Dan Bigham has been appointed as Head of Engineering at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe after his recent departure from Ineos Grenadiers.
According to a press release from the German WorldTour giants, Bigham will work alongside the team's partners, and other Red Bull entities, with the aim of "optimising all aspects of performance and the integration of new and innovative technologies into cycling."
It was also revealed by the team that they had created the new Head of Engineering position solely for the recently crowned Olympic silver medallist.
As well as his recent achievement at the Paris Olympics, Bigham is a former World Hour record holder, World Champion and became European Champion in the individual pursuit in January.
"For the past decade, I have balanced the life of an elite athlete with my passion for advancing the sport of cycling through engineering," Bigham said in the release from Red Bull. "Having achieved nearly everything I dreamed of on the bike, I am now ready to fully dedicate myself to supporting the next generation of winners.
"The opportunity ahead of me at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is immense. No other team can match this level of combined knowledge, capability, and expertise across its network, and I am eager to leverage it to the fullest."
Jonny Wale, Ineos' Performance Scientist is also leaving the team and will join Bigham in the new engineering setup at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. As well as working together at Ineos, the duo have collaborated on various projects in recent years, including Bigham’s HUUB Wattbike track team and World Hour record attempt in 2022.
"With Dan and Jonny, we have absolute experts in the combination of cycling and engineering know-how," Red Bull team boss Rolf Aldag added. "At Red Bull- Bora-Hansgrohe, our new engineering unit meet the top know-how of our partners like Specialized on the one hand and the innovative technology entities of Red Bull on the other. This combination is unique in cycling and promises enormous potential."
Bigham worked as a performance engineer at Ineos and joined the team in 2022. But the 32-year-old told The Telegraph at the Olympics that he would be moving on from his role due to becoming disillusioned with the setup under the new Ineos management team.
Ineos underwent a senior management overhaul late last year following on from the resignation of Rod Ellingworth. Dr Scott Drawer joined as performance director and John Allert was appointed as CEO.
"It’s not particularly a me versus Scott thing at all," Bigham told The Telegraph. "It’s more just how I see performance. How I want to do performance is not particularly aligned with how Ineos wanted to go about it. I wanted more autonomy, more ability to action my ideas. And I wasn’t really getting that at Ineos."
"I feel that a lot of performance we’re leaving on the table and that frustrates me because it’s clear as day we should be doing things a lot better," he added. "Let’s be honest, Ineos are not where they want to be, not where they need to be and the gap is not small."
In response, a spokesperson for Ineos Grenadiers told The Telegraph: "We’re very proud of the support we’ve given Dan, the access we’ve provided to our performance network and the freedom, time and encouragement we’ve given him to pursue a number of his personal athletic goals."
They added: "Our performance support team is world class, and although we’ll miss Dan, the strength and depth we have in that area across a number of talented individuals means our programme should be unaffected."
