Bockel and Zeebroek at A2
On a very cold snowy day Dirk Bockel and Axel Zeebroek of team Uplace-BMC went to the A2 wind tunnel and we joined them remotely with a Double Robotics camera as the weather was too frightful. Bockel and Zeebroek actually arrived the day prior to tweak their position and decide on certain gear from their sponsors. But on the day I had planned to drive it would have been a dangerous trip to drive the 50 some miles to Mooresville.
Dirk Bockel knows this tunnel very well and has been here a few times.
But first up in the morning session was Belgian Pro Axel Zeebroek. And Mike Giraud who said that this might be his very last day in the bike industry set up the bike for Axel. He has known Dirk for a long time from happier times at Blue.
Axel Zeebroek had never been to the A2 tunnel before and learned quite a bit.
Here Zeebroek awaits the countdown for the next round of tests.
With position markers on one leg and his souvenir from the Beijing Olympics on the other leg.
Dirk Bockel looks on as Mike Giraud talks about the setup of his friend and now teammate Axel Zeebroek.
From that spot the tunnel looks very long.
Zeebroek told us he would use the Air Attack in hotter races like Abu Dhabi and Kona, but otherwise he liked the data from the Giro Selector.
The view from the control room as Mike Giraud talks to Axel Zeebroek.
The rear end of Axel Zeebroek's BMC TM01
David Salazar runs the A2 wind tunnel in Mooresville, NC.
In addition to position refinements the athletes also played with helmets.
In the afternoon Dirk Bockel had his time in the wind tunnel.
Small adjustments were handled by Mike Giraud who is indeed an aero superstar.
Dirk Bockel knows his numbers very well and he was trying to see if he could gain a bit more speed, but at the very least match his numbers.
As we said earlier, the weather was not very good, especially for a Southern state.
Through an app called Double Robotics I could control this segway like device and roll around the A2 wind tunnel and hear what was said and see what was going on, plus I could ask questions of course. For a manufacturer who wants to just send some product to be tested, they can still be there remotely to observe, and also get data this way. Very slick.
Here is the view from the Double Robotics driver seat and in this screen capture Dirk Bockel noticed the robot rolling up on him.
On the way back to the control room. Basically you can roam as you please, but someone needs to open the door for you.
