Performance Process: Aero myths and the best bang-for-buck gains with Swiss Side's JP Ballard
Spin Cycle
Escape Collective
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2024
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
JP Ballard joins us for the third half of our mini-series with the CEO of Swiss Side. This week, we dispel some aero myths, discuss and imagine some aero hacks, and JP generally breaks down aero for us non-aerodynamicists.
We discuss if lower and narrower is slower or faster, acid tests for assessing aero marketing, and why aero matters regardless of what speed we ride at, even uphill.
We then delve into where’s best to spend your money chasing aero gains, the best bang for the buck, so to speak. Finally, perhaps the biggest takeaway is that JP doesn’t believe the rule of 105 is as critical as we once thought
All told, this is a bumper episode and a fitting way to conclude this mini-series.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And Welcome back to the Performance Process Podcast. Everybody I'm Kaley Frets. |
| 0:17.0 | Joined as always. Rona McLaughlin, what are we talking about today? or who are we hearing from? |
| 0:24.5 | We're finishing our conversation with J.P. Ballard, the second half of the previous episode |
| 0:29.3 | of this podcast, and today we're sort of, well, we're delving into kind of try and break down aerodynamics for us non aerodynamicists. |
| 0:38.0 | We talk a lot of things we talk about sort of aeromiths delving into as lower or narrower or slower or faster. |
| 0:46.2 | It was just after I had written that article about narrower head shapes creeping into the |
| 0:50.1 | world tour, so we'd discuss if there's any other sort of acid tests you can apply to determine |
| 0:55.8 | whether a bike you're looking at or a piece of equipment you're looking at or whatever is more |
| 1:00.0 | aerodynamic or not in all likelihood. |
| 1:03.1 | It's not a, we don't have any concrete answers, |
| 1:05.4 | but we discuss that a bit. |
| 1:07.6 | And then we sort of, again, delving into the myths, |
| 1:09.7 | we sort of break down, you know, |
| 1:11.5 | why aerodynamics are important regardless of what speed you ride at, |
| 1:15.0 | regardless if you're uphill or downhill and that they do actually matter when you're going uphill also, |
| 1:20.3 | and JP actually drops a bit of a gem and sort of explained to this why as amateurs who are slower than the pros. |
| 1:28.0 | The vast majority of us can actually benefit from something what we discussed in episode one the sale effect even more than the |
| 1:34.7 | pros would. So that was nice to hear. And then the second half of the second half we discuss sort of how far aerodynamics have come there was a there was a |
| 1:46.6 | There was a margin of gains podcast recently that and this was four or five weeks ago at this point |
| 1:51.1 | But if I remember correctly it was something like if you took |
| 1:54.0 | Vincenzo Niebeliz Tour de France winning set up his bike his equipment his helmet his clothing all |
| 2:00.4 | that from 2014 and compared to now there's like a 15% reduction in drag with the modern |
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