Dan's Profile

Aerodynamics expert, performance engineer, track cyclist. There are many strings to Dan Bigham’s bow, and his role as part of the Great Britain track team was just one of them, before he retired at the end of 2024.

Bigham has ridden on both the road and the track throughout his cycling career, alongside developing his talents as an engineer in the area of aerodynamics. With a degree in motorsport engineering from Oxford Brookes University, Bigham began working in Formula One before switching to cycling.

On the track, Bigham joined the Great Britain Cycling Team in 2022, and opened his account with a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as part of Team England’s pursuit team that also included Ethan Vernon, Ollie Wood, and Charlie Tanfield. The team went one better at the UCI Track World Championships in France, where they beat Italy to win gold – with Ethan Hayter joining the team in place of Tanfield.

Alongside his commitments with GBCT, Bigham made history breaking the Hour Record in August 2022, setting a new distance of 55.548km before it was beaten shortly after by Filippo Ganna. 

2023 started strong, with two silver medals for Bigham at the UEC European Track Championships at Grenchen in Switzerland, in the individual pursuit against Italy’s Jonathan Milan – and the team pursuit, alongside Vernon, Wood and Tanfield, in which Milan and his Italian teammates, including Ganna, were victorious.

In Milton in Canada though, the team pursuit squad finally took the top step, winning gold at the UCI Track Nations Cup – this time Bigham was joined by Wood, Josh Charlton and Michael Gill.

Ganna proved a thorn in Bigham’s side once again at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Glasgow in August that year, pipping Bigham in a thrilling back and forth encounter in the individual pursuit with Bigham taking the silver medal. In the men’s team pursuit, disaster struck as a crash in qualifying took the team out of contention and unable to defend their title.

2024 delivered a positive start for Bigham, with two gold medals secured at the UEC Track Elite European Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, in the individual and team pursuit events (the latter in a team featuring Hayter, Tanfield, Vernon and Wood). Bigham beat teammate Tanfield in a GB 1-2 in the individual event, while in the team pursuit, GB beat reigning world champions Denmark, a major result which will give them confidence ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this summer. Most recently, the team continued their winning streak, securing gold at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Canada.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games saw Bigham and teammates Charlie Tanfield, Ollie Wood, Ethan Hayter and Ethan Vernon battle hard against surprise threats Australia, initially qualifying seconds fastest with a British record time of 3:43.241. The final against Australia saw a tense tussle with just a tenth of a second separating the two teams heading into the final lap, until a shock slip off the saddle from Hayter saw the British team pipped to the post to take the Olympic silver medal.

Bigham bowed out of international competition to focus on his engineering career with team Red Bull BORA - hansgrohe at the end of 2024, but not before securing one final silver medal in the team pursuit alongside Ethan Hayter, Josh Charlton, Ollie Wood and Rhys Britton at the 2024 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, narrowly missing out to home nation Denmark.

Off the track, Bigham rode for the Ribble Weldtite domestic continental team for four seasons, during which he raced a mixed calendar of domestic and European races, including winning the Darley Moor Crits 8 in 2018 and competing in the Tour of Britain.

As part of a Great Britain team, Bigham won bronze in the mixed relay team time trial event at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire, and came fourth in the same event in Glasgow in 2023.

He has worked as a consultant on aerodynamics, working with Denmark’s national team,  Ineos Grenadiers World Tour team and now as Head of Engineering for Red Bull BORA – hansgrohe.

Bigham is married to fellow cycling Joss Lowden, who herself is a former holder of the Hour Record for women. The couple live in Andorra, and welcomed their first child, Theo, in 2023.

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