Gallery: Vacansoleil hits the wind tunnel

Vacansoleil-DCM headed to France earlier this week for wind tunnel testing at Aero Concept Engineering on the racetrack at Magny-Cours.

The two-day run saw Wout Poels, Lieuwe Westra, Gustav Larsson and Thomas de Gendt have some precious time fine-tuning their time trial positions, logging twenty hours of crucial testing between them.

“There are a lot of chances for improvement and innovation and we consider many options for the team. Investing in aerodynamics seemed to us as a logical and useful step for the development of our cyclists and materials,” said team manager Jean-Paul van Poppel.

“We have considered the investment against the potential result. From the results of these tests we think our talents, GC riders and time trial specialists, will benefit over the next two years.”

Van Poppel saw immediate results. “We have learned a lot on both the position of the rider and the materials. The changes on the positions of the riders must now be tested on the road but in theory there will be progress by all riders of percentages. We saw a couple of unexpected suggestions which seemed to work. Also, on the side of the materials to be used, we compared a few things and the whole team can benefit from the results.”


 

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