion
While the bike's design is crucial for reducing drag, it's the rider who has the bigger say in how much drag affects performance. By being lower and narrower, a rider can significantly decrease their CDA, as the human body, with its larger size and less predictable aerodynamics, accounts for the majority of the drag force. This insight shifts the focus in cycling towards optimizing the rider's aerodynamics, acknowledging that the human element is where the most significant gains in speed can be achieved.