Peddling Towards Irrelevance
It the risk of being seen to be climbing back aboard my hobby horse… I thought I would bring you part of a recent article from Cycling News…. No you haven’t clicked on the wrong link… you are still reading Southern Woodenboat Sailing. But apparently peddling is now the key ingredient to winning what was once the world’s premiere sailing race.
The Rise of Cyclors: The high-wattage cyclists who power America's Cup teams
By Christopher Schwenker
How many watts does it take to power a 75-foot carbon-hulled sailing yacht at speeds over 55 mph?
A new breed of endurance athletes is answering that question and leaving a historic impact on International sailing.
It would be velominati folly bordering on bicycling blasphemy to suggest that a sailor possessed the force, fortitude, and finesse to conquer Paris-Roubaix's iconic cobbled climbs. In late October 2024, in the waters off the coast of Barcelona, a new breed of cycling strongmen will play a critical role in reclaiming a trophy older than the blue-gray granite cobble that the Spring Classic winner will hoist overhead.
The America's Cup is the oldest international competition still in existence, dating back to 1851. The Cup lay in wait at the home of the defender, the New York Yacht Club (NYYC), until 1983, when Royal Perth Yacht Club's Australia II broke the longest winning streak of any sport, 24 defenses in 132 years.
The America's Cup doesn't follow a fixed schedule; the champion retains the title until a challenger emerges, initiating a technological, strategic, and highly secretive arms race for sailing supremacy.
The epic feat of challenging man and machine to bring the Cup back to its hallowed home at the NYYC will require a well-choreographed ballet of sailboats, sailors, and cyclists. Yes, cyclists!
American Magic's AC75 Patriot, a testament to the fusion of technology and athletic performance, represents the pinnacle of sailing innovation. Dubbed the "Formula One" of sailing by the team, it even features a race car-inspired steering wheel and carbon hull.
Traditionally, the hydraulic power needed to operate the mast, winches, and trim the sails necessary to propel the 75-foot hull at speeds exceeding 50 knots relied on crew members known as "grinders," who manually operated hand cranks. However, engineering ingenuity has replaced these hand cranks with a leg crank mechanism akin to a fixed-gear bike drivetrain, and the athletes who operate them are now called "cyclors."
"What we're finding is a 30 to 50 percent power increase using the lower body as opposed to the upper body," explains Ben Day.
Everything above the deck of an America's Cup boat must be human-powered. Emirates Team New Zealand's innovative interpretation of the rules harnessed the increased force production of their crew’s glutes, quads, and hamstrings to victory in 2017, introducing cyclors to the sailing world.
Day, a former Pro Cyclist and ProTour Team Coach, now leads the charge as American Magic's Head of Performance. His task? To identify and train the elite cyclor squad that will challenge Emirates Team New Zealand in 2024. His unconventional role began in 2022 when he recognized that recruiting athletes who fit the cyclor mold wasn't like filling a Tour de France team.
"We needed to find very strong, robust athletes," said Day, because "This is not a power-to-weight sport; this is just an absolute power sport."
The America's Cup rules require a minimum crew weight for the four cyclors and the four afterguard that pilot the vessel. With a limited pool of 90 to 105 kilogram (198 to 230 pounds) and 198 cm (6'6") cyclists to choose from, Day broadened his search to other endurance sports.
That's where he found the 93-kilogram and 192-cm champion swimmer from Boston, Colton Hall, and the 95-kilogram and 191-cm Olympian and K-1 kayak American record holder, Tim Hornsby. The remainder of the ten-man cyclor squad includes a diverse group of competitive rowers, sailors, track athletes, and professional cyclists, such as the most diminutive member of the cyclor team at 88 kilograms and 175 cm, World and National Champion Ashton Lambie.
"I still consider myself a professional cyclist! I’ve just traded the wooden boards of a velodrome for a carbon racing yacht," quips Lambie.
As Day explains, the recruitment drive testing protocol was no laughing matter.
"The testing was a 30-second effort, a four-minute effort, and a 20-minute effort within a one-hour protocol. We were starting to talk to people if they could produce over 1100 watts for 30 seconds, over 520 to 540 watts for four minutes, and over 440 watts for the 20-minute piece. So that's our marker of when we were opening up conversations with people to understand how they might fit into the team environment here and whether they had what it takes to contribute."
American Magic's AC75 demands significant power to perform maneuvers, such as tacking, jibbing, and turning corners. The cyclors can't top off the hydraulic system and stop pedaling to take a break during races, so athletic performance, strength, and endurance directly affect race outcomes.
Their swift trimming of the sails improves the boat's agility and responsiveness, and the harder and faster they pedal, the more rapidly power is available.
The yacht's hydraulic accumulator tank stores the pressure generated by pedaling, rather than the pedalling directly moving anything mechanically by itself. A hydraulic actuator converts this pressure into force. As the pressure in the tank is used, the cyclors must pedal harder to maintain it. The fuller the tank, the harder it is to add more pressure, and the harder the cyclors must pedal.
Envision grinding up The Muur on a single-speed tandem track bike tethered to a giant rubber band dragging the AC75's 7-ton hull. Then, respond to Mathieu van der Poel's 2021 race-winning attack.
The team reports that the two-and-a-half-year development and build process totaled over 108,000 design hours and 65,000 construction hours. For the next generation AC75 sailing vessel, the USA has opted for recumbent cyclors, which have the rider in a laid-back reclining position but also facing aft rather than forward. They positioned two cyclors on the port and starboard side of the hull, with the drivetrains linked in tandem.
Day describes the 20 to 30-minute races as "very much a stochastic, undulating over-under effort, like a criterium."
During the pre-start period, the cyclors will perform multiple high-intensity anaerobic efforts when the boats are jockeying for position. The front-loaded race demands include sub-threshold efforts during straight-line sailing interspersed with high-intensity bouts while maneuvering. A cyclor will routinely have a normalized power in the 350 to 450 Watt range for the 700 kilojoule effort.
Day was tight-lipped when asked to reveal specific details of his cyclor training regimen, only saying, "It depends." He did reveal that the athletes train upwards of 15 to 20 hours a week on the bike and in the gym.
READ ON (IF YOU REALLY WANT TO) HERE
Even if we ignore the sordid quest for mammon, the ludicrous nationality rules, the obscene budgets, the joke of “Kiwi’s” defending their Cup in Spain, and a hundred other inauthenticities, what makes me saddest is the disappearance of a swag of skills that demanded psychological mindgames, physical skill, finesse, strength and yes…even bravery.
Earlier this week I watched a couple of minutes of training with the American and Italian boats tearing up and down between the Port Vell and Port Olímpic off Barcelona, and I didn’t see the face of single human being.
Not all developments are progress.
You be the judge!
And I’m not the only one…here are some comments on the cycling from The Sailing Anarchy America's Cup forum
I race every weekend from dinghy's to TP52s, and when my non-sailing friends ask me about the AC, I truly know nothing about it (or care) - and its never discussed in the sailing community. Besides knowing a few industry guys that have got sucked into for the $, it really means nothing to the core sailing communities.
At least with the IACCs we could watch epic crew work, sail handling, pre-start duels and traditional match racing. The heads in a hole, bobbing cyclists, always upwind, no sail changes and the ghost boat safety bubble match racing rules provide little appeal.
Speed is relative at the best of times. Would I go for a blast in the latest AC boat, sure. I would also go for a spin in a Ferrari. Would I pay $100 for the pleasure, probably not. Of course, in reality it isn't possible. There is no space for a passenger and if there was one you wouldn't get to see bugger all because you have to keep your head down out of the wind, sorry airflow. Watching others staring at the controls waiting for the light to tell you when to push the button, or head down arse up peddling the whole time. Not even being allowed to get close to the other boat because it could be dangerous.
There is nothing at all defeatist about saying that the AC is arguably going in the wrong direction, because some of us do it because we reckon that it could return to the right direction and once again reflect more closely what the mainstream of the sport is.
I just find it fairly boring. The starts, how can you do much when you have some imaginary distance you need to keep away. These are like a couple of greyhounds playing chase. Of course the start doesn't happen if there is any breeze because they can't handle it.
Then it is off to some imaginary boundary where the flashing lights will let you know when you are getting close. Crosses are all planned on not entering the zone. Maybe all today's sailors are too dumb to be able to not hit each other. Although according to some these helmsmen have the biggest brains in the universe.
When they are cranked up they just sit there. We get to talk about how high there ride height is. Oh look, the bow is down a bit. Then there are the sail changes, oh yeah, scratch that shit. Just a main and a piddly jib. Oh my, look, they have eased it out 2 inches, what are they up to.
And visually, not too bad. As long as they film from foil down side. Shit a brick, that raised arm looks just wrong. They may have nailed the function part, but any form was left out in the cold.
But wait, we get to see crew work. Yeah right. Cyclors heads bobbing up and down as we discuss how they affect the airflow. And the gameboy controllers, nah, can't see anything they are doing as it is all secret squirrel. So we get shots from down low, heads framed against the sky in an attempt to make it look like they are anywhere but in a simulator. The only sport in the world that gives such info live (may be wrong) because it is the most interesting thing going on.
But wait, someone far out in the lead has come off their foils. Now we get to watch some poor idiots try and not hit an imaginary boundary while the losers go screaming past them for a well earned victory. All while we talk about how maybe there needs to be a higher lower wind limit.
Oh yes, some exciting stuff is coming to a screen near you.