{"id":118215,"date":"2025-09-04T02:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T02:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/118215\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T02:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T02:22:13","slug":"evolution-of-the-aero-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/118215\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution of the Aero Position"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tri didn\u2019t copy aero – it taught it. Here we look at the historic images, oddities, and athletes who hid heads, moved bottles, and nudged rules to reshape the way we look on the bike leg.<\/p>\n

\"See<\/p>\n

(Photo: Triathlete)<\/p>\n

Published September 3, 2025 09:51AM<\/p>\n

The evolution of the aero position on the bike in the sport of triathlon<\/p>\n

Triathlon has always been a little allergic to staying inside the lines. The first years were road bikes, toe\u2011clips, and guts \u2013 no aerobars, no deep dish wheels. Then came a tsunami of innovation on a July afternoon in France in 1989: a pair of narrow extensions and a tucked head that changed how everyone thought about going fast.<\/p>\n

In the decades between, our positions have swung from tall and tidy to pancake\u2011flat and back toward high hands and hidden heads. What follows is a photo\u2011led tour of how triathletes invented aero, accidentally detoured into fashion, and \u2013 finally \u2013 rediscovered what the wind was trying to tell us all along.<\/p>\n

Before aero: road bars and stubborn headwinds (early 80s)
\n\"MarkRoad bars, tall posture \u2013 the sport before clip-ons. (Photo: Mike Plant)<\/p>\n

In the beginning, there were road bikes \u2013 steel or early aluminum frames with round tubes, down\u2011tube shifters, and drop bars. Kona, Nice, and the other early classics were tests of position you could hold for hours, not positions purpose\u2011built for the wind.<\/p>\n

Athletes choked up on the tops for long grinders or dove into the drops for descents; the body was tall, the elbows wide, and the head fully exposed to clean air. \u201cIntegration\u201d meant electrical tape, foam pads, and extra bottle cages. It wasn\u2019t slow \u2013 just honest. If you wanted to go faster, you pedaled harder.<\/p>\n

The spark: LeMond\u2019s Scott DH bar and the tri spillover (1989)
\n\"\"In 1989 American Greg Lemond debuted aerobars at a time-trial stage in the Tour De France. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The innovation that changed everything didn\u2019t come from a wind tunnel press release \u2013 it came from a live TV time trial at the Tour de France. Greg LeMond\u2019s narrow clip\u2011on aerobars (licensed by Scott from ski coach Boone Lennon\u2019s bar patent) put his forearms slightly high of parallel, pulled his shoulders in, and gave his head somewhere to hide.<\/p>\n

Lemond\u2019s win was tiny in margin and massive in consequence. Overnight, clip\u2011on aerobars<\/a> jumped from garage experiments to must\u2011have kit. Triathletes \u2013 already the most shameless tinkerers in cycling \u2013 bolted them to anything with two wheels and started testing stack, reach, and elbow width by feel, stop\u2011watch, and race photos. The geometry and hardware were crude, but the idea was crystal clear: shrink frontal area, keep the head out of the wind, and hold it for hours.<\/p>\n

The pioneer: Tinley\u2019s high\u2011hands, low\u2011head experiments (mid\u201180s to early 90s)
\n\"ScottTinley lifts the hands and tucks the head \u2013 decades before it was cool. (Photo: Lois Schwartz)<\/p>\n

Before wind\u2011tunnel fashion hardened into dogma, Scott Tinley (aka \u201cHi-Tech Tinley\u201d) was already playing with the shapes we now call modern. Study the photos: hands subtly higher than elbows, elbows closer together, chin tucked into the pocket between the forearms. The aerodynamics are simple and durable \u2013 raise the hands and the helmet naturally drops; narrow the elbows and the shoulders disappear.<\/p>\n

\"DuringTinley lifts the hands and tucks the head \u2013 decades before it was cool. (Photo: Lois Schwartz)<\/p>\n

Tinley wasn\u2019t alone, but he was early and visible, and he proved that comfort and control could coexist with a smaller silhouette. Here\u2019s the twist: Much of the market copied the hardware (clip\u2011on aerobars) and missed the lesson (hide the head). What followed was a long, flat era that looked fast in pictures but often wasn\u2019t in the data.<\/p>\n

Side Quest \u2014 The hydration arms race (then and now)<\/p>\n

1990s: Front hydration shows up between the arms because that\u2019s where your hands already split the air. Refillable bottles with straws (think Profile Design Aerodrink<\/a>) make sipping easy and fill the low\u2011pressure pocket in front of the chest. Elegant? Not really. Effective? Often, yes.<\/p>\n

\"BozzoneSimple BTA placement that can smooth flow around the hands. (Photo: Kurt Hoy)<\/p>\n

Late 2000s: Round bottles migrate horizontally between the forearms. Done right, a single BTA can be neutral or even slightly helpful by smoothing flow around the fists and giving the head a \u201cwall\u201d to hide behind. Done wrong (too wide, too low), it\u2019s just a sail.<\/p>\n

\"BeforeBefore his double BTA made a debut, Lieto was rocking this power position (Photo: Paul Phillips)<\/p>\n

Double\u2011stacks: The Chris Lieto era popularized two bottles between the arms. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes brutal. The result depends on rider width, yaw, and whether the helmet stays tucked behind the tops of the bottles.<\/p>\n

\"TheIntegration pushes right up to the no-fairings line.<\/p>\n

Integration & bladders: Frames and nose\u2011cones flirt with internal bladders and sculpted fronts (see: CAT Cheetah<\/a>, Badmann). They preview today\u2019s clean cockpits but also push against the spirit of \u201cno fairings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today: BTA is a system<\/a>, not a bottle. Athletes pair modest tilt, narrow elbows, and a single front reservoir that\u2019s placed to help shield the face \u2013 and act as a legal fairing. Most rule sets are explicit that hydration must be functional (drinkable) rather than a shaped cover; integration is welcome. Finally, over 30 years: The fastest setups make hydration serve the position, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

The flat\u2011arm era: fast on camera, not always in Kona (mid\u201190s to ~2010)
\n\"VinemanHands below elbows \u2013 fast on camera, not always in air.<\/p>\n

As innovative as Scott Tinley was in the 80s, he turned a bit more fashion avant-garde in the 90s and started a new trend of flat arms. This was a purely aesthetic option that was thought of as fast but really failed most wind tunnel tests. TV loved a low, flat silhouette. Early bike fitters prized hip\u2011angle preservation over head shelter, and most aerobars in this era simply couldn\u2019t tilt much (or at all). The look spread: hands eventually went below elbows, forearms were angled down (thinking it was faster to get the hands lower), chin out in clean air. Icons of the time \u2013 world\u2011class riders like Michellie Jones<\/a>, Julie Dibens<\/a>, and Chris Lieto<\/a> \u2013 went blisteringly fast anyway, because engines matter.<\/p>\n

We later realized that riding with hands below elbows created a ton of extra drag. Meanwhile, a few contrarians (Bj\u00f6rn Andersson and pockets of age\u2011group tinkerers) were already sneaking in elbow squeeze and modest tilt, planting seeds for a pivot that would take another decade to bloom.<\/p>\n

Hardware catches up: 3D printing changes everything
\n\"LucyAdvances in 3D printing have lead to an evolution in custom aerobars, like Lucy Charles-Barclay\u2019s 2023 Ironman World Championship setup. (Photo: Brad Kaminski)<\/p>\n

By the mid\u20112010s, consumer\/hobby 3D printers and cheap scanning blew the doors off cockpit iteration. Fitters and small shops could print arm cups, tilt wedges, bridge pieces, and even one\u2011piece mono\u2011posts overnight, ride\u2011test them the next day, then send the winning shapes to be laid up in carbon.<\/p>\n

A cottage industry sprang up \u2013 boutiques like Uniqo<\/a> building truly custom cockpits that start life as printed prototypes and end as molded composites \u2013 so the hardware finally kept pace with what the wind (and fitters) were asking for. This is a big reason the high\u2011hands\/low\u2011head \u201cmantis\u201d made a rapid comeback: The parts now existed to make it comfortable, stiff, and legal.<\/p>\n

Course correction: the comeback of high hands (2010s to today)<\/p>\n

\"BjornElbows in, slight tilt, head hidden \u2013 foreshadowing modern shapes.<\/p>\n

Two things changed: testing<\/a> and tools<\/a>. Field testing aerodynamics with affordable power meters, more accessible tunnels\/CFD, and thousands of race photos on social media made it obvious that forearms can act like fairings for the head. At the same time, tilt wedges, deep arm cups, mono\u2011posts, and then hobby\u2011printer prototypes let athletes make that shape comfortable. The modern \u201cmantis\u201d isn\u2019t a gimmick; it\u2019s a recipe: narrow elbows, modest extension tilt, shoulders shrugged, head tucked into the pocket.<\/p>\n

\"TheHigh-hands silhouette returns to the mainstream.<\/p>\n

Look at Gustav Iden and Joe Skipper in recent seasons \u2013 hands up, face hidden, bottles placed to help the posture rather than fight it. A decade earlier, the author was already there \u2013 racing a pronounced mantis with stacked front hydration, then winning Ironman Lake Placid 2011<\/a> on a 1996 Zipp 2001<\/a> beam bike using DIY arm supports (yes, \u201cnut cups\u201d and soccer shinguards) after debuting the look on his 2009 Triathlete magazine cover. He didn\u2019t invent the idea, but he dragged it back into the mainstream. The result is not just lower coefficient of aerodynamic drag (CdA); it\u2019s a position you can actually hold for 180km while eating, drinking, and steering.<\/p>\n

\"GustavForearms as fairings, head hidden between the fists. (Photo: Brad Kaminski)
\nOutliers & oddities that moved the goalposts
\n\"LikeMonobar minimalism to narrow the rider \u2013 way ahead of its time. (Photo: Lois Schwartz)<\/p>\n

Erin Baker\u2019s monobar: A minimalist path to width reduction long before 3D printing was available
\nGudmund Snilstveit\u2019s \u201cUnicorn\u201d: One\u2011sided extension that proved tri\u2019s appetite for fringe solutions (and rider confidence)
\nJoe Skipper bottle fairings: Turning aero-shaped water bottles into pure wind fairings was next level with Skipper\u2019s bottles outside his elbows and under his chest
\nCAT Cheetah & Badmann\u2019s bladders: Early integration that previewed today\u2019s legal\u2011but\u2011clean hydration. These weren\u2019t mass\u2011market successes, but each asked a useful question, and the mainstream answered years later.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next (and what rules will allow)<\/p>\n

Expect more 3D\u2011printed, rider\u2011specific cockpits that combine tilt, cup depth, and grip shape into one rigid unit; smarter BTA reservoirs that are drinkable yet easy to refill on the go; and clearer rule language that distinguishes function from fairing without strangling innovation.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be surprised if transparency tests for front bottles (can you see fluid? can you drink from it while moving?) become commonplace at big events. And for age\u2011groupers, the future is better testing: on\u2011bike sensors and easy field protocols to validate changes outside a tunnel.<\/p>\n

Evolution required<\/p>\n

Triathlon didn\u2019t stumble into aero \u2013 it built it piece by piece. We borrowed a spark from LeMond, yes, but the sport\u2019s constant garage\u2011level iteration created today\u2019s high\u2011hands, low\u2011head look. The lineage from \u201cHi-Tech\u201d Tinley\u2019s experiments to Iden\u2019s cockpit is simple: hide the head, narrow the body, and make hydration serve the position. The rest is just hardware \u2013 and now we finally have the right tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tri didn\u2019t copy aero – it taught it. Here we look at the historic images, oddities, and athletes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,65870,82,65871,65872,62576,65873,54267],"class_list":{"0":"post-118215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-parent_category-gear","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tag-aero","14":"tag-tag-aerodynamics","15":"tag-tag-evergreen","16":"tag-tag-triathlon-aerodynamics","17":"tag-type-article"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}