On stage 2 of the Tour de France, a clip was making the rounds of Jonas Vingegaard waving to the camera while wearing the maillot jaune. To put it gently, the jersey did not seem like a modern aero fit.
When a rider takes the lead of the Tour de France, the organizer, ASO, gives the rider size options and the choice between a jersey and a race suit from apparel partner Santini. Vingegaard and his performance team chose a loose-fitting jersey. Was that an oversight by Visma? Could there be a performance or cooling reason they chose a loose jersey? And ultimately, what was the aerodynamic penalty of the Dane’s flappy jersey, which now sits on Tadej Pogačar's back?
To answer the questions above, I reached out to Johannes Rom Dahl, who runs the wind tunnel for Fusion, the kit sponsor of Uno-X Mobility. Less than an hour after Dahl and I scheduled a time to connect, Torstein Træen of Uno-X Mobility took the yellow jersey from a breakaway on stage 4.
Since our conversation, Træen crashed on stage 6 and abandoned the race before stage 7, but Rom Dahl's insight applies to riders wearing leaders’ jerseys of any classification.
Jack Duncan: This timing worked out incredibly. We talked about doing an interview, and then Uno-X took the yellow jersey minutes later, so congrats.
Johannes Rom Dahl: Thank you so much. Obviously we're just a small part in the whole equation. It's so great to see the team succeed, and I don't think anyone expected this, but it makes it even that much sweeter when it comes together this way, and so relevant when we were talking about what we're about to talk about.
JD: I was watching, I think it was stage 2, when Jonas Vingegaard was in yellow and there was a camera cut to him where his jersey is flapping like crazy behind his helmet, between his shoulders. His kit provider, Nimbl – they've probably done a ton of work to custom fit the clothing to him and make it optimized as possible. What is he losing from wearing a yellow jersey? Seeing that clip, what were your first thoughts on that?
JRD: Definitely, I share the same thoughts as you. It's one of those things that boggles the mind a little bit when you see it, because it's definitely not nothing what you're losing with having your fit like that.
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