Innovation For Evolution
"We said we had to do things differently when we started, so we asked, 'What are the things from inside that we can do a better job of?'" explains Stapleton. "We wanted to be international, to recruit top young talent, have better training methods, push hard on product development...
"But we also asked, 'What can we bring in from outside cycling?' So we found our core strength trainer, Darcy Norman [who also works with the Bayern Munich football team], and we learnt more about power transfer and some of the work that was being done in that field in American football and in European football. We said, 'Let's just try these things', and the athlete feedback was immediately very good. It's really been through athlete acceptance that we've learnt the value of core training: riders are more comfortable, more durable, and they are getting perhaps just a little better power transfer through every pedal stroke. Maybe the advantage of that is infinitesimal, but of course through the season that adds up to a hell of a lot of benefit.
"It's yet another thing for riders to be comforted by. There's the real benefit of all these little innovations, and then there's the psychological benefit, which is pretty enormous in a sport like this. You're travelling all the time, you're racing in terrible conditions, you're crashing, you're getting injured, and you want to know that there's something behind you. The quality of our medical care is off the charts: we have a doctor who came from outside of cycling, too, and he brought real expertise in orthopaedic care, in injury care and in infection control to the table.
"The challenge now. of course, is to keep finding ways to innovate and become even better, but I think that this is the way all professional sports are going now. You look at the top teams in any sport and they have these similar elements. Borrowing from American and European football is just smart. We wanted to be a showcase team. We wanted to be a team to follow by example. I hope that's happened. And a lot of teams are adopting elements of this that work for them now, and that's fantastic."
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