World Tour cycling is ever-developing. It’s getting faster, more technical and more detailed. The term “marginal gains” is drastically overused in sport, but in pursuit of performance, it is the term that is best used. A change measured in millimetres can be the difference between winning and losing.
“Improving the human-bike interaction” is the beginning of everything Sync Ergonomics does. Whether it be position optimisation through Adaptive HP, or developing new products with Sync.
Since 2022 we have been working alongside the numerous iterations of Greenedge Cycling (currently Jayco-AlUla). We provide the riders with our extension solutions for their TT bikes as well as aid them in position optimisation. And with the off-season in full swing, that is exactly what is taking place on the ground at Adaptive HP.
About Chris Harper
Chris Harper joined Jayco-AlUla at the start of 2023 after spending three years with Jumbo-Visma. The Australian is talented across the board, but his strengths lie in the climbing and general classification world. He has ridden all three Grand Tours, and this year finished 16th overall at the Tour de France, and that’s not to mention the stellar support role Chris played in this edition.
For a rider like Chris, having an optimised set-up is of utmost importance. Time trials may only make up a couple of percent of the total annual race kilometres, but they can be some of the most important to a rider with GC ambitions and a GC support role. For Chris, this trip wasn’t just about investigating his TT bike setup, but to also refine his road position.
He’s based out of Adelaide when back home, and Andorra while racing in Europe. Over the Europe winter / Australian summer, Chris spent some time with Sync founder, Ken Ballhause, in the bike fit lab, and at the velodrome for track aero testing.
The Bike Fit
In AHP’s Melbourne lab, Ken set to work fitting Chris to both his TT and Road bike. Although Chris has been in the pro ranks for half a decade and has ridden the Tour de France, there are always improvements to be made.
Cycling is a highly repetitive sport with specific biomechanical challenges. For a rider such as Chris, who is spending tens of thousands of kilometres each year in the saddle, the risk of injury is always there.
When you have to endure 21 days of grueling racing, aero is definitely not everything - comfort is king. For amateurs, often the culprits can be things such as slammed stems which “look cool”, but not being able to ride due to an injury is definitely not cool. The concerned athlete should always be asking the question, can I put the power out? Can I do the long miles in the saddle? It’s hard enough racing for 21 days, imagine training for it.
AHP’s bike fit process uses 3D motion capture (
Stt Systems) and movement analysis technology to carry out detailed kinematic analysis of each individual athlete. This technology is a fundamental part of our bike fit process, but Ken Ballhause, the founder of Sync Ergonomics plays just as important a role.
Ken has spent the vast majority of his life in the cycling world, whether that be working in a professional capacity or competing himself. His process in bike fitting is a holistic approach garnering knowledge from his Exercise Science and Health Science degrees as well as his consultancy work in elite sport.
The Velodrome
Aero testing is a necessary tool when searching for performance gains in any cycling discipline. You’ll often hear cycling performance referred to in terms of “watts per kilogram”, which effectively results in how fast you climb, but what is often equally relevant to a rider like Chris is “Watts per CdA”, the measure of aerodynamic performance.
Putting this into context for the average joe, if you’re sending it in the big dog, you should be caring more about your aero performance than your power-to-weight. This is the vast majority of time trials and it’s also a fair proportion of the time that a support rider spends supporting the protected GC rider.
Both amateur and professional athletes often get carried away with individual pieces of equipment and lose sight of the most important factor in aero performance - the form of the body on the bike. At relevant race speeds, more than 90% of resistance to forward motion is aerodynamic drag, and the cyclist makes up a good 70% of this drag force.
For Chris, the process started with a visit to the velodrome, to get baseline values for his road and TT aero performance. After all, when your success as an athlete depends on performance, you have to know that you are always moving forward as the result of an intervention.
In the lab, fitting revolved around everything from the ground up. Shoes were a hot topic for Chris, in the never-ending quest for the most comfortable shoe option. Reestablishing his preferred cleat position and setup of his
Footwork orthotics in a fresh set of Giro Empire SLX shoes. The off-season is a valuable time for Chis to put some base kilometers into testing a new shoe before the 2024 race season.
In the quest for sustainable aero? The new
CADEX AMP saddle, a heavily revised saddle position, and a substantial change to cockpit setup. Saddle height was about the only positional characteristic that remains of Chris’s 2023 road setup.