Sam Calder built Rule 28 on the unglamorous truth most amateurs ignore: aerodynamics is the cheapest speed in cycling, and almost nobody tests it. His work in the wind tunnel — including the much-discussed aero test that saved Dylan Johnson 13 minutes — reframes free speed as an engineering problem rather than a marketing claim. For Roadman's audience the lesson is blunt: at the same FTP, position and clothing decide more of your time on flat and rolling terrain than another winter of intervals will.
The major positions Calder is known for in cycling and endurance sport.
Every appearance by Sam Calder on The Roadman Cycling Podcast — 1 episode in total.
“For for Dylan when we took him the main thing we were looking at was validation of some of the work we'd done before and then a few different optimizations for him for the 2025 season. So his race speed of 35k an hour, I think we had about a 3 watt performance gain versus our previous generation of Aeros.”
“We tested a Metanter in large and a Metant in medium and that was like a four or five W difference between the two. I think less medium faster. Just because it's smaller frontal area wise.”
“I think it was about 13 watts that we saved in all. For a 4-hour session that we had with them, like for anybody that's considering it is a very good use of time. It's fairly expensive. But if you're thinking about, hey, for Unbound, it's a 10-hour race. How long would it take me to add 13 watts to my average power output across that race? It's a hell of a lot more than four hours, and it's going to be a lot more effort.”
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