Q&A Rob Hayles
Since retiring as a pro Rob Hayles has been tinkering in his workshop and building a carbon products business, but he still obsesses over aerodynamics
Cyclist: So, you’ve spent lockdown in the workshop. What have you been working on?
Rob Hayles: Yeah, it’s my happy place. I wouldn’t be allowed in any other workplace because I need loud music all the time. I started doing carbon bike repairs a while ago to slot in with my commentary commitments, and that has now become Carbon Concepts.
It’s essentially anything involving the carbon atom, and isn’t just bike parts. I’ve done jewellery, including rings with the Worlds bands on them, and a Campagnolo Super Record wine bottle holder. One of my visions is to go into furniture.
Cyc: We love seeing you post your creations on Instagram. When did you start working with carbon?
RH: One of the very first things I made was an aero fairing around the spacers below my stem that I bonded together from an old Specialized Tri-spoke wheel. I’ve always tinkered with my bikes, though. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000 I formed the extensions on my tri bars because I wasn’t happy with what we were supplied with. I also learned a lot working for the Secret Squirrel team at British Cycling alongside Chris Boardman and Dimitris Katsanis, who designed the UK Sports Institute bike, doing windtunnel testing on bikes and clothing.
Cyc: What did your fellow pros and mechanics make of your handiwork?
RH: It put the mechanics a little on edge. When I was an independent pro and went to ride for GB, Ernie Fairgrieve, who’d been a mechanic since before I started riding, didn’t believe my setup was up to scratch until he tried it out for himself.
As for pros, a lot of them are very mechanically unsympathetic. How many times did we see Bradley Wiggins stand in the road with his chain hanging down? I don’t mean to single him out because there’s an awful lot who haven’t got a clue how a bike works, even though they grew up around them.
Cyc: How did that work out for you when you rode for Cofidis? French teams are notoriously stuck in the past.
RH: They were effectively a highly funded club and some of the thinking was unbelievable. Once the truck was full of Campagnolo Bora wheels but we were riding on these hand-built ones with big Vittoria tubs while the other teams had Zipp 404s. When I asked if I could use the Boras they said no because there would be some pavé on
that stage, but it was only a 60m stretch with 70km to go. When I argued the point, they replied, ‘Well, are you going to win?’ I was like, ‘Not on these, I’m not.’
At Paris-roubaix that same year we had a pre-race meeting, but because I didn’t speak French at the time I had to ask [teammate] David Millar what was said. He replied, ‘Just see you at the finish, lads.’ When I asked what I should do, he looked at me and said, ‘Survive.’
Cyc: Do you think those teams have finally learned their lesson?
RH: When Thibaut Pinot shocked everyone and won a time-trial a few years back, people thought [French team] FDJ were up to something. And they were – they finally looked like a proper team with the kit and the skinsuits. No wonder they made massive gains. People on the outside think pro teams are on a level playing field but a lot of them don’t have a clue.
All through 2008 I wore a skinsuit and early in the season guys were laughing at me, but I went through more sets of brake blocks than ever that year because I was carrying more speed. Max Sciandri was our sports director at the Tour of Britain that year and said Danilo Di Luca and Alessandro Petacchi had asked why I wore it. I said, ‘Tell them that yesterday, when they were in the wheels pedalling and I overtook them in the wind freewheeling, that’s why.’
He looked at me for a second and said, ‘OK.’ He’d only just understood.
Even before the London Games we were doing wind-tunnel tests with a Worldtour rider in their team’s full aero kit and bike. After we switched them to a UK Sports Institute road bike, skinsuit, overshoes, gloves and helmet – which barely fitted, it was perched on like they were Harold Lloyd – we had 15% gains. Dimitris was doing backflips, going,
‘Oh my God, that’s five bike lengths over 250 metres.’
And this was just in basically a shed in Southampton with one of the highest paid riders from a big budget team.
Cyc: Where do you think the easy wins are for us amateurs to make gains then?
RH: Body position is the biggest part.
It’s probably about 80% of the overall picture. Get narrower bars for a start because it’s a myth that they need to be shoulder width for breathing. It’s about your frontal area. We’ve seen the praying mantis position come back in time-trials, and for good reason – the thing used to be to get really low but that tends to open your shoulders and pop your head up. Position is the cheapest, easiest and biggest factor in finding aero gains. I cry sometimes looking back at my positioning when I finished fourth in
‘People on the outside think pro teams are on a level playing field but a lot of them don’t have a clue’
the individual pursuit in Sydney. If I’d known then what I know now it could have been so different.
Another big thing is clothing. A lot of people wear wool these days and it looks great but it’s not aerodynamic. A simple, fitted skinsuit makes a big difference and also a change in helmet because these things are massive with loads of vents that are essentially an air brake slowing you down.
Cyc: Do you still go full aero these days?
RH: I ride now just to enjoy it, so generally no. But put a number on my back and I’ll be all over it.