2006 Tour de France Winner Floyd Landis Tested in San Diego’s Wind Tunnel

San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Technology Center’s crew does it again!

(July 26, 2006) - The staff at the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Technology Center has been giving each other high-fives since professional cyclist and Murrieta resident Floyd Landis won the Tour de France on Sunday.

In February of this year, Landis paid a visit to the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Wind Tunnel located on Pacific Highway for two days of wind tunnel testing. His team director, personal coach, as well as technical consultants from the United States, Switzerland, and New Zealand supported Landis on the test.

The primary objective of this wind tunnel test was to find the optimum position for Landis on his high-tech time trial bicycle. The optimum position is defined as the one that would give him the least amount of drag but would allow him to still generate his maximum power output, thus optimizing his “power-to-drag” ratio. The secondary objective of this test was to determine the fastest equipment to be used on his bicycle. Everything from various types of wheels to a carbon fiber aerodynamic water bottle was tested.

The drag reductions found during this wind tunnel test saved Landis approximately 60 seconds for each of the two Tour de France individual time trials. While this might not sound like a substantial amount of time for a race that covered over 2200 miles and required over 89 hours to complete, it is worth noting that his overall margin of victory was only 57 seconds!

The wind tunnel staff is very proud of Landis’ victory and takes great pride in knowing they played a small role in helping this hometown hero win his first Tour de France. The staff looks forward to helping him win many more in the future!

Additional information about the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s wind tunnel can be found at www.lswt.com.