Originally Posted by
queerpunk
I remember seeing shots of Evie Stevens before her hour record and thinking that her position looked very antiquated, but her coach says that it was one of the most aerodynamic positions he'd ever worked with.
the thing that stands out in that picture is how high the trailing tip of her helmet is off her back - When you do that it tends to dump a vortex (energy lost into spinning air) off the the tip, rather than guiding air onto your back.
If you look at the guys winning WorldTour TT's and Ironman bike legs, you see a lot of commonality in their positions, and most of them have pretty narrow elbows (at least compared to Hammer's position). There's a reason for that. I'm also willing to bet those guys have spent a lot more time in the wind tunnel than Hammer has (it's still not exactly cheap these days at a couple hundred bucks and hour, plus travel expenses if you're not local).
A couple hundred/hour is pretty cheap when you look at the cost/benefit, especially when it's local (and it was for Sarah for quite a long time, and she still has a lot of SoCal connections). Renting the VSC is in that neighborhood, of cost, too, and teams do plenty of that for private practice. Queerpunk correctly points out below that IP/TP is very different than an ironman or road TT. She needs max possible speed for about 4 minutes, not 45, or 240. At 45 or 240 minutes.
Originally Posted by
queerpunk
Hammer's arms aren't wider than her thighs. Her hips are wider than her shoulders, and her arms don't go *out* from her shoulders. They're in line
Sarah has wide hips and narrow shoulders. If you watch her at max power she also rocks her hips a lot (and gets a ton of power from it). I looked at some other pictures at different angles and see the same thing - her arms are inline so if you look at her from the front or top, the air is guided around the sides. If the arm position helps flow air around her hips it may very well be the most aero. Just looking from the side and trying to add a narrow cross section at the very front is only looking at a small part of the airflow.
Originally Posted by
carleton
(Preface: Sara Hammer's first kilo split is faster than I've ever ridden a kilo.)
Some time ago (~5 years maybe?) Sarah and Mini-Phinney were both at elite track nats the same year. Phinney was the only male rider whose 3K split in the IP was faster than Sarah's 3K. If she'd ridden the 4K, she'd have probably gotten silver behind him.