AiRO in the News!
AiRO in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: What Pro Aero Tells Us About Fitting Every Rider
During this year's Tour de France time trial, one of Germany's most respected newspapers — the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, with a readership of over a million — reached out to our founder Ingmar Jungnickel to explain the science behind how pro cyclists beat the wind.
We're proud of the feature, and it got us thinking: the same principles Ingmar described at the WorldTour level apply directly to the athletes bike fitters work with every day.
Wie schützen sich Tour-de-France-Fahrer vor dem Wind?
The gap between pro and amateur isn't the physics — it's the access
What makes aerodynamics fascinating is that the underlying science doesn't change based on who's riding. The drag penalty for a poorly optimized position is the same whether the athlete is racing the Tour or training for a local gran fondo. What has historically changed is who could afford to measure it.
Wind tunnels, dedicated team aerodynamicists, €18,000 custom skinsuit prototypes — these exist in the WorldTour because teams have the budgets to support them. But the watts saved by finding the right position aren't exclusive to riders with those resources. The opportunity has always been there. The tools just weren't.
That's the gap AiRO was built to close. CFD-based aerodynamic analysis, delivered in minutes from a bike fit session, brings the same methodology that shapes Tour de France performance to fitters working with amateur athletes, age groupers, and everyday cyclists.
Why position is always the starting point
Ingmar has spent his career making this case, and the physics keep proving him right: the rider is a far larger aerodynamic variable than the equipment. No amount of frame optimization changes that. A fitter who understands aerodynamics and has the tools to quantify it is offering something a bike shop or equipment upgrade simply can't replicate.
That's the conversation the FAZ piece opens up — and it's the conversation we think every serious bike fitter should be having with their athletes.
Curious what CFD analysis looks like inside a fit session? [Book a demo → airo.app/calendar]
