Aero Revolution: How UK-Based Company Body Rocket is Democratizing Aerodynamics Testing

Photo: Body Rocket

Back when Eric DeGolier was an elite track cyclist in the early to mid-2000s, access to wind tunnels was basically nonexistent to anyone other than the absolute best riders on the planet. DeGolier had competed at U.S. nationals (winning a team pursuit medal in 2001), he was named an All-American athlete in college and, in 2004, he piloted visually-impaired cyclist Matt King at the Athens Paralympic Games. Even with such an extensive and impressive resume, DeGolier never would have dreamed to ask for the chance to get into a wind tunnel for aerodynamic testing. The request would have been a waste of his breath.

Fast forward to today, 20 or so years down the road, and the level of access to wind tunnels is pretty much identical to what DeGolier and his peers saw in their day. The one per cent of the world’s top cyclists get to dial in their aerodynamic profile in wind tunnels, while everyone else has to rely on less-precise methods. That is, until now, as DeGolier’s UK-based company Body Rocket is ready to shake things up and flip the aerodynamics game on its head by introducing “the future of cycling.” Body Rocket’s innovative aerodynamics technology is so groundbreaking that it caught the eye of Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, who have already used the system to fly to multiple big results, and soon enough, it will be available to everyone.

Developing Body Rocket

DeGolier went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for mechanical engineering, and after graduating, he got a job in the cycling industry, working on the team that developed the PowerTap power meter. As he continued to work in the industry (while also continuing to cycle at an elite level), he grew more aware of the technology that was out in the world already and what was in the process of being developed.

“I took a look at what other people were trying to do and I said, ‘That’s never going to work, but I think I know how it could,'” he says.

DeGolier says it was in the late 2000s when the idea “really crystallized,” but it wasn’t until a decade later that he officially founded Body Rocket: “It was in 2018 when I thought the technologies were mature enough to actually make the product.”

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That year, DeGolier and his team had “an idea and some very simple prototypes,” which they used to get their first bit of funding. “From there, we built it out from a thing that worked in concept to a full-sized device that could be tested.” The team first tested the product at a wind tunnel in Southampton, UK, in 2020, and by 2022, they were ready to deliver it to athletes. “It was finally something that could go out into the world and help people.”

Working with the Norwegians

The Body Rocket team’s young reputation apparently preceded them, as they didn’t even have to reach out to athletes for partnerships when the product was ready for use. Instead, Norway’s Olav Aleksander Bu (the former coach of Blummenfelt and Iden) heard about the company and set up a meeting.

“Kristian and Gustav were the first active athletes to come on board and start using the technology,” DeGolier says. Since then, the pair of Norwegians have won and reached the podium at some of the biggest races in the world.

The key for elites like the Norwegians when it comes to Body Rocket’s technology is the ability to train through testing. The last time Blummenfelt and Iden were in a wind tunnel was 2023, DeGolier says, and that was with the Body Rocket team.

“Since then, they have been doing all of their aerodynamic testing on the road with our technology,” DeGolier continues.

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DeGolier recounts the first time he met Blummenfelt, which was during a visit to a wind tunnel.

“He’d spent an eight-hour day in there,” he says. “A lot of that was spent perfecting a new set of aero bars. This was before the 2021 IRONMAN World Championship [which were held in early 2022 due to delays caused by COVID-19]. Six weeks later, we saw him win that championship on a different set of bars.”

DeGolier says he asked Blummenfelt what changed, and the newly-crowned world champion said that the position he and Bu had landed on in the wind tunnel simply wasn’t practical for actual roads or racing.

A couple of years later, in early 2024, as Blummenfelt prepared for the Paris Summer Games, Bu called a group to Bergen (the team’s home training base in Norway) to help develop “the world’s fastest Olympic triathlon suit,” says DeGolier. Bu told DeGolier that the testing couldn’t interrupt Blummenfelt’s regularly scheduled training, and that he would need to test the suit and its aerodynamics during sessions. This was no problem for the Body Rocket team, as they were able to dial in exactly what worked and what didn’t on the suit, honing in its aero profile without wasting a second of training time for the then-defending Olympic gold medallist.

Just after the Olympics, the Norwegians called Body Rocket back to help once again, this time as Blummenfelt and Iden prepared for Kona. The team flew to Flagstaff, Ariz., and tested the duo during their training camp.

“The key thing was that we had to integrate into their really intense training block just weeks prior to Kona,” says Callum Barnes, head of AI in aerodynamics at Body Rocket. “That testing was what brought out those crazy positions on the bike that everyone saw from the guys as soon as they got out on the island.” Once again, Body Rocket’s technology was used to lock in the athletes’ aerodynamics without disturbing their training.

Of course, DeGolier didn’t found Body Rocket to only help the best athletes in the world. It’s a fun and encouraging project to work with the likes of Blummenfelt and Iden, but this entire journey began because DeGolier wanted to bring access to aero testing to the broader world of cycling.

Body Rocket for All

So, what is Body Rocket’s system and how does it work? As DeGolier says, the main point of the company and system isn’t to help pros, it’s for consumers — the everyman and everywoman cyclist and triathlete — but how can someone without a team of engineers, coaches, bike fitters and whoever else surrounding them use a sophisticated aerodynamic testing system?

It’s quite simply, actually. The system features multiple parts: a sensor for your bike’s handlebars, a sensor for the seat post, one to put at the front of the bike and Body Rocket sensor pedals. Like any power meter or bike computer you would use, the Body Rocket tech is designed to stay on your bike at all times. You aren’t just using it to test your aerodynamics on certain days, but rather as a daily tool to ensure that you are getting the most out of yourself and your ride at all times.

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“If you get a new helmet, you don’t need to set up a special test day with your old helmet and the new one,” DeGolier says. “You just throw it on, ride the loop you normally ride, come back and say, ‘Oh, you know, that’s faster or slower than my old one.'”

But how are you supposed to interpret the data? It’s one thing to have access to aerodynamic testing, but another thing entirely to know what these numbers mean. That’s where BRIAiN comes in.

“BRIAiN is the Body Rocket Individualized Artificial Intelligence Network,” says Barnes. “We collect all of the drag and biomechanical data, and then our assistant, BRIAiN, takes a look at it.” BRIAiN can be accessed on your phone, and it will pick up variabilities in drag, weight distribution and more, then tell users what these numbers mean and how they can be applied to their riding and bike position.

“This allows the user to just be the athlete and not try to be the athlete, the bike fitter and the coach all at once,” says Barnes. The team that created Body Rocket is made up of engineers and aerodynamics experts, but you don’t have to be either of these things to benefit from the system.

A Look at the Data

A big question is whether the Body Rocket system is comparable to a wind tunnel. In short, it is.

“Our system, in essence, isolates the rider from the bike and is looking at how hard the bike is pushing the rider through the air,” says DeGolier. The pedals and sensors on the handlebar and saddle measure horizontal forces, while the sensor at the front of the bike measures air speed.

“The combination of horizontal forces at the handlebar, the saddle and the pedals, that’s your aerodynamic drag force.” DeGolier says that everyone is aware of the fact that air is blown over a person in a wind tunnel, but not everyone knows that there is a sensor under the tunnel that measures horizontal force.

“We’ve basically taken this man-sized sensor under a wind tunnel and shrunk it and built it into the bike so that you no longer need the rest of the facility around you,” he says. “You ride onto the road, you create your own wind and you measure your aerodynamic drag in real time.”

Even with this more accessible testing method, it’s fair to wonder if it’s as accurate or as effective as a wind tunnel. DeGolier not only says it is, but he and his team have the data to back it up. In tests at the University of Southampton in the UK, the Body Rocket system was directly compared to an active wind tunnel. The results? Virtually identical readings from both systems.

Blummenfelt testing data from ahead of 2024 Olympics.

After being validated against a wind tunnel, Body Rocket showed the likes of Blummenfelt that their system was the way to go, which led to that Olympic race suit testing alongside Surpas (the high-performance triathlon apparel company). As previously mentioned, the team was able to work on Blummenfelt’s suit while he trained, modifying it on the fly and making adjustments far into the year, up to just weeks before the Paris Games.

The result saw a whopping 11.8 watts saved on the bike (one minute and 30 seconds of time saved at his race pace), and all through changes in the suit’s fabrics and aero features. This 90-second gain came on the heels of Body Rocket shaving two full minutes off his race pace result earlier that spring through positional changes. Just after the Olympics at the Norwegians’ Flagstaff training camp ahead of Kona, the Body Rocket team managed to shave close to four minutes off Blummenfelt’s 112-mile bike split. These are minutes worth of savings for a rider who, as the Body Rocket team is keen to point out, has visited the wind tunnel many times in his career before working with their system.

This year, Body Rocket has been to a pair of training camps with Bu, Blummenfelt and Iden. Both camps were used to focus on “the unique demands of the Nice IRONMAN course,” DeGolier says, as this year’s World Championship will feature a much hillier course than last year’s in Kona. “The challenge this year has been to find the right mix of aerodynamics and power generation.”

Body Rocket data showing test runs from a Norwegian Kona prep camp in Flagstaff in 2024.

The first camp was in Sierra Nevada in March, and the Body Rocket team worked to refine Blummenfelt’s and Iden’s positions, using their system’s biomechanical feedback and aero features to dial in exactly what the pair would need to thrive in Nice. They started with Blummenfelt’s setup from IRONMAN Frankfurt 2024 (a race he won), then “explored changes to saddle height, cockpit setup and BTA configurations, all while monitoring pedalling technique, changes to saddle position and overall core stability.”

In July in Bergen, the teams met up once more, picking up where they left off in March. They looked at suit design, cockpit position and helmets, ultimately saving Blummenfelt 16 watts on the bike while maintaining a position that is “powerful enough for climbing in the aero position,” DeGolier says. Iden’s tests with Body Rocket resulted in 14 watts of savings, a lot of which came from changes to his suit.

“A big part of the team’s approach this year has been about positional flexibility,” DeGolier says. “Rather than dialling in a single ‘optimal’ setup, we’re working to give the guys multiple positions they can use throughout the race — a baseline for most situations, with the ability to adjust to a more compact climbing position for power, and a more outstretched position for fast, exposed sections.”

As any fan of triathlon knows, a lot can happen over the course of an IRONMAN. Pre-race favorites can lose badly and dark horses can steal wins, but as the Norwegians have shown in recent years, it’s the athletes who leave no stone unturned in training and preparation who often end up on the podium. Blummenfelt and Iden have flipped over a number of stones with the Body Rocket system. They have the data. They have the test runs. All that’s left is to put it to action in September as they both look to win another IRONMAN world title.

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