Factor HANZŌTrack helps Aus Cycling to win gold
A little over two years ago, Factor Bikesbegan discussing with Aus Cycling the possibility of developing their trackbike fleet for 2024 and 2028. The initial goal was to have the fastest team pursuitbike ready for Aus Cycling to race in the summer of 2024.
Though development time was tight, bycombining our resources, we succeeded in having the Factor HANZŌ Track pursuitbike paired with ultra-fast Black Inc Zero Track disc wheelsready to race on the biggest stage in the world. The HANZŌ Track isunique in the Factor lineup because it is the first bike we’ve designed wherewe really lead the project initially by using CFD development.
“We spent four to five months just inCFD before we made any prototypes for the wind tunnel and this is a big stepfor us having in house CFD that we could really learn quite a bit about how aproduct will work in real world situations,” Rob Gitelis, Factor Founder andCEO explained. “We did about 50 iterations of carbon fiber layups, we gave AusCycling 4 to 5 of those iteration layups which we then narrowed down to twowhich we then narrowed down to one which is the bike they raced.”
Aus Cycling sets a World Record on theHANZŌ Track
A testament to the engineering excellencebehind the creation of the HANZŌ Track, in the very firstqualifying event on Monday evening at the National Velodrome, Team Australiaset the fastest team pursuit time of 3:42.958. The Australian quartet of OliverBleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy, and KellandO’Brien entered the qualifying round against defending champions Italywith a lot of momentum and full of confidence.
“It has been a bit of a surprise to see42 seconds (3:42.958) to be honest,” Sam Welsford said after the heat. “I wasnot expecting that. We had a lot more to give at the end of that race.” If theysurprised themselves with such a fast opening time and still had gas left inthe tank, then they only confirmed that stellar performance with their resultin the qualifying round.
Racing on the Factor HANZŌ Track with BlackInc ZERO Disc wheelset, the Aus Cycling team got the jump on theItalians from the first moments of the 4 km pursuit event and quickly pulledout a 0.451 advantage in the first half lap. And their lead would only growfrom there. By the 2 km halfway point, it was clear the Aussies were on a worldrecord pace with 1:53:540, which was already 1.289 seconds up on the Italians.
By the time they crossed the finish linewith a time of 3:40.730, Australia had devastated the Italian’s world record,slicing 1.3 seconds off the time set in Tokyo in 2021. They had earned theirspot in the gold medal round, guaranteeing themselves a medal in the teampursuit. The effort also secured Factor Bikes our first world record,validating not only the proof of concept, but all the months of hard work thatour engineers and master carbon craftsmen invested in the project.
Going for the gold
Rolling up to the starting line racingagainst Great Britain, Australia were considered the favorite to win the goldmedal largely because their qualifying time had been over a second faster thanGreat Britain’s. Once the race got underway, the two teams, which have beenfrequent rivals for the top spot of the podium over the decades, hardly hadtwo-tenths of a second between them the entire race.
Once each team got on top of their gearsand up to speed, the Australians was consistently in the lead, butnot enough for comfort. It would all come down to the final half lap of therace to decide who would be the next Olympic champion. Though Australia wasstill leading, a touch of wheels on the British line sealed the deal. TeamAustralia riding the HANZŌ Track, featuring the beautiful designinspired by the Australian Indigenous artist Chern’ee Sutton, won the goldmedal in a thrilling finale.
Gold medal winning bike
In development for two years, the HANZŌTrack was tailor made for the Australian national track team.Optimized according to the latest UCI design regulations, the Factor pursuitbike offers ultra-efficient aerodynamics and maintains supreme rigidity forpower transfer.
