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  • I want someone who knows what works and can suggest stuff to test quickly and get it done with minimal external variables.

    Do wind tunnel sessions do that though? Dowsett's recent video series seemed to suggest that they simply follow the test protocol you want run, operate the machine, and provide you with the results.

    It was implied that it's up to you to decide if you want to go higher in the stack, lower, longer, shorter etc... they just provide you with the numbers/graphs and tell you it's quicker or slower. And moreover, it's up to you (or your mechanic) to make those changes to the bike... eating into testing time.

    Xav from Aerocoach discussed this on a podcast recently and said exactly the same thing. He can't make suggestions on position or geometry, because he'd be using information gathered and paid for by other riders in his wind tunnel... it wouldn't be fair.

  • Dowsett's recent video series seemed to suggest that they simply follow the test protocol you want run, operate the machine, and provide you with the results.

    I was the rider in the video you might be referring to and I think Alex showed my test plan briefly on-screen.

    Whoever you go into the tunnel with will 'direct' your session and should ideally have all of that agreed with you prior to session itself. Xav is right that they shouldn't tell you what others have tested or what was faster...but even if they did it wouldn't make any sense. What tests well on one rider won't test well on another.

    Alex coaches me so knows my position well and had seen it in the flesh a number of times therefore he was in a good position to make the suggestions, but even if he didn't there's only a limited number of things you can change in terms of body position so really all he is doing is assessing the lowest hanging fruit based on my body type, flexibility, race speed etc what order to test in/what to prioritise. And the results showed some things you'd expect to work on me just didn't e.g. narrow elbows made no difference.

    So in short, the provider you use should help you make that test plan, without divulging anything about other riders.

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