British riders explain the reason for the dents on the front of their jerseys during the World Championship team time trial

The British team time trial team explained the reason for the unusual dents on the front of their jerseys at the World Championships.

During the second edition of the TTT Mixed Relay Worlds in Flanders, Wednesday 22 September, race commentators for GCN Rob Hatch and Michael Hutchinson noticed the shapes on the torsos of the British, speculating on the reasoning.

Speaking after the arrival in Bruges, the British cycling team confirmed that they have chosen to place their racing radios on the front of the jerseys, rather than their usual place in the back pocket of a wetsuit, at both for safety and aerodynamic reasons.

Team leader Dan Bigham said: “Well it’s really double, more on the safety side – obviously you never want to crash, but if you crash with the radio on your back , it really hurts.

“It’s also not very good aerodynamically and it’s just a better place to put it. Have you ever tried to put a radio behind your back? ”

Joss Lowden, one of the driving forces behind Team TTT’s women’s team, joked: “I like to put it forward because I like to feel better endowed.

As to whether innovation is allowed under strict UCI time trial rules, Alex Dowsett said: “You can put it anywhere and we put it on our front because it has a big bump at the back where the airflow is quite strong.

“The UCI controls us from the start, they also control the bikes before we get to the start, they look us up and down and at the end of the day they let us go down the start ramp or they don’t. not.

The British were one of the strongest first teams to face the 44km mixed TTT in Belgium, but eventually slipped to fifth place as Germany claimed a dominant victory, the Netherlands and Italy. winning silver and bronze respectively.

>>> The Australian federation provides an update on the investigation into the failure of the handlebars that caused the Olympic accident in Tokyo

Following their bronze medal in the first mixed relay of the 2019 Worlds, Great Britain finished the 2021 race 55 seconds off the gold medal and 17 seconds slower than the podium places.