This Saturday, October 8, at 20:00 CEST, the two-time world time trial champion Filippo Ganna will undertake an attempt at the UCI Hour Record at the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen, Switzerland, 450m above sea level. He’s hotly tipped to break the 55.548km record set by Dan Bigham just weeks ago.
Cyclingnews had gathered all the details of the Italian’s equipment and kit, and we take a deep dive into the aero optimisations, which add up to an eye-watering sum of money and, Ganna will hope, to eye-watering levels of watts and metres.
Bigham is a British aerodynamics expert with a history of finding aero optimisations, some of which straddle the UCI rules. He is an accomplished time triallist in his own right, but he is also the Performance Engineer at Ganna’s team, Ineos Grenadiers.
As the two have worked towards Ganna’s tilt at the record, his own record-breaking ride could be seen as something of an hors d’oeuvre to Ganna’s main course. In a way, he has been the mastermind of the plot to break his own record.
The pair have worked tirelessly on what has been previously dubbed Project 0.15, referring to the desire to bring Ganna’s CdA to the incredibly low number of 0.15.
CdA stands for Coefficient of Drag x Area. It is quantified in metres squared. The drag coefficient is effectively a definition of how easily air passes over an item’s surface. This is primarily affected by the shape of the item, but it can also be affected by surface material. The area is the item’s frontal area, or size.
It’s not confirmed whether the pair were successful with that particular target, but it’s fair to say that Ganna will be among the most aerodynamically optimised time triallists in the world.
This week, Bigham told Cyclingnews that Ganna’s setup would be almost exactly the same as his own, save for a few small changes.
“The only things different are the saddle and the pedals, and obviously all the contact points,” he explained. “The actual frame, wheels, tyres, crank, chain, chainring, cog are all the same. Actually, the main thing we have improved is the drivetrain. Muc-Off has developed a new coating for the rear cog, which adds around 20-25 metres. It all adds up. Beyond that, it’s basically the same bike.”
The bike, cockpit, groupset and wheels
That ‘same bike’ was unveiled officially on Monday this week by Pinarello as the Bolide F HR 3D. It is 3D Printed from a high-strength scandium-aluminium-magnesium…
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