Wall Street Triathletes Follow Armstrong to Wind Tunnel Cutting Cycle Time
Martin Gilmore, a partner at BB&T Capital Partners, aims to compete again in the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii later this year thanks to a high-speed wind tunnel in Mooresville, North Carolina.
Gilmore was aboard his $6,000 carbon-fiber 2006 Cervelo P3 model last week trying to make himself and his bike less wind- resistant for the 112-mile leg of July’s Ironman Lake Placid race, where he hopes to qualify for October’s triathlon championship in Kona, Hawaii.
The two-hour session inside the A2 Wind Tunnel, built by former General Motors Corp. aerodynamicist Gary Eaker, cost about $1,000 and resulted in what could be a 15-minute difference in Gilmore’s ride time during the Lake Placid, New York, race.
“Fifteen minutes is huge,” Gilmore, 50, said during an interview while pedaling inside the tunnel. “When you look at the available Kona slots, it comes down to a couple minutes. So, you just can’t describe the impact that 15 minutes could have.”
Gilmore, who has qualified for the Kona race on three other occasions, is part of a fast-growing group of amateur triathletes descending on the tunnel, which has been used by top U.S. cyclists including Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie. Last year, about 250 cyclists and triathletes -- who swim, bike, and run in their races -- bought time in the tunnel, up from about 100 in 2007, according to Mike Giraud, 38, the tunnel’s operator and bike specialist.
Six-fold Growth
Since 2000, when triathlon first appeared in the Olympics, membership in USA Triathlon, the sport’s governing body in the U.S., has soared more than six-fold to 135,000 in 2010 from 20,000 a decade earlier. Competitors in Ironman races have an average annual income of $161,000, according to World Triathlon Corp., which is owned by Providence Equity Partners Inc., a Providence, Rhode Island-based buyout firm.
“I get tons of those people,” Giraud said. “It’s definitely the demographic that I most deal with.”
They are anxious to spend some of their income for some time inside Eaker’s five-year-old tunnel, a smaller version of his AeroDyn Wind Tunnel, built next door and used primarily by Nascar racing teams.
About 80 percent of the tunnel’s time is booked for bike testing, according to Giraud. The tunnel, which cost about $500,000 to build, is also used by lower-budget race car enthusiasts and was used for the U.S. bobsled team before the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Hincapie Visit
The tunnel’s first bike customer was Steve Hed, whose aerodynamic, carbon wheels are used by many Tour de France winners, including Armstrong and Alberto Contador. Hed brought Hincapie to the tunnel with him for that first visit and then showed up with German national time trial champion Bert Grabsch.
“At A2, you have the benefit of using a good tunnel and you also get Mike, who really knows what he’s doing,” said Hed, 55. “It’s the ideal combination.”
The tunnel is becoming so popular among high-spending cyclists, Norcross, Georgia-based Blue Competition Cycles offers a free one-hour session in the tunnel for anybody purchasing its custom-made triathlon bikes, which cost between $4,500 and $11,500.
While Gilmore will never be confused for Armstrong, who has said he will compete in the 2011 Hawaii Ironman, that hasn’t stopped him from trying.
Top Finisher
In his first full Ironman-distance race in 2001, Gilmore was the top finisher in the 40-44 age group at 10 hours, 45 minutes. He most recently qualified and raced in Hawaii in 2006, finishing 43rd out of 166 in the 45-49 age group at 10:37:18. Like most Ironman triathletes, his training requires countless hours away from his family. “It can be a very selfish sport,” said Gilmore, who works in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where BB&T is headquartered.
When his teenage daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2007, Gilmore began using competitions to raise awareness and money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He raised $40,000 when he competed in Hawaii in 2006 and said his goal is to surpass that total for the 2011 race.
In the seven Ironman-distance races he has completed, Gilmore’s best time was 9:52 at Ironman Florida in November 2008, an effort that also qualified him for Hawaii in 2009. It also left him in the post-race medical tent wondering if he wanted to go through it all again 11 months later. He decided not to.
“As I lay there, I could not see myself going to Kona,” he said. “The guy next to me looked like the exorcist with the stuff he was throwing up.”
After giving up his 2009 Hawaii spot, Gilmore said he’s hoping his visit to the wind tunnel helps him earn a return trip.
Reducing Drag
“The environment is so electric that it’s just something I want to experience again,” he said.
While inside the tunnel, Giraud lowered Gilmore’s handlebars and brought his elbows closer to his body, reducing the coefficient of drag his body produced by about 16 percent. (3.06 to 2.63). As a result, Gilmore was able to generate 58 more watts of pedaling power, allowing him to travel 1 mile per hour faster while using the same effort. At that rate, Gilmore could cover the 112-mile course 15 minutes and 41 seconds faster than in his previous riding position.
“Based on the improvements, I think it’s going to be money very well spent,” Gilmore said. “The magnitude of the changes is beyond what I had expected. I’m very pleased.”
In addition to reducing his drag coefficient, there was one other simple reason Gilmore wanted to visit the tunnel.
“It’s really cool,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Mooresville, North Carolina at mbuteau@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net.
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