Post by DTU - Technical University of Denmark

🚴Olympic gold in cycling can come down to air resistance. And DTU-researcher Yvet Maathuis is working to reduce exactly that. Yvet is a PhD student at DTU Construct, doing her research in collaboration with Team Danmark. Her focus is on sports aerodynamics in elite cycling - specifically how to reduce drag, the air resistance that slows a cyclist down - and to help Danish cyclists ride faster. She 3D-scans athletes on their bikes and uses the scans to build digital models, then runs CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulations that visualise exactly how air moves around a rider and where resistance is greatest. She also tests small-scale 3D-printed models in a wind tunnel at DTU, studying how the airflow behaves around the cyclist. The findings go into the development of equipment and race positions for Danish elite cyclists as they prepare for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles🏅

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