SKIN SUIT COLLABORATION CONTRIBUTES TO PARIS CYCLING SUCCESS
Article from High Performance Sport New Zealand : Inspiring Stories . March 2025
In the first of a three-part series, we reveal the details behind some of the technical innovations that led to New Zealand’s outstanding success at Paris 2024.
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In any sport where wind resistance is a factor, to go faster you need to reduce drag. Achieving it is the challenge, even more so when time is short.
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That was the scenario facing HPSNZ’s Goldmine Innovation team and Cycling NZ in their quest to find critical performance gains for New Zealand’s track cyclists as they headed to Paris 2024.
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A truncated cycle following Tokyo meant it was a very compressed journey to find that performance edge says HPSNZ’s Head of Innovation, Simon Briscoe.
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“It took an amazing collaborative effort between HPSNZ, Cycling NZ, our technology garment manufacturing partner, One Studio, and support from a philanthropic funder to get skin suits designed, tested, assessed and accredited in less than a year,” says Simon.
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That tri-party collaboration contributed to New Zealand’s best ever results on the cycling track in Paris. But it is the story behind those results which is less well known.
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With a fast-closing window of opportunity, one of the first decisions was to assess what areas could be identified within the time and budget available to find the performance gains needed for podium success.
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Technology garment manufacturer, One Studio, was asked if they were interested in making cycling skin suits for the Paris campaign as they were seen as relatively low hanging fruit to obtain critical performance gains.
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One Studio lead designer, Dave Stewart, takes up the story. “Although we had worked on garments for the NZ Alpine ski cross team, Yachting NZ’s foiling category sailors, triathlon athletes and sprint kayaking, my initial reaction to the cycling brief was to say no,” says Dave.
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“However I love cycling so decided to take more of a look at the challenge but on one condition – we had to clearly understand the role a skin suit played for cyclists and get buy-in on what we believed was a very important criteria and that was the individualisation of suits for each cyclist.”
At about this time in the project, Cycling NZ brought on board Tim Crouch as its Systems Engineer. “Tim is acknowledged as one of the few cycling aerodynamic specialists in the world so having him as part of the group, as well as other members of the Cycling NZ team and the HPSNZ Goldmine Innovation team created an amazingly talented, focussed and committed group of experts,” says Dave.
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With a background in aerospace engineering and aerodynamics, Tim is responsible for a systems delivery package for the high performance cycling programme.
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“I joined Cycling NZ at the very start of 2023 but we had a deadline for new systems, equipment or clothing for the Glasgow World Champs in August that year when we would need to have any new gear assessed and accredited by the international cycling body, UCI,” says Tim.
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“This meant we had some very important decisions to make quickly. Given the time constraints, the big question was what parts of the system would give us the biggest uplift in performance.
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“We identified the need to design a fast skin suit that optimised aerodynamic performance for individual riders and their riding positions. That individualisation was key. Aerodynamics depend on a rider’s shape and position on the bike, both of which are integrally related,” says Tim.
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Once the project parameters were identified, the core group of HPSNZ Goldmine Innovation, manufacturer One Studio and Cycling NZ’s core team pulled together to fast track producing, customising, and testing individualised skin suits.
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The early part of the project saw the team look at garment fabric variables. “Textures, surface roughness, body fit and the contact between the bike seat and skin suit to reduce slide to maintain position were all identified as key factors in producing the most effective skin suits for our cyclists,” says Tim.
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One Studio built suits for every single elite track cyclist and Dave says this meant producing up to eight different skin suits and undershirt combinations to get the garments right.
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Testing of the skin suits was undertaken in the University of Auckland wind tunnel and on the track and the team were excited by the results. But the final challenge was approval and registration by UCI and the IOC at the 2023 Glasgow World Championships.
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When asked how much the skin suits contributed to the cycling team’s success, Tim says it varied from athlete to athlete. “An important part of measuring the performance gains from the suits was based on benchmarking of original suits. We know from both tunnel and track testing that we saw a significant reduction in aerodynamic drag which gave our athletes a much better platform to do what they do best on the biggest stage of all.”
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Working with a local manufacturer was a massive strength given the tight timeframe, says Tim. “We were extremely lucky to work with a manufacturer who understood the whole project, who was totally engaged and whose contribution we believe made it a unique relationship.”
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From HPSNZ’s perspective Simon also has plaudits for Dave and the One Studio team. “Working with a local manufacturer gave us the ability to be nimble and to make changes quickly to keep the programme on track which was critical,” says Simon.
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“One Studio’s historical experience and expertise fitting skiers and elite athletes of other sports meant they understood how to fit suits really well, a process which continued to be refined over time. We simply couldn’t have done it with any other apparel company.”
Dave says the programme for Paris has provided a very solid base for the group to work towards LA 2028. “We have time from the middle of this year into 2026 to try different things, different concepts and different pieces of apparel which we hope will give our cyclists yet another performance edge in 2028.”​