Dan Bigham confirmed as Ineos Grenadiers race engineer

Ineos Grenadiers have confirmed that Dan Bigham will be joining its staff roster for the 2022 season. 

The British WorldTour squad has added Bigham to its 'staff' team listings. At the time of writing, his bio - beneath the title 'race engineer' - remains limited though extremely complimentary.

"His work in the pursuit of time trial and aerodynamic excellence makes Dan Bigham one of the most respected engineers in the cycling world," the team writes.

Bigham's British Cycling rider profile now lists his team as 'Ineos Grenadiers', however, he is not listed on the 'rider' section of the team's website.

The 30-year-old broke the British Hour Record, clocking a distance of 54.723 kilometres and lifting the title from Bradley Wiggins, in October 2021. 

The current Hour Record, set by Victor Campenaerts, still stands at 55.089km - and Bigham has stated that he needs only seven extra watts to surpass the benchmark.

Ineos' Filippo Ganna hasn't been at all shy about his plans to attack the Hour Record in 2022,  the Italian stating: "I'm not going to make the attempt at height, as many advise to do. I will then attack the world Hour Record at sea level. When I do it that way, it's different and that gives me more satisfaction.”

An attempt from the team's new race engineer would certainly provide useful data for any successive rides. 

Bigham raced for Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling in 2021, having joined the team in 2018, also making a name for himself in setting up the Huub-Wattbike track team which powered to UCI Track World Cup golds in 2017 and 2018. The team, which features heavily in Bigham's book 'Start at the End: How Reverse-Engineering Can Lead to Success' was barred for further success on the world stage after the UCI banned trade teams from competing at the uppermost level of the sport.

The founder of WattShop aerodynamic testing and performance equipment company, Bigham, has become famous both for his own riding and also his consultancy work. 

Bigham has provided consultancy for Denmark's Olympic Team Pursuit squad - which famously made waves for the use of shin tape to save watts, as well as UCI World Tour squads such as Canyon-SRAM.

Neither Bigham, or Ineos Grenadiers, have released a formal statement at the time of writing.