Last month, as part of the USA Triathlon Elite National Team, I got my first chance to go ride in a wind tunnel. Basically you ride your bike in a tunnel with a massive headwind and a bunch of sensors tell you how fast you are, pretty cool stuff. Big news in the short course triathlon world this year is that “shorty bars,” or mini TT bars, are now banned. In light of that, USAT wanted to help us all optimize our position on a standard road bar.

The trip lined up perfectly for me, because I was due for a bike fit overhaul this winter. Yay! I had just officially signed a contract with Ventum (thank you guys!) and took a brand new, not-yet-launched NS1 with me to the wind tunnel. My previous fit was essentially a bike that was handed to me days before I had to race, I hopped on and nothing hurt, and called that good enough for over a year. Super pro of me, I know. I’d almost gone in for fits multiple times, but I was plenty comfortable and so spent my energy elsewhere.

Now it was a new year, I had a new bike, and I was ready to do a deep dive into my position. So off our team went to Indianapolis for a wind tunnel at the Auto Research Center. It’s common knowledge that the fastest position on a road bar is to be on the hoods crouched over with your forearms parallel to the ground. This is called the “aero hoods” position. Given that this is already clearly known as the fastest position, the goal of our trip was to find exactly what bike parts or body position changes were going to create the least drag for each athlete while in that specific position. That would then be how we *hopefully* ride in the most demanding moments of a race.

When it was my turn for testing, I was stoked. I hop on my bike, they blast the wind, and I’m crouched down thinking aero thoughts. After the first baseline tests are done, we review the video footage and I realize just how much I can improve with my body positioning alone. I don’t think I’d ever actually seen a video of myself riding in this position before.

Initially, we decide to test a narrower bar with hoods turned in. In reaction to the shorty bar ban, this is the basic change most people are expecting short course athletes to make. I had been riding 40cm wide bars because that was the narrowest width Ventum makes in their proprietary one piece bar/stem. I’d considered changing it a couple times, but honestly I think it’s a really comfortable bar to ride so I never did. On paper, going to a narrower bar should automatically be faster. Especially given that in the realm of male cyclists whom bike sizing was historically designed for, I’m not that big of a person. However, it was pretty evident when my arms were shaking not even halfway through the test that it wasn’t going to be the set up for me. A fast position is only fast if you can hold it. I was absolutely dying trying hold the hoods in this aerodynamic position for the couple minutes it takes to run through the test at all the angles. My arms were shaking like mad and I kept trying to adjust my grip, but nothing helped. So I was the smallest athlete there and I think the only one who actually tested slower on a narrower bar.

From there, we went right back to a 40cm bar, increased my reach, and started adjusting bar height. The idea was that placing the bars wider and further away should make it easier to hold my forearms flat and body in an aerodynamic position. This all worked. Finally my drag numbers started to go down. I was able to play around with finding the most aerodynamic ways to hold my body as well. I even had a breath sensor on to give feedback on any positions that were causing extra strain on my breathing.

I came home with essentially an idea of what I can do right now to maximize my current abilities, and an idea of what I can work on that will likely lead to better aerodynamics in the future. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I have some work ahead of me if I want to maximize aerodynamics on the bike. I feel like it’s taken half the physical therapists in this country to get me where I’m at now, so what’s new? It’s an exciting challenge to take on though. At this point, that stuff is my job and that’s pretty cool I think. You can find me doing core work and practicing my best aero crouch for the foreseeable future, all on the brand new NS1.