Asheville, N.C. – Team TIBCO’s Lauren Tamayo recently took her new Look 596 Time Trial bike to the A2 Wind Tunnel to dial in her position ahead of the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

“Every year we try to take a step forward in Lauren’s progression, and this year it’s the one percent things,” notes Mike Tamayo, Lauren’s husband and manager. Mike is also the directeur sportif for the OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis. “That’s where A2 comes into play. You can’t just go get tested right before the season starts. You have to test and then adapt and then test again as the season progresses.”

So the Tamayos made the drive from their base in Asheville, N.C. to the Charlotte area to test Lauren’s new TT machine.

“The new Look 596 is incredibly aerodynamic and light,” Lauren Tamayo said. It’s a truly fast machine and I want to get as much out of it as possible. That’s why I wanted to take it to A2, to get my position perfect for the rest of this season, and looking ahead to 2010 and beyond.

“Mike Giraud at the A2 Wind Tunnel was a big help in the testing,” she continued. “And I’ve got a good team around me to help with my development, including Mike and our Team TIBCO director, Jeff Corbett, who’s also my nutritionist.”

Read the rest of this entry �

[video playerid="1494779147" videoid="1916136353"]

Back in July at the Look 2009 launch, Ming Tan of Look Cycles USA introduced us to the new 2009 Tri/TT 596. Riden by Thor Hushovd during this years Tour de France, the new state of the art bike was developed in Nevers at Looks worldwide headquarters and is the first Look frame to use carbon nanotubes. Not far from Nevers is the famous F1 Magny Cours Wind Tunnel (yes, the same wind tunnel many F1 and Lemans cars are tested at), and according to Look the only wind tunnel able to run tests with spinning wheels. Look took to this tunnel to develop the 596, and during their time there, developed several iterations of what would eventually become the 596. One of the major designs they worked on was the gap between the rear wheel and the seat tube. What most bike manufacturers have adopted, is a fairly tight gap, but Look found that design caused a lot of turbulence in the area behind the seat tube and ran counter to the ultimate goal of cheating the wind. So engineers actually added more space to give the spinning air somewhere to go. A radically different direction, but not completely unfounded, as many Lemans race cars have louvered fenders to reduce pressure in their wheel wells. Time will tell what design ultimately wins out…

Read the rest of this entry �