Team Visma | Lease a Bike testing out the revolutionary tool which could potentially be "a breakthrough as big as the first heart rate monitor was in the 70s"
Cycling
Team Visma | Lease a Bike might be on the verge of a big techincal breakthrough. The team of Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert has been testing a "transformational" training tool from the brand Tymewear that’s touted to deliver a new gold standard physiological metric.
"A reliable, accurate ventilation sensor could be as big a breakthrough as the first heart rate monitor was in the 70s," Tymewear co-founder and CEO Arnar Larusson told Velo. He doesn't hold back in his prediction of their devices impact when he declares: "It could even be bigger, even more transformational."
Tymewear’s breathing sensors put lab-level insights onto a bike computer. Larusson told Velo that he believes "ventilation is the most overlooked vital sign in modern sport". He could be right. A breathing sensor gives a truer insight into metabolic effort than a heart rate monitor. In fact, its values might be more relevant than the renowned VO2 Max tests.
"One of the coaches at Visma, his turn of phrase was, 'we’ve struck gold' with these sensors," Larusson claimed. "Heart rate is a relatively unreliable indicator of what’s happening internally in terms of effort and output. That’s why ventilation really comes through. And the team is seeing that. Ventilation data can give the closest idea of true exercise thresholds outside of doing a V02 max test in a lab."
"Nutrition, aerodynamics, and materials have taken giant leaps and really pushed things forward in the last few years," Visma | Lease a Bike DS Mathieu Heijboer told Velo some time ago when it first came into contact with Tymewear. "I think the next real big focus will be on ventilation and breathing rates, those kind of metrics. It’s something we’re following closely." Fast forward a few months and Visma is already testing out the limits of possibilities of this new device.
"The team told me they have very specific applications and specific workouts where they use the data," Larusson said. "The feedback they’re giving us from their use of the sensors so far has been very, very, positive."
"People get excited about new sensors, but then really it’s down to figuring out how to use it once it’s in the field," Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe's Dan Bigham remains cautious. "I think generally, there’s potential to learn more, as long as there’s purpose to how we use a sensor like that. You’ve got to figure out what’s meaningful and what you can change with the information you get from it."
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- Yes, I get that but it wasn’t exactly a good comparison if you ask me, circumstances and competition were very different. Also crashing whilst staying up front is pretty different from crashing and being left behind.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Pidcock was riding at a hard enough pace until the sector where Pogacar made up something like 20 seconds in something like... 20 seconds. Pidcock was quite a bit ahead, and suddenly he wasn't. At that point, clearly he would get caught, so might as well get caught sooner and work together. That's just good cycling. (I think the point is, plenty of people win even after they've come down in a crash - Van der Poel crashed at the worlds and won, anyway, for example).RidesHills08-04-2025
- Great sprint, Ineos set him up at exactly the right time, they protected the corners through the turns, and he did the job he was supposed to do. Nice to see him win again.RidesHills08-04-2025
- When Vingo, Rogla, and Wout were all at the height of their powers, a sight to behold.mobk08-04-2025
- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025