Team Body Rocket is fresh back from a pretty exciting US-tour during October, and apart from finally overcoming the perils of jetlag, we’re also absorbing what has been a very fast-paced and successful couple of months.
First stop was Kona, home of the coveted Ironman World Championship - think lava fields and palm trees capped by the most incredible sunsets, and you have the workings of a postcard backdrop. But we weren’t there for the sun and surf - we were there to make some ripples in the triathlon world!
We had a presence at the Data Powered Performance booth alongside Core, VO2 Master and Moxy, and the showstopper was Kristian Blummenfelt’s bike, equipped with the Body Rocket system, on display for all to see. Thanks to those of you who dropped by to pay us a visit, it was great to see so many triathletes expressing interest in what we’re creating in the field of performance-led aerodynamics.
In case you missed it, Body Rocket athletes Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt were racing. Gustav not only won the race, but set a run course record (2:36:15) and overall Ironman World Championship record in the process, posting a staggering 7:40:24 time for the 3.8k swim, 180k, and 42k run. Kristian rounded off the men's podium in third place, with the second fastest run split in the history of the race, in 2:39:21.
We're super proud to be working with these world-class athletes and can't wait to continue optimising their on-bike aerodynamics ahead of more record-breaking performances in the years to come.
Time for another World Championship…
Next, with a short break in the UK in between trips, we were off to St. George, Utah, this year’s location for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
We hosted a number of demo evenings at The Body Rocket house, where we showed the capabilities of the Body Rocket system and how it differentiates from other aerometers.
Our demo consists of the bike setup on a trainer, with a front-facing electrical fan, and connected to a large screen so the CdA data points can be seen in real-time. What became apparent was that by witnessing the system in real-time, the impact on people's understanding of how direct drag force measurement works is much more pronounced.
A fan only creates about 10% of the drag a typical rider will create in the real world so it’s a great way to show how sensitive the system is. Once you’ve seen it in action it’s easy to understand why Body Rocket is so different from previous attempts at on-road aerodynamics, and why our approach is so powerful. This is what people are beginning to grasp - the performance potential that is unlocked by access to this data, and instead of conceptualising it, they can visualise it in real time.
Thank you to those of you who joined us at our evening demos - alongside some members of the press and our champion athletes Kristian and Gustav, it was a great opportunity to connect and explain the system in greater detail. Watch this space for future on-road demos!
A big step forward
Following the testing days on the road in St George, our team back home were busy analysing the data and we were delighted to learn that we took another big step forward in our march toward our commercial launch.
We hit two big milestones, showing live CdA on the Garmin in real-time, on the road, and we took that big step from velodrome testing to outdoor testing – in what were some pretty challenging wind conditions! The most exciting part, apart from the fact that this was the first open-road use of on-bike drag measurement that’s ever been done, was that the data was also repeatable across the three days. While competitive systems can often produce results in velodromes we’re now moving out into more complicated environments where others struggle to give results, and we’re still looking good.
(Another) World Champion!
To top off a successful week, Body Rocket athlete Kristian Blummenfelt was crowned Ironman 70.3 World Champion in what proved to be a dominating race for the Norwegian star.
We're honoured to be working with such talented and esteemed athletes, and will be continuing our testing programme with them in the coming months - hopefully with some interesting data to report back.
The last part of our trip was a quick stopover in Boulder, Colorado, where we demoed the system to a host of industry-leading brands, journalists, investors, coaches and athletes.
It's super encouraging to see such interest in what we are doing from every corner of the industry - we've hit some pretty major industry headlines recently and we hope the momentum will continue to build.
A big thank you to everyone who we've had the pleasure of meeting these past few weeks, it's been exciting to immerse ourselves in the triathlon industry and has certainly opened a lot of doors for us. As always, we'll keep you posted on our progress as we enter the next phase of technical developments.
For now, Aloha!