Little Things Matter

Congrats to KYGO, Denver, for being named R&R Country Station of the Year two weeks ago in Cleveland. Their great staff exhibits terrific attention to detail, as exemplified by their PD Joel Burke, who accepted the award and relayed this story to us:

In the off season, Lance Armstrong decided to be the first cycling team to utilize a wind tunnel to increase performance. Most industry insiders thought that this was "overkill" and scoffed at the idea.

In these tests, Lance and his team (dubbed the F1 team - meaning "Formula 1") discovered just how much little things (head placement, eyes looking straight ahead, not bouncing on the seat, etc) can dramatically slow down his team's overall performance. One surprising discovery was the surface construction of the actual cycling suit that the riders wear. This was completely taken for granted...until now. Lance discovered that the traditional suit was causing as much as two seconds of wind drag. No big deal...right? It's only 2 seconds. The Tour de France last for 26 days and covers over 2200 miles.

Nike then designed a racing suit that mimicked the golf ball in design...it had "dimples". "Dimples", on the surface of a golf ball, cause the ball to have significantly less wind drag and propel through the air faster. So...Lance's team was the only team on the tour to wear suites with "dimples".

Last week...in the team time trials...Lance's team, Team Discovery won the stage by...that's right, 2 seconds giving Lance the yellow jersey for the first time in the Tour De France.