![]() ![]() The first is that you can't necessarily get access to take riders physically to a wind tunnel. "Scanning is the solution to two problems. It was his road bike, OK, but we wanted to introduce Nairo to the idea of him being scanned on a bike, because at some point in the future, and hopefully substantially before the 2016 Tour, we will take him to Germany and scan him on his time trial bike."Įndura developed their scanning protocol with time-trial ace Alex Dowsett, several weeks before the big team gathering. The first part of the process gave us his key measurements, just like with the other riders, so that was in a standing position. "This is the first time Nairo's been scanned. The last rider to be scanned was the Movistar Team's great Tour de France contender, Nairo Quintana, for whom Jim and colleagues had a surprise in store. It looks like a heat map, but it shows the amount of stretch across the body, and it means that we can essentially refine each of the rider's garments to fit them more accurately." It shows us tension maps across the body, using specific fabrics with known stretch characteristics. "Our software maps the 2D patterns that we cut from the fabric, and it virtually stitches it over a 3D avatar. ![]() It gives us a virtual form of each of the riders that we can work with and access throughout the season, because you have to remember that, once the season starts, it can be quite hard to get time with the riders. Jim explained, "It's the first time we've used laser scanning with the team. Once in working order, the Endura crew proceeded to scan all the riders, one by one – all twenty-seven of them. On the morning of Tuesday 10 November, he met his colleagues and erected the scanner, which resembles the sort of temporary changing room they used to put on beaches in Victorian times. Based in the company's headquarters just outside Edinburgh, Jim flew not to Spain but to northern Germany where he hired a white van, picked up a mobile 3D laser scanner and then drove the 1500 kms to Pamplona overnight. Staff and sponsors converged on Pamplona from all over Europe, and riders flew in from all over the world, but few had as gruelling a journey as the Director of the team's clothing sponsor Endura, Jim McFarlane. ![]() The big, pre-season team meeting in mid-November is the only occasion of the year that brings the entire company – riders, old and new, team staff, even sponsors – together in one place to meet, work and make plans.įor the Movistar Team, it was also the first and last opportunity to celebrate winning the team rankings in the UCI WorldTour for the third time in succession. Most of the year, the great cycling teams divide into small details that travel together and rarely have mutual contact. ![]() Director Jim McFarlane takes us behind the scenes at November's pre-season training camp in Pamplona, and tells us how a life-size 3D copy of Nairo Quintana, complete with moving limbs, is going to help the real Nairo try to win the 2016 Tour de France. The Movistar Team’s clothing sponsor Endura are going the extra mile to ensure that the team have the best fitting and most aerodynamic uniforms and skinsuits that science will allow. ![]()
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