Aerodynamics has become crucial in competitive cycling equipment, impacting performance with products like helmets and wheels. While many aerodynamic innovations were quickly embraced, aero socks initially faced skepticism as trivial. However, racers like Dan Bigham demonstrated their actual benefits, reporting significant watt savings. Yet, as aero socks have become ubiquitous in the peloton, questions arise about their actual competitive advantage. This led to wind tunnel tests on 16 different pairs of aero socks to evaluate their effectiveness, weighing the investment between high-end and budget options in the quest for speed.
While most 'aero' products have been adopted with relatively open arms, there's one that took a little longer to pass the fashion test: Aero socks.
Assuming you could prevent them from falling down, Bigham regularly boasted a saving of 'seven-to-ten watts'.
If swapping helmets can save you around 12 watts, and there's 6 watts between two high-end wheelsets, then surely there's a difference between a nominally 'good' and 'bad' pair of aero socks?
If the entire peloton is wearing aero socks, then nobody's wearing aero socks. And this poses a question: are they all created equal?
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