ATLANTA—With the announcement that Ineos will take over sponsorship of the most successful professional cycling team of the last decade, Wahoo is pleased to announce that it has renewed the sponsorship through the 2021 season.
Wahoo, the leader in smart trainers and indoor cycling ecosystems, has expanded its relationship with the six-time Tour de France winning team, which has been using the KICKR wheel-off smart trainer for warm-ups and indoor training since 2014. Starting with the 2019 season, the team will now rely on the full Wahoo indoor cycling ecosystem — KICKR CLIMB grade simulator, KICKR HEADWIND smart fan, KICKR DESK, and TICKR heart rate monitor at all events and for indoor training.
Since commencing its partnership at the beginning of the 2014 season, the team has won more than 100 major races after warming up on Wahoo KICKR smart trainers.
With this partnership agreement expanded, Ineos will be able to optimize its indoor training with the world's only complete indoor training ecosystem. The KICKR CLIMB grade simulator allows athletes to simulate real-world climbs while training indoors, enabling Ineos to prepare for specific efforts. The KICKR HEADWIND smart fan will allow athletes to maintain an optimal core temperature while training. The KICKR wheel-off smart trainer offers the most realistic road feel of any smart trainer currently available, so that Ineos athletes can better simulate outdoor rides while training indoors, while the TICKR heart rate monitor will ensure that important exercise data can be collected and analyzed to improve riders' performance.
"Team Ineos is the first UCI WorldTour team to have access to a complete indoor training ecosystem," said Chip Hawkins, Wahoo's Founder. "Having WorldTour riders using a complete system for indoor training will help them to continue winning at the very top level of professional cycling by adding more realism to indoor training and warm ups, and give the team highly precise metrics. We're proud to be working with such high caliber athletes — and helping them to win at the highest levels of cycling."
During the remainder of the 2019 season, Ineos aimsg to repeat its wins at the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, as well as competing for the overall World Tour title.
"The physical requirements and adaptations have got to be as specific as possible to the needs of the actual performance," said Team Principal David Brailsford. "With the Wahoo KICKR and CLIMB, we can optimize our athletes' indoor training to perfectly match the terrain they will encounter in races. If you can really relate what you're feeling and mentally experiencing to the physical components of what you're doing, then I think you create a greater belief in what you're doing, and a greater physical adaptation."
"Warming up and training on the KICKR for the last several years has helped me to prepare for lots of races — especially the Tour," said 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas. "This year the CLIMB lets us simulate the climbing position indoors, which helps greatly with muscle adaptation. With this year's focus on winning the Tour again, finding every advantage is more important than ever, and I'm glad to have the Wahoo Ecosystem to help me get into Tour-winning form."
"We've been proud of the team's success during our partnership," Hawkins said. "When you're racing for a win at the Tour de France, every small improvement can pay off with big results, and we're grateful to be part of the winning formula for Team Ineos and our other sponsored teams. After all, the success we've seen in 2018, it's exciting to carry our partnership forward into 2019, and through 2021."
