Reliability and sensitivity of the Notio Konect to quantify coefficient of drag area in elite track cyclists

Elite level cycling events are performed at speeds in excess of 50 km/h. At these speeds, over 90% of the resistance forces come from aerodynamic resistance (C D A). Recently bicycle‐mounted pitot tubes, such as the Notio Konect (NK) have become more commercially available making C D A easier to measure. Its reliability and sensitivity would be useful for riders and coaches to be able to understand what constitutes as a change in C D A. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to establish the intra‐ and inter‐effort reliability and sensitivity of the C D A measures of the NK. Seven elite level track riders were used in this study which was broken into two parts: (1) Reliability and (2) Sensitivity. For both parts of the experiment, riders performed identical efforts, riding at ∼50 km/h for six laps of a 250 m indoor velodrome. For reliability, the riders performed six efforts without any changes in position or resistance. For sensitivity, they performed the efforts with a rod with discs of a known diameters attached at each end to vary the C D A by a known amount. For the reliability assessment, low coefficient of variation of intra – (0.47%) and inter‐effort (0.9%) reliability were measured. With regards to sensitivity, the smallest changes in resistance (from 5 – 6 cm, i.e. 1.2% or 0.002 m 2 ) was identified by the NK. The data in this experiment suggests that the NK is a highly reliable in measuring C D A can detect changes up to at least 1.2% in an indoor velodrome using elite level track riders. Highlights The Notio Konect showed high levels of inter‐ and intra‐effort reliability. The Notio Konect could detect a change as small as 1.2% in aerodynamic drag. The findings suggest that the Notio Konect is suitable for detecting small changes in aerodynamic drag in a velodrome setting.