Snowflake and USA Cycling Partner on Data for LA28 Olympics

Four riders, taking turns at the front to shield their teammates from the wind. Four thousand meters. Sixteen blisteringly fast laps. In Paris, the U.S. women’s team pursuit squad won the country’s first gold in the event — a mere six-tenths of a second ahead of New Zealand. Behind that narrow margin were two years of preparation. Through Project 4:05, USA Cycling studied how to get four riders around the track in less than four minutes and five seconds: who should lead, for how long and in what order. “We completely deconstructed it to every variable possible,” says Brendan Quirk, CEO of USA Cycling. “Power, aerodynamics, what the sequencing is of the riders, how many laps each…