Axel, who recently completed his Masters at Loughborough, has dominated the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) since 2022, taking 7 titles spanning road and track events.
As his winning streak continued, Doctoral Researcher and Coach to the Lightning Cycling Elite Development Team, Paddy Harris, and riders in the Loughborough Cycling Academy approached Duncan Walker, Professor of Applied Aerodynamics within the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, to consider whether a truly holistic approach could make Axel an hour record contender.
Duncan comments:
Axel has the potential to beat Jens Voigt’s record but will need all our combined knowledge to achieve this. Optimising aerodynamic drag is key, but the balance with physiological performance is often neglected. Can an athlete maintain performance in the extreme body positions required for aerodynamic optimisation? And how can their physiology be developed to withstand this challenge which is brutal on so many levels? We’ve left no stone unturned in this project to explore every facet of physiological, scientific and engineering knowledge to discover the answers.
In the Department's wind tunnel laboratory, Duncan and Dr Dan Butcher applied their expertise more commonly focused on improving the performance of jet engines and vehicle aerodynamics to reduce Axel’s drag. They applied existing academic knowledge of the key aerodynamics processes including optimising body position and helmet choice, validated in controlled tests at Silverstone Engineering Sports Hub and Derby Velodrome. Vorteq Sports has reduced drag even further with a specially developed skinsuit.
Later this month, Axel will be combining the practice and theory of cycling performance when he returns to Loughborough to study a PhD with Duncan on Cycling Aerodynamics: Impact of Fabric Design, part-sponsored by Tudor Pro Cycling.