Red Bull, it appears, does indeed give you wings; provided the Red Bull in question isn’t an energy drink, but rather nine of the world’s best cyclists from Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe.
In a history-making event, the WorldTour team launched a piloted glider plane into the air, using only the power in their legs.
The achievement, revealed today but plotted over more than a year, came as part of a team building exercise in Mallorca, Spain, and involved nine riders charging in “husky format” down a runway, explained Dan Bigham, the team’s head of engineering.
“We’ve done something momentous,” Bigham said. “The project was the culmination of a lot of experienced engineers and aerodynamicists, and obviously some pretty amazing athletes at the same time.”
After two trials in Austria, nine of the team’s riders were selected to take on the stunt in Mallorca: Adrien Boichis, Nico Denz, Davide Donati, Florian Lipowitz, Jordi Meeus, Laurence Pithie, Gijs Schoonvelde, Callum Thornley, and Tim van Dijke.
The riders’ bikes were connected with a harness, which in turn attached to the plane by a 150m cord – akin to the reindeers pulling Santa’s sleigh.
In his calculations, Bigham analysed the lift and drag of the plane, taking into account the air speed, weather conditions and power requirements of the riders.
The minimum speed to get the plane off the ground, he worked out, was around 45-50kph, “and then really it’s a question of how much energy we can put into it. About 500-550 [watts, per rider] will get the plane airborne, and then anything we can stick above into that plane is going to get it higher and higher and higher. It’s really simple maths.”
In the end, the nine riders peaked at a combined total of 6,500 watts – around 722 watts per person – averaging 650 watts each over the 90-second effort. The plane, piloted by Andy Hediger, reached 100 vertical metres.
“[It proves] that our maths, our science that we use to optimise time trial, team time trial, road race performance can also be used to optimise something that’s absolutely history-making in pulling a plane into the air,” Bigham said.
“Projects like this, firstly we’ve made history, but secondly they are game-changing, they completely change the paradigm of sport. Sport is entertainment when it comes down to it, and this is some of the purest, most unique entertainment that you will ever come across.”
Among those who powered the take-off was 22-year-old Brit Thornley, who will turn pro with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in 2026.
“It’s a bit mental, to be honest,” Thornley said after the effort. “When they first presented the project, we were all together as a team and they showed us this powerpoint, and it seemed a bit impossible, it just looked too good to be true.”
Thornley’s team-mate Pithie said he first heard about the idea a year ago. “It was a super-cool project,” the New Zealander said. “Teamwork makes the dream work and we made the dream work today.”
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