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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.

One challenge CycleOps Power faces with the new riders is familiarizing them with the PowerTap after previously using an SRM. This began a few months ago with the riders receiving their PowerTap training wheels, and the transition is going well. All the riders now understand the basic differences between the PowerTap and SRM computers and according to the riders, the transition has been easy due to a few key advantages the PowerTap offers, first of which is accuracy.

All things being equal the SRM is as accurate as the PowerTap, but it is easier for the riders to keep the PowerTap calibrated due to the auto-zero function built into the hub and computer communication protocol. Strain gauges, used in both PowerTap and SRM, are meant for sensing deformation. Unfortunately, this means temperature changes, often seen in Silver City for example, can deform the metal that the gauges are mounted to inside the power meter. A good power meter needs to compensate for this and the PowerTap does it automatically. Any time the riders turn the computer on and spin the wheel or simply coast down the first descent the PowerTap re-calibrates itself.

Riders have also enjoyed the fact that the PowerTap SL 2.4 wireless power meter is team issue. During the early season they will often spend time on their road bikes and also a cross bike. Danny Pate hasn’t spent more than a couple days on his road bike since the Boulder Camp, so being able to move the PowerTap from bike to bike without worrying about wires makes it easy to capture all the season’s training data.

From there the data is downloaded to the latest version of PowerAgent software, which can be installed on either a Mac or Windows computer. Since most of the riders use a Mac this is a big plus. Most riders are interested in just a few metrics and leave the detailed analysis for very specific workouts. In general, the first thing the riders look at before even pulling the computer off the bike after the ride is the number of Kilojoules. It seems this is a sort of quick measuring stick for the guys to compare their efforts between one another. Since they are all about the same size and weight it makes for an easy comparison. The last few days have seen some 4,000 Kilojoule days in the saddle.

After downloading the riders examine how much time they have spent in their training zones compared to the other days, and if they have achieved any new personal best peak power outputs. Since most of the focus is on lots of climbing and time in the saddle, most of the guys are waiting for the first races before breaking any records. The riders also take careful notes about how they felt during the day’s training session; this information is important for recall during future one-on-one session with team physiologist Dr. Allen Lim.

Check back soon for a behind-the-scenes look at how the team manages more than 200 PowerTap systems and a sneak peak of the soon-to-be released Zipp PowerTap Disc wheel in action at the team camp.

--Jesse Bartholomew, PowerTap Product Manager