You can read part one of behind the scenes of Dan Bigham’s Hour Record here.
Dan, as we did with training, let’s start by comparing Grenchen 2022 to Grenchen 2021 where you broke the British record; in other words, what were the main equipment differences?
Well, the only things that remained the same were my helmet – Kask Mistral – and my pedals – Speedplay. Oh, and my gear ratio, too, which was 64/14. In old money, that’s 123.4 inches. I was actually tempted to go a little bigger so we tested 65. But it didn’t really have much impact. Crank length stayed the same, too, as 170cm.
Okay, let’s focus on those differences, starting with clothing.
I used Bioracer’s Katana suit that was developed by Bioracer and Ineos. It was really fine-tuned to me and was a step forward, which is impressive considering the level that skinsuits have reached nowadays. It was an intensive project because we undertook lots of testing in numerous wind tunnels, outdoor velodromes and indoor velodromes, just trying to understand what was happening to the airflow around me. It’s a common theme in modern cycling that skinsuits are unique to the rider, to the speed, to their position and everything else. It was six months of test, test, test, test, test… and Bioracer really stepped up to the plate.
Which velodromes and wind tunnels did you test in?
Where do I start? Okay, so I tested at the Velodrom d’Horta, which is where Chris Boardman won Olympic gold in 1992. I tested at Derby Velodrome, Grenchen Velodrome, the Milan wind tunnel… Wherever I’ve been in the world, we found somewhere to test!
Let’s take a look at your bike. Was it a Pinarello prototype?
Yes, it was registered as a prototype, which is allowed under all UCI events, including the hour. I say that because a few people have mentioned you’re not allowed to use prototypes but that’s incorrect. A manufacturer’s basically saying, this is a big investment and we want to fine-tune our bike in competition before full production, which is exactly what Pinarello are doing with this. There were certainly lessons learned from my ride and by the time Filippo attempts the Hour Record, he could be on the production model.
The amount of effort that went into its research and design was huge – by far the biggest aspect of the entire project. It brought together many partners and there are so many unique aspects to it, but Pinarello don’t want me to talk too much about it at the moment….