Ask a competitive cyclist why he* shaves his legs, and you could get all sorts of answers: it keeps sweat from sticking to you, it makes road rash less painful, it makes bandaging an injury easier. He might have tried to avoid explaining it was for aerodynamics, because what difference would a few legs hairs make? But that would have been before engineer Marc Cote started working for a high-end bicycle company, and talked them into building a wind tunnel specifically for cyclists. The aim was to produce more aerodynamic bicycles, but Cote’s research went further. After all, 75% of the drag in a bicycle race is due to the cyclist himself.
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
When triathlete Jesse Thomas showed up at the lab with his hairy legs in 2014, Cote talked him into cycling in the wind tunnel, shaving his legs, and trying it again. He calculated that Thomas could save 70 seconds over a 40-mile time trial just by shaving! More hairy cyclists were recruited to confirm the results. Further research showed that Laurent Fignon would have won the 1989 Tour de France if he had only cut his ponytail. Now, shaving one’s legs is expected among all competitive cyclists, along with other aerodynamic innovations that came from Cote’s wind tunnel. Read how cyclists lost their hair at Nautilus. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: TJBlackwell)
* Women cyclists aren’t asked this question.
Source: neatorama