Our team is happy to announce that this successful partnership has been extended.
Crossing the finish line first is the pinnacle of racing success for our team, and that success – a stage victory, a race won and seamless teamwork – is always the culmination of training and preparation over time with our staff and our performance partners. That is why Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl are delighted to confirm that they have extended their partnership with CORE for 2022, enabling us to intensify our collaboration and extend our performance expertise.
Last year, CORE joined the team as a partner which opened the doors into more insights into how rider performance is impacted by the high core body temperatures while racing. The CORE sensor is a compact and discrete unit and clips onto the heart rate monitor and delivers accurate, real-time core body temperature to the team’s Garmin cycle computers.
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team uses the CORE sensor during training and racing, and this now allows us to easily capture performance insights where it was previously not feasible.
At our 2022 winter training camps we initiated the season with extensive rider performance evaluations, and this includes the data from CORE. The link between rising core body temperature and decreasing power output during sports is extensively documented, and as temperature behaviour is also highly individual and the data available from the CORE sensor allow each rider to personalise and optimise their training.
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Head Coach Koen Pelgrim said: “We are very happy to be working with CORE again in 2022. At the team we have a history of using technology to help understand our rider’s performance and working with CORE has helped add another dynamic to our work. Over the last year, we have been able to collect a data set from our riders and we are looking forward to now implementing what we have learnt in to everyday training and racing, as well as continuing to collect valuable data as we try to improve again during the 2022 season.”
The Performance Lead from CORE, Chris Blomfield-Brown, noted: “The team is already very familiar with the CORE sensor and in 2022 Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl are pioneering new techniques with the rider core body temperature data. The cutting-edge insights to help guide training and preparation and we are committed to support the team and develop our technology to ensure that each rider can confidently perform at their best on race day.”
The CORE body temperature monitoring complements the array of tools which we employ and with the talent and training of our riders, the expertise of our staff and team partners, we are ready to turn up the heat.
Photo credit: ©Wout Beel