Except the Yaw Angle sweep is for a single speed, which does not necessarily address the question. Lets say you are going 30 mph with no wind, like 0 degrees yaw on the chart you provided. If the wind that is 90 degrees to your direction of travel is turned on, it is not only the yaw angle of the apparent wind that changes, the apparent wind speed also increases.
As an example lets take a rider moving a 30 mph (must be uphill to be going that slow) and turn on a wind at 10 mph wind at 90 degrees. The apparent wind speed would go from 30mph at 0 degrees to 31.6 at 18.4 degrees. So the question is, does the decrease in drag that occurs from a side wind overcome the increase in drag from the higher apparent wind speed?
I’ve also had a PR on my most common ~30 mile training loop on a very windy day. I figured I had one (mostly)
headwind leg, one with the wind at my back, one with the wind coming over my shoulder (net positive) and one coming
over the other shoulder (net negative).
If over the hour and change for the whole ride the wind was weaker, or shifted directions on the legs it wasn’t helping me, I could get
a net benefit from the wind. Or maybe it was what I ate for lunch…
There’s other variables that are not mentioned to “solve” your situation:
Was the windspeed CONSTANT throughout the whole race?
Was the wind direction CONSTANT throughout the whole race?
Was the windspeed/wind direction MEASURED in a quantifiable manner or did you go by FEEL?
Was the windspeed/wind direction MEASURED in a quantifiable manner on the same level that you’re riding on? Note: Some wind measurements are done at x-feet above ground level.
Was your power the same in comparison to your “slower, non-windy” rides?
Was your setup the same in comparison to your “slower, non-windy” rides?
Ceteris paribus, I believe in MOST cases, windy days tend to slow you down. (I said MOST) One of my fastest bike rides was on a windy day but going out, it was a 8 mph “headwind” and coming back, it kicked it up to 18mph “tailwind”. Direction also shifted as we cycled to a different city. However, my power was pretty close to my average.
“It doesn’t matter” was my own conclusion regarding wind on an out and back course. I rode a Thursday night 10 mile TT series for multiple years. As the weather got better each summer, the North wind would increase due to the jet stream. You had a nearly full headwind out and a tailwind back. No matter what the conditions, my times ended up just about the same. I wasn’t using a PM then so can’t compare files but I’ll bet that average power was about the same to boot.
Mentally though, that headwind, when it was 20mph or so, was a killer. You felt like you were just crawling. There were plenty of times where you’d be at full gas going 20mph and then 34mph when you flipped around. I’d rather have the lower wind days than that brutal headwind.
You may be quicker but you will have used more power to go even the same speed on a windy day than on a still one. No matter what crazy ideas you come up with you are not going to beat the laws of physics.
So the laws of physics say it’s not possible to be faster on a windy day on a course in which the headwind sections are sheltered and the tailwind sections are open? Whatever…
No I was answering the OP and the laws of physics would say that it’s not going to be quicker when its blowing a gale. If you want to create a ridiculous and highly unlikely scenario then you could be correct, maybe if you were to measure the course distance through the air and you dropped yourself out of an aeroplane it could be quicker with a very strong wind, there you go there’s another stupid scenario you could be right. Well done.
You may be quicker but you will have used more power to go even the same speed on a windy day than on a still one. No matter what crazy ideas you come up with you are not going to beat the laws of physics.
So the laws of physics say it’s not possible to be faster on a windy day on a course in which the headwind sections are sheltered and the tailwind sections are open? Whatever…
No I was answering the OP and the laws of physics would say that it’s not going to be quicker when its blowing a gale. If you want to create a ridiculous and highly unlikely scenario then you could be correct, maybe if you were to measure the course distance through the air and you dropped yourself out of an aeroplane it could be quicker with a very strong wind, there you go there’s another stupid scenario you could be right. Well done.
Lighten up spagoli. You may have meant to reply to the OP but you actually replied to me after I described a local loop which is a mix of wooded sections and open fields. Due to the topography of the hills, which tend to run in one direction, if the wind is coming from the right direction you can have more of the wooded sections on the headwind sections and more of the fields in tailwind directions. And vice versa, I might add. So depending on the wind speed it’s possible to be faster than one would expect - or slower. Not a hypothetical loop; it’s one I ride frequently.