Dougal Allan (left and above right) has been a force to be reckoned with in the last two decades of endurance sports. A two-time Coast to Coast winner, adventure racing world champion and Ironman triathlete, Dougal has built a reputation as one of New Zealand’s top endurance athletes.
Known as a powerhouse on the bike, he has even held the second-fastest bike time on the world Ironman rankings.
But in 2022, Dougal took a leap into a completely new world: the high-speed, high-stakes realm of America’s Cup sailing.
As one of the Cyclors for Team New Zealand, Dougal became part of the AC75 crew — a 6.5-tonne, high-tech racing yacht that can reach speeds of over 50 knots.
His role as a Cyclor was pivotal in powering the Team New Zealand boat during races, making him one of the human engines responsible for the boat’s explosive speed and agility. Transitioning from the world of swim, bike, run and kayak to the ‘Grand Prix’ sailing might seem like a huge leap, but for Dougal, it was a challenge he relished.
So, what did it take to help Team New Zealand claim yet another America’s Cup victory—especially when competing against nations with far bigger budgets and resources?
Fleur and Scott Cushman from CurraNZ gleaned the inside scoop when catching up with their long-time, much-loved ambassador Dougal Allan, as he reflects on the events of the last two years.
So, welcome Dougal. It’s been a long time between chats. We were excited to load you up with CurraNZ for another year and see what would happen in your 2024 sailing mission. Can you reflect on the overall experience?
Thanks guys, yes well I probably still couldn’t stick a sailing chat with a real sailor, but as it was quite the experience to be part of a world-class team with an established history of success, innovation and punching above their weight.
You win this trophy and lots of people are clapping and that’s fun, but for me I reflect on the people who made up the team and the relationships I made, it was that whole ‘tangata’ thing. Our budget was nothing compared to others, yet our sailors were still able to out-think, out-design and outrace everyone else.
Can you describe the in-person racing experience as a Cyclor?
It certainly wasn’t glamorous or comfortable. It was very, very hot in the cockpit with no airflow, and you feel pretty anonymous in your own little world cycling at your near-anaerobic threshold for 30 minutes. It’s literally head down, for a constant 9-out-of-10-effort for half an hour, while sweating buckets. I was just pleased I didn’t have a camera in my cockpit!
A lot of people asked if I got sea-sick, but the motion isn’t the problem when you’re foiling - it’s the G-Forces. I had to do a lot of neck and shoulder strength work, because you get slammed against the walls with the G-Forces as the boat turned.
You’d sit up at the end of the race and often, I wouldn’t know if we’d won or not. It was so far down the list of things I needed to think about, that it didn’t even enter my mind.
The best feeling was when we sat up and we got fist pumps from the crew, and they said ‘thanks’ because they were able to sail the boat as accurately as they needed to because the Cyclors were delivering the power into the boat.
So, are cyclists best suited to becoming Cyclors?
Not always. If you were to look at all the Cyclors across the Americas Cup teams, by far the majority would’ve come from rowing because they are bigger, have great aerobic capacity and tend to be large humans, unlike cycling. And for this task, you need to generate lots of power.
Exactly how much power did you need to produce for a 6.5-tonne boat?
In my first test I was generating mid 400-watt averages, but by April 2024 I was pushing over 500 watts - and that only came after some spicy training sessions.
To do 500 watts for 20 minutes is very, very rare for trained cyclists.
As Cyclors, we were pushing better numbers than Tadej Pogačar, the current Tour De France and World Cycling Champion. He’s around 435 watts for 20 minutes, which is unbelievable for power to weight, but much less absolute power than the Cyclors in our team.
I can talk about this now, but we were closed lipped on this until the Cup, partly because other teams were trying to gauge what our hydraulic and software logic systems were like and we’d potentially give it important clues if we shared our data.
What were the sporting backgrounds of other Cyclors?
We had Olympic track cyclists like Simon van Velthooven, two elite rowers – Hamish Bond, who had won three Olympic gold medals at three separate Games, as a rower and cyclist. He’s just a massive engine, basically.
Cam Webster was a former Junior World Rowing Champion and Under23 Champion. Cam can pump out 2,500 watts from a standing start to 150 cadence within a few seconds. He’s a genetic freak with amazing endurance, with the ability to push crazy short, high-intensity efforts.
Then there is Marius, who came from the SAS. He’s 104kg of muscle with amazing sprint power and phenomenal endurance, with the mental capacity to hurt. He also holds an indoor rowing record and he wasn’t even a rower!
How competitive was final selection?
We spent two years training for it and there was a lot of internal competition, with 9 Cyclors vying for four positions on the boat each race.
You seemed to be able to cope with back-to-back races in a day. What did you put that down to?
There’s roughly 37 minutes between races and I was highly disciplined about loading on CurraNZ around peak efforts on race days.
I’d take two capsules before a race and repeat dose. I really think CurraNZ helped my recovery and my outputs - with its vasodilation effects moving blood around to working muscles and increasing oxygen utilisation, it’s invaluable for endurance and maintaining peak efforts.
Also, 15 years of endurance conditioning was a major factor. Thirdly, fuelling was a big part. You can’t fuel during the race but you’re eating and drinking in the lead-up and in between races.
What did you have to change, relative to being an endurance athlete, to becoming a Cyclor?
My weight. It became an eating game to put on 11 or 12kg muscle, I was eating all the time and didn’t feel hungry for about two years. On the weigh-in days I was the only person sitting in the kitchen eating, while everyone else was sitting in the sauna!
Don’t miss part two next week, when Dougal talks about the mentality of the team when the boat suffered major damage after being dropped from a crane, and the team talks after losing two races to Britannia in the deciding races.
Disclaimer: CurraNZ has no affiliation/partnership/sponsorship or connection to the America’s Cup.