It’s less than two weeks until her first race of the year, Ironman New Zealand, and Mirinda Carfrae is spending her recovery day on a bike. In a wind tunnel. With a bunch of gear-heads. It’s her first time ever in a wind tunnel, and she’s here with her new sponsor, Felt Bicycles.

“We’re here to help her,” said Jim Felt, on hand to oversee the day with his characteristic attentiveness. “We’re going to find stuff out today that we can use to her advantage.”

Carfrae got on her new Felt DA bike in early January, which she says was set up for her exactly like her previous bike. She says making the transition wasn’t difficult at all. “I took it out for a four-hour ride and had no soreness at all,” she said. “This bike gives me a bit of a smoother ride; it absorbs more of the road.”

With data from this morning’s wind tunnel session, the goal, of course, is to make her more aerodynamic without sacrificing comfort on those 112-mile races. With seemingly endless tweaking, data gathering, and even a run to purchase a new chain for the “test-purposes-only” DA, the speed demon will be on the road to beating those Kona winds like never before. 

Check out this video from the day as well.

Photos by Mark Barber