Meet the cyclors: Why Olympic cyclists and rowers like Hamish Bond are competing in sailing's America's Cup
Technology advances and rule changes for the 37th America's Cup in Barcelona resulted in a mass recruitment of power athletes and Olympic gold medallists. Here's why.
The 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona has a distinctly Olympic look.
While sailing Olympic medallists are once again dotted throughout the teams, crews for the sport's oldest competition this year also feature several Olympic cycling and rowing stars, like Simon van Velthooven and Hamish Bond.
They are known as cyclors, given the job of powering the sails, masts, and winches, with their explosive raw strength.
The development of sailing cyclors
The cyclor’s job used to be done by sailors using arm-powered grinders.
But in 2017, the innovative New Zealand crew spotted an opportunity to gain an advantage over their rivals. Knowing that legs produce more power than arms, they recruited Olympic cyclist Van Velthooven, who won keirin bronze at London 2012, to help power their boat using a static pedalling system.
It was a huge success with the Kiwis sealing victory in Bermuda thanks to a reported 30% increase in watts produced by their cyclors.
That technology was outlawed in 2021, but a rule change for the 2024 edition meant that cyclors were allowed back in the boats.
A recruitment drive for Olympic athletes who don’t suffer from seasickness ensued with triple Olympic rowing champion and cycling national time trial champion Hamish Bond joining his nation’s team.
Elsewhere, former cycliing pursuit world champion Ashton Lambie is peddling for the American Magic crew, and the nature of the work has had a dramatic effect on his appearance.
"Even by cycling standards I was a fairly big guy, I am moderately well known for having big legs and they've gotten bigger since I've come here," Lambie told BBC Sport.
"During my racing career I was probably between 70 and 74kg, and now I've gained over 10kg. Most of it is muscle, and I've also gained watts. It's been a really big change.
America's Cup: The Formula 1 of the sea
The America’s Cup yachts operate at the intersection between physical prowess and advanced technology. As such, cyclors can track their progress on a screen below the deck showing their data.
While some teams positioned their cyclors upright, others have them lying flat in an attempt to maximise their watt output.
Given how much technology and investment is put into the America’s Cup boats, it’s easy to see why it is known as the Formula 1 of the sea.
It therefore also makes sense that the INEOS Britannia team, led by sailing Olympic champions Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher, share their UK base with the Mercedes F1 team and utilise that expertise.
Interestingly, the Brits prefer Olympic rowers to power their boat, like Rio 2016 gold medal-winning Matt Gotrel, Olympic silver medallist Harry Leask, Matt Rossiter and Ryan Todhunter.
The onboard support crew features several more sailing Olympic champions in Giles Scott as Head of Sailing, and Australia's Iain Jensen as Trimmer Support, while Spain’s Xabi Fernandez is a coach.
Competing in the America’s Cup has made Thery Schir come full circle.
After attending a sailing school on the banks of Lake Geneva, he discovered a love for cycling. He competed at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 on two wheels for Switzerland before transitioning back to become a cyclor for the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing team in the America's Cup.
As an experienced Olympic athlete, he found many similarities between the two sports.
“It actually didn’t differ that much in terms of physical performance. I would say you try to be an endurance athlete but still with a strong capacity to deliver a high power output,” he told Sail World.
“The biggest difference for me was to gain weight and power. For a normal cyclist, it’s usually not very good, but for a cyclor it’s good to be heavy. The main difference is that on a road bike you have to carry your own weight. On the boat, it’s all about pure power. Nothing relative to your body weight.”
To add an extra layer of complexity to maintaining weight as a cyclor, athletes can lose up to three litres of water on a gruelling race day, that seperate the sport from anything he has experienced previously as an Olympian.
“The heat management will be a key component of the performance on the boat. For a 30-minute race you really need to control your hydration from the morning to the evening to make sure you’re not running out of energy. So, ice jackets, ice socks and cold baths after sailing!”
Crews are competing in the Louis Vuitton Cup from 29 August to 7 October, to battle for a place in the 37th America's Cup Match, which takes place from 12 to 27 October.
