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.
Wind Tunnel Testing
The first stop this past week was a visit to Ambient Air Technologies, host of the newly-opened wind tunnel in Fort Collins, CO. New team members Dave Zabriskie and David Millar refined and validated their TT positions using Retul bicycle fitting technology on a soon-to-be introduced CycleOps trainer.
After making position adjustments using the 3D Retul system outside the tunnel, these positions were moved into the tunnel where the aerodynamic gains were validated by CycleOps Power Director of Education and Slipstream Sports Physiologist Allen Lim, PhD. After several hours in the tunnel with Dave Z, Allen concluded that he is “one slippery guy.”
Sponsor Meetings and Product Testing
After returning to Boulder, CycleOps Power Product Manager Jesse Bartholomew had the chance to sit down with the guys and introduce our product plans for the upcoming year. The partnership between Slipstream Sports and CycleOps Power is a very important part of the product development process as these athletes represent the extreme cases of what our products will be put through in the field. All 25 riders were in attendance as well as staff, management, and other industry partners such as Zipp, Felt, Giro, Fi'zi:k, and Oval. For many of the riders the day proved quite long.
One rider who chose to break up the day with a quick “not so easy spin” was new team recruit Magnus Backstedt who chose to test one of our new trainers with several 5-minute efforts at over 500 watts. The former Paris Roubaix winner then finished up the workout with an all-out effort that peaked out at over 1600 watts. Needless to say we had to take a step back.
Team Presentation
The highlight of the week was the official team presentation held at the famous Boulder Theater. This unique event benefited the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and had over 400 people in attendance. Among the throngs of cycling enthusiasts in attendance were 1988 Giro D’Italia winner Andy Hampsten and 1984 Olympic Medalist Nelson Vails. After a preview of a soon-to-be released TV pilot about the team entitled, "Chasing the Dream," the 25 members of the 2008 team were introduced by the voice of American cycling Dave Towle.
The 2008 Team Slipstream/Chipotle roster is comprised of:
David Millar (Great Britain),
Christophe Laurent (France),
Julian Dean (New Zealand),
David Zabriskie (United States Of America),
Christian Vande Velde (United States Of America),
Magnus Backstedt (Sweden),
Tyler Farrar (United States Of America),
Maartijn Maaskant (Netherlands),
Tom Danielson (United States Of America),
Dan Martin (Great Britain),
Chris Sutton (Australia),
Trent Lowe (Australia),
Ryder Hesjedal (Canada),
Danny Pate (United States Of America),
Pat McCarty (United States Of America),
Will Frischkorn (United States Of America),
Jason Donald (United States Of America),
Lucas Euser (United States Of America),
Tom Peterson (United States Of America),
Mike Friedman (United States Of America),
Huub Duyn (Netherlands),
Kilian Patour (France),
Timmy Duggan (United States Of America),
and Steven Cozza (United States Of America).
Quick Facts About the Partnership
CycleOps Power is the official supplier of power meters and trainers to the Slipstream/Chipolte cycling team. The team will exclusively race and train on PowerTap power meters built into Zipp wheels for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. They will have a range of PowerTap-equipped Zipp wheels at their disposal including Zipp/PowerTap 202, 303, 303 Pave, 404, 404 Pave, 808, 1080 and the new Sub 9 PowerTap-equipped disc. The riders on the team will manage their training data using PowerAgent software for Mac and PC. Finally the team will have a range of best-in-class trainers at their disposal including the Fluid2 and Magneto as well as a number of soon-to-be released models.