Dr. Allen Lim talks about what goes on inside the Team Garmin-Slipstream bus.

The 2009 Tour de France is well underway, and the riders have already faced their first vertical challenge as they took on the Pyrenees. On Friday's Stage 8, the riders faced a challenging group of climbs.

There was no time for warm up as the stage began with the climb to Andorre-la-Vieille. After a long descent, the climb to Col de Port woke up their legs again. After a short descent, they were faced with the last uphill challenge of the day, the Col d'Agnes.

With 5 stages done, we checking in with Dr. Allen Lim to find out how the riders are doing and how the team uses power to monitor their overall effort.

We caught up with Dr. Allen Lim after the Team Time Trial to get his insight on the team's strategy for the day

Jesse Bartholomew, CycleOps Product Manager, recently traveled to Girona, Spain to work with Team Garmin-Slipstream at their Team Time Trial camp. Team time trialing is one of Team Garmin’s greatest strengths, but like any forte, it takes focused preparation and methodical training to achieve and maintain greatness.

My older brother and his wife are going to have a baby in three weeks. It will be their first child -- the first of our family’s next generation. Between baby showers and trips to ‘Babies R Us,’ I’ve been taking every opportunity to make fun of him, razing him that he’s not going to have enough time to make it to ‘Bed Bath and Beyond’ before he has to convert his “man office” into the new “baby room,” pulling down in the process all the plaques, awards, and pictures that have marked his well -traveled career as a military helicopter pilot.

from CycleOps Power
Team Garmin-Chipotle's Danny Pate had an incredible ride in Sunday's Stage 15 of the Tour de France, getting into the race-winning break within the first 12 kilometers of the 183 kilometer stage.

In order to stay away from the field, he and his 3 breakaway companions had to keep their pace high and steady over the entire race distance, which included two major climbs - the Hors Categorie Col Agnel and the Categorie 1 Prato Nevoso.

from Dr. Allen Lim

As soon as the riders get back to the bus after a stage the recovery process begins. Waiting for each rider on the bus is 1.5 liters of Cliff electrolyte solution (Apple Cider is their favorite), a liter of Cliff recovery drink, and a small buffet of white rice, eggs, fruit, and seasonings. Upon entering the bus, the guys are reminded to weigh themselves with a precision scale in their cycling shoes, shorts, and jersey (empty pockets). They’re asked to weigh themselves the same way before they leave the bus just before race start. The weight difference gives them an idea of how much fluid they need to replace immediately after each stage.

from Allen Lim, PhD

Yesterday when Christian moved into third place, he and the rest of the team were happy, but no one really seemed to make a big deal out of it. It was definitely a hard day, but we were all trying to stay focused on today. In our minds, the Tourmalet and the Hautacam were going to be the real first test of the Tour. At the same time, the performance Rico put in to solo win was just incredible. So much so, that it can screw with your head as a rider, and I sensed that Christian was a bit reticent to really believe how astounding his form is right now.

from Dr. Allen Lim

It’s day 8 of the Tour and I’ve reached the point where I am deep in the minutia of the daily grind. Wake up, cook, pack, clean, transfer, traffic, mayhem, set up tech, transfer, analyze, cook, transfer, more mayhem, clean, unpack, analyze some more, write, and then prepare to do it all again. It is seriously cracking me.

from CycleOps Power

from CycleOps Power

As the terrain begins to go upward, as it did in Stage 6's uphill finsh, it is important for the riders to be able to maintain a high watts-per-kg or power-to-weight ratio. Watts per kilogram is power output normalized to body weight. The reason we like to normalize power to body weight is that going up a hill, two people might be going the exact same speed, but if they aren't the same size, they won't be putting out the same power.

from Allen Lim, PhD
We slept them, we fed them, we warmed them up, we cooled them down, we fed them again, we compressed them, we drove them, we dressed them, we fed them some more, we warmed them up, we iced them down, we made them drink, and in the end, they went really fast. Best team of the day and some world-class performances by Millar, VandeVelde, and the Pate. All I can say is congrats and bravo to all of the athletes, staff, and sponsors who helped make all of this happen.

from Allen Lim, PhD
When Will finished today, he was tired, but he wasn’t blown. At 5020 Kilojoules, an average power of 274 Watts (303 when pedaling), and less than 30 minutes of zero time, the day was about as good as it gets for a 5 hr day. But, when I went over Will’s numbers with Danny Pate, I was surprised by Danny’s reaction -- a quick, “is that all?”

The numbers are in from Stage 1. Check out the stats from some of the key riders on the team.

from Allen Lim, PhD
"Arrive Alive." That's been the tag line for the first two days here at the Tour – arrive alive. Despite Julian Dean getting caught up in a crash with a few kilometers to go today, everyone has been keeping that line in their heads, staying out of trouble, and finishing the last two stages feeling fit and relaxed.

from Allen Lim, PhD
It’s done. All the training, planning, preparation, running around like a crazy person, thinking, and talking is done. All we have left is staying cool, having some fun, banking some extra sleep, checking out the individual time trial course in Cholet, driving to Brest, dealing with the media, getting two short rides in, and making sure we’ve got all our new equipment and clothing in order before kitting up for the big start on Saturday. Okay, maybe there’s still a lot to be done in this final week before the Tour. The important thing, however, is that the guys are all wicked fit right now, morale is great, and we are all ready to go.

from CycleOps Power
The guys in argyle wrapped up their final preparations for the Tour with a week in Girona, Spain. Magnus Backstedt, Julian Dean, Will Frischkorn, Ryder Hesjedal, Trent Lowe, Martijn Maaskant, David Millar, Danny Pate, and Christian Vande Velde were all present with a full support staff of 18 people in Girona to make sure everyone was ready.

from Dr. Allen Lim
Today was our last day of our Pyrenees or “Pre-Tour” training camp. For the last ten days, David Millar, Christian VandeVelde, Ryder Hesjedal, and Danny Pate have been finding their form in the mountains just outside of a little ski town called La Molina. At about 6,000 feet in elevation, the town sits just above the beautiful Cerdanya Valley that separates Spain from France. It was the perfect location for what turned out to be a truly productive training camp.

from Allen Lim, PhD

It began today. Well actually, it began a long time ago when these guys first got addicted to cycling and started down a very long road to the Tour. But that road got a little shorter today here in La Molina Spain smack in the middle of the Pyrenees on Day one of our final training camp before the Tour de France.

With CycleOps Power product manager, Jesse Bartholomew on the scene at this year's 2008 Giro d’ Italia Team Time Trial, CycleOps was able to download data from almost every rider on the Slipstream team. That's a lot of data, and it begs the question: where to begin?

Our first thought was to take all the riders' power data and graph it over time. Doing this, we get a graph like this:

Aside from showing that Magnus Backstedt had the highest maximum power, the graph is just a bunch of nonsensical jagged lines. The more compelling story comes from looking at each rider's data individually.

With the training and race preparation under their belts, Team Slipstream shows how to execute a successful time trial on the day of the event.

1. Preride the course.
2. Check your equipment.
3. Have a pacing stragegy.
4. Keep your cool.
5. Do a proper warmup.
6. Follow your plan.
7. CELEBRATE!

Watch Team Slipstream put these steps into action...

from Jesse Bartholomew

With Team Slipstream’s success at the Tour of Georgia we knew there would be a big opportunity at the upcoming Giro and we wanted to be there to help however we could. The amount of preparation for the opening stage’s team time trial is staggering. When I arrived in Palermo, Sicily almost 4 days before the start of the race, team staff had already arrived and begun preparations and the riders had been preparing for weeks prior to that even with camps at their home base in Girona, Spain.

Young Slipstream rider Martijn Maaskant recently took an impressive 4th place at 2008 Paris Roubaix. His racing steed was equipped with Zipp 303 wheels and a PowerTap. CycleOps Power takes a closer look at the difficult race through Maaskant's power file.

Slipstream head mechanic Kevin Grove.

Sitting in the Slipstream Team hotel the night before Paris Roubaix, CycleOps Power Director of Marketing David Cathcart caught up with Slipstream's Head Wrench Kevin Grove. Kevin reported that the team was feeling pretty good given the combination of the youth and form of Martijn Maaskant, 14th at Flanders, and the health and experience of Magnus Backstedt, 2001 winner. However, as it goes in cycling, there are ups and downs, and no one predicted the unfortunate mechanical that took Maggy out of the race at 165 KM. But the team's inkling about young Martijn Maaskant held true as the rider stepped up to fill his team leader's shoes with a remarkable 4th place finish.

How do the Slipstream riders make sure their bodies are primed for an optimal TT performance? We got the inside scoop from Allen Lim, PhD. Watch the exclusive video here.

In Part 1 of this movie clip, we caught up with Team Slipstream Coach and exercise physiologist, Allen Lim, PhD before the Prologue of the 2008 Tour of California. Watch this video to see how Allen's predictions for the riders matched up to their actual performances.

We caught up with Team Slipstream Coach and exercise physiologist, Allen Lim, PhD before the Prologue of the 2008 Tour of California. He talks about his strategy for the riders during the short, fast time trial.

Tyler Farrar talks about preparing for the Tour of California, what it has been like riding in argyle, and his goals for the race.

The Slipstream Sports Professional Cycling Team plays an important role in our product development process. We provide them with many of our newest products to find out how they perform at the professional level. The newest product to be proven by the team is the Zipp Disc with PowerTap SL 2.4, which Slipstream will bring to Tour of California for its racing debut.

For this project, CycleOps Power partnered with long-time PowerTap Technology supporters, and the leaders in fast wheels, Zipp Speed Weaponry. Zipp realized early on the benefits of using PowerTap Technology in their wheels. Nowhere is this more evident than in their collaboration on the development of the Zipp Disc with PowerTap SL 2.4. CycleOps’ PowerTap Technology melded with Zipp’s Sub9 Disc wheel that saves an incredible 12 watts at 15 degrees of yaw has yielded the first, and the fastest power-measuring wheel available.

Listen to an audio version of this report here.

Following their successful team launch in November, Slipstream Sports/Chipotle is getting down to business in Silver City, New Mexico this month. No more late nights or socializing downtown, this camp is all about training and CycleOps Power was here providing the power tools to get the job done.

Silver City's altitude and rolling terrain provides the perfect setting for an early season training camp. There's a small airport in town, but most of the riders and staff flew into Tucson and then drove the 3 hours up to Silver City. 17 riders are here including new additions to the team Dave Zabriskie, Tom Danielson, Christian Vande Velde and Trent Lowe.

This past week America’s top cycling team, Slipstream Sports/Chipolte got together in Boulder CO to introduce it’s new team and plan it’s efforts in advance of what will certainly be a very successful year. CycleOps Power was on hand to introduce some new technology to this world class team and to meet the new members.

Team Slipstream reflects on the challenges they've encountered and accomplishments they've made during the 2007 Amgen Tour of California.

CycleOps talks with the riders, their manager, Jonathan Vaughters, and their fans as they recap Stage 2 at the 2007 Amgen Tour of California.

Jason Donald is in 2nd place overall; 20-year-old Tom Peterson holds the King of the Mountains Jersey, and 21-year-old Taylor Tolleson holds the Best Young Riders Jersey. CycleOps checks in with them before the race and also gets insight from Allen Lim.

CycleOps checks in with Team Slipstream at the 2007 Amgen Tour of California Prologue.

CycleOps checks in with Team Slipstream at Stage 1 of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California.

Feb 19, 2007 - Allen Lim
Based on the course profile and our initial preview of the route for Stage 1 in early December, we really thought that the race would break up before entering Santa Rosa. Instead, we had nearly a full pack coming into the finishing circuits making for a tricky and dangerous finish. Unfortunately, most of the team got caught behind a crash with just two laps to go. Danny, Tom and Will pulled some amazing moves to stay out of the crash while the others got caught behind. Pat McCarty hit the pavement, but beyond a bit of road rash is doing fine.

2/18/2007 - Allen Lim

It was a pretty incredible day for all of us on Team Slipstream Sports-Chipotle. We came into this prologue with huge expectations and a real belief that we would make an impact on this race. With Jason Donald's second place finish today (only 1 second off of Levi Leipheimer and almost 5 seconds ahead of 3rd) and Taylor Tolleson taking home the best young rider jersey, we definitely gave it our best and made an impression in the process.

For more cool stuff on Team Slipstream including athlete bios, videos, news, and desktop wallpaper, check out our website.

Boulder, CO, December 6, 2006 - In a bold move upward for 2007, Team TIAA-CREF not only becomes Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle, but moves up a big notch into the UCI's Professional Continental category. The team's unique cross-Atlantic schedule consists of racing the USACycling Professional Tour, the European Continental Tour and hopefully a few ProTour wildcard starts. This schedule will prove challenging but rewarding for both riders and sponsors.