‘Cyclors’ Bring Pedal Power to America’s Cup Sailboat Races

Inside a sleek racing sailboat, a cyclist pedals furiously. His breathing crescendos as outside, the wind whips a giant sail thrust skyward. Waves jut beneath the boat, which rides fast on extended foils.

This is America’s Cup, one of the world’s premier sailboat races. And now, a proving ground for top cyclists and other athletes that power the hyper-modern, super-efficient crafts.

The America’s Cup ended last week. The New York Yacht Club’s American Magic team and Patriot boat made it through the double round-robin stage but got knocked out in the semi-finals by Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team. But this isn’t a story about the racing. It’s about the strange, brutally strenuous new role on the America’s Cup crews called “cyclor.”

This job, partially filled by talented cyclists, is maybe the most bizarre new job in sports: cyclists, known as “cyclors” in sailing parlance, replace grinders on hand cranks.

A rule change for this year’s edition of the America’s Cup mandated a crew reduction from 11 to eight. Organizers allowed cycling instead of grinding for the smaller teams. Four cyclors pedaled recumbent stationary bikes aboard the Patriot to pressurize a hydraulic system that controls the foils, sails, and rudder.

As a lifelong cyclist, I was curious about the intersection of cycling and sailing. To scratch my own itch, I contacted American Magic sponsor SRAM, who put me in touch with a cyclor on the team. Read along for a beginner’s guide on the America’s Cup and a look inside the boat, team, and how cycling changed high-end sailing. 

Rule Change Allows Cyclors

For most of the 173-year history of the America’s Cup, the vision of sailboat racing included the grinders. These muscular team members ferociously turned hand cranks as other sailors manipulated booms, ropes, and other hardware to optimize forward propulsion or change direction.

But every edition of the race brings the opportunity for wholesale changes to the rules, location, and boat design parameters. The winning team dictates the location and sections of the rules of engagement for the next edition. The last America’s Cup was held in 2021. Emirates Team New Zeland took home the Auld Mug (trophy for America’s Cup).

As the “defender” of the 2024 edition of the regatta, this team mandated Barcelona, Spain, as the location. It also chose to maintain the 75-foot-long AC75 vessels. These monohull foiling boats made their debut in the 2021 regatta held in Auckland, New Zealand. However, Emirates Team New Zealand also reduced the crew size by three.

To offset the crew reduction, Emirates Team New Zealand announced the return of cyclors, which were last seen in 2017.

What Do Cyclors Power in America’s Cup?

Play

In 2013, the same America’s Cup team from New Zealand raced a 72-foot catamaran. For the first time ever, a boat levitated above the water via foils, and the hull no longer dragged in the water. This flying catamaran changed yacht racing forever.

These foils are massive and heavy. Moving them underwater while bearing the weight of the boat at speed requires power that is beyond the capacity of simple mechanics under human power. Electronically actuated hydraulic cylinders drive these foils and other critical structures in the yachts. Cyclors work to create the pressure required to drive the hydraulic fluid that moves the critical components.

“We’re finding that cyclors bring much more power to the table,” says Ben Day, American Magic’s performance lead. “Cycling uses much bigger muscle groups; therefore, they can produce more power than arm grinders. And with the new AC75 regulations of reducing crew numbers (eight sailors total), we need to find that power in other ways. So, most teams are looking at cyclors at this stage. Glutes, quads, and hamstrings can produce more explosive power and more power for a longer sustained period,” Day continued in an interview for Sailing World.

A main design challenge for the AC75 flying monohulls was the placement of cyclors. Additionally, a decision had to be made to prioritize aerodynamics using recumbent bicycles or prevent potential power losses by keeping the cyclors upright.

The American Magic Patriot

The New York Yacht Club and the impressively large American Magic staff (150 members) decided to put the cyclors beneath the deck of the Patriot for aerodynamics. Also, the team switched from upright stationary bikes to recumbent versions to drop the deck height further to again reduce aerodynamic drag.

These four cyclors sat cramped beneath the deck, facing aft. Their furious pedaling created hydraulic fluid pressure that was stored in a tank and used during staging and racing for each regatta match. The accumulator tank could not be “topped off,” and the pedaling resistance increased as the tank became fuller.

John Croom, an American Magic cyclor for this year’s America’s Cup, stated that with continual training in the recumbent position, his power numbers eventually equaled the ones he posted while cycling in a standard, upright position.

American Magic guards much of the design parameters regarding the cyclors and recumbent bikes. The team considers its arrangement to be a competitive advantage.

American Magic Cyclor Recruitment

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by American Magic (@americanmagicteam)

With the rules change, choice of recumbent bikes, and Day’s 12-year history as a professional cyclist, it’s no surprise that American Magic pried the cycling world for the horsepower that would drive Patriot.

In a way, recruiting cyclists for sailing seems simpler than for professional cycling. In bicycle racing, teams must consider cyclists’ power-to-weight ratios, as going uphill is a significant portion of racing. Another equally important factor is the rider’s coefficient of aerodynamic drag (CdA).

These two factors explain why WorldTour cyclists are relatively lightweight and small and adhere to single-digit body fat percentages. But none of this matters nearly as much under the deck of a yacht.

“At the end of the day, the goal is to produce the highest absolute watts that we possibly can. So it’s no longer watts per kilogram; it’s not watts per CdA, it’s just absolute watts. And that’s what we’re chasing here,” said Day on a TrainingPeaks CoachCast podcast.

However, the America’s Cup rule book states that the eight-person crew must weigh between 1,499 and 1,543 pounds, complicating matters. American Magic found the perfect candidates: track cyclists John Croom and Ashton Lambie.

John Croom

Croom is an ex-football player and wrestler from South Carolina who started track cycling in 2014. He moved to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2017. That year, he won his first U.S. National Championship. Eventually, Croom would win two more National Championships, the Pan American Games, and earn a national record in the Team Pursuit.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by John Croom (@johnccroom)

American Magic contacted Croom in 2021 as he formulated a plan to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games. He seized the opportunity to switch careers as qualifying for the Olympics seemed like a low-odds proposition at the time.

Ashton Lambie

Ashton Lambie is an eclectic figure and had an equally eclectic professional cycling career, spanning track to gravel racing.

Somehow adept at conquering the disparate demands of track cycling and endurance racing, Lambie was the first to go under 4 minutes in the 4,000m individual pursuit. He later competed in 1,000+ mile ultra-endurance gravel races.

And, among other significant laurels, including National Track Championships, World Track Championships, and Pan American Track Championships, Lambie also held the record for cycling across his home state of Kansas.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ashton Lambie (@bahamalongbottom)

The adopted Texan, like Croom, was unsure of his cycling future when sponsor SRAM informed him of its involvement with the American Magic squad and suggested that he look into it. He failed to make the cut in a training camp in Pensacola, Fla., in early 2023, but he continued training and made the team later that year.

Like Croom, Lambie swapped velodromes for the open ocean. He joined Croom in Barcelona for the 2024 American Magic 37th America’s Cup campaign.

Interestingly, Croom was ordered not to gain weight, while Lambie had to work hard to gain significant mass.

The Demands of Racing Aboard Patriot

As an endurance-oriented cyclist, hearing from Croom about the physical demands of racing aboard Patriot was astounding.

Croom stated that it’s akin to climbing a 25-30-minute hill in an all-out effort. But someone else is changing the gears without your knowledge or input. And the power Croom and Lambie shell out in this intense interval was mind-boggling to me.

“The standard that we’re looking at at the moment is for over 1,000 watts for 30 seconds, over 540 watts for four minutes, and 440 to 450 watts for the 20-minute mark,” Day stated.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tadej Pogačar (@tadejpogacar)

For context, this year’s Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and Road World Championship winner Tadej Pogačar reportedly had a Functional Threshold Power (FTP, the theoretical power one can sustain for an hour) of 415 W right before the World Championships in October. This theoretically puts his 20-minute power at 437 W.

During the 2024 World Championships, Pogačar launched an attack that produced a peak 4-minute power output of 550 W. This move earned him the 2024 World Road Race Champion title.

These comparisons to the most dominant WorldTour professional cyclist support that American Magic cyclors are indeed world-class engines for the Patriot.

Sailing x Cycling Future

During my interview with Croom, the entire American Magic team was packing up and dispersing to their homes across the globe. They had all been stationed in Barcelona for a very extended time. Croom expressed the need to rest and recover. But equally palpable was the desire to “get them next time.”

The years-long effort culminated in an exit in round 8 with a 3 to 5 score against Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in a first-to-five-point series. The United States is the winningest country in America’s Cup history, notching 30 victories. Croom’s desire to re-establish the winning ways through future involvement in sailing was the subject of much of our talk.

“American Magic changed my life,” he said emphatically. Croom stated that a much more professional organization had transformed his somewhat “sketchy” future in cycling into something more sustainable for his family and himself. Lambie has expressed similar sentiments on his social media.

Having lived life as a marginal cyclist but always with dreams of somehow pedaling my way to a sustainable existence, my heart was filled with joy for Croom and Lambie after this call. I am now an avid follower of the America’s Cup and the American Magic team. Knowing that unseen, under the deck, there are cyclists giving their all in superhuman efforts is an undeniable connection.