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Came to say this exact thing. It just made them look stupid whenever they put up rider's HR data, which was either 1) inaccurate or 2) non-dramatic.
Same impact the Vittoria sponsorship had on Maxxis or schwalbe riders/teams. Zero
This.
Much of the HR data they showed throughout the season (DH & XC) was inaccurate. It was pretty laughable.
"Loic is really redlining in this section. All the way up to... let's look at the Whoop window... 140 beats per minute!"
"Ummm... is he racing mountain bikes at the pinnacle of the sport or going for a jog, Cedric?"
I was thinking that all last season. If you compare his and Finn's HR either Bruni's a freak or the product is a complete waste of time.
Look. Mercedes have some clunkers and you guys were never hot enough to wear Diesel. WHOOP and WBD didn’t work live, and would be uninteresting even if it did, and it seems too close to the bro science / supplement crowd…but that’s mountain bikers so yeah…they’re a billion dollar company, and that’s all that matter. Let’s watch the trickledown trickle down!
(…my WHOOP just alerted me to stop holding my breath)
That appears to be a trend with them. In googling their hardware struggles with accuracy for high intensity short duration activities.
Before I jump in and hate on the WHOOP thing, I need to go back and see if I was a fan of anything else with spectacularly stupid title sponsors in the past.....I love computers and data but after never hearing of the company until a couple of hours ago it does appear that they encompass all of the worst aspects of modern tech, so yeah......not optimistic
New #USDH series coming this year - Southwest Downhill Series!
February 20th, 2024 – The all new Southwest Downhill Series has announced their 2024 race schedule. The downhill-specific series aims to provide an elevated level of regional racing in the Southwestern U.S. and will serve as the premier outlet for amateur competition in the region. All Southwest Downhill events are USA Cycling sanctioned and designed to prepare athletes for national level competition.
2024 Southwest Downhill Series:
Snow Valley Resort, Running Springs | June 7-9
China Peak Mountain Resort, Lakeshore | July 12-14
Snow Valley Resort, Running Springs | August 9-11
Vailocity Bike Park, Temecula | September 13-15
“Our goal with this series is to prioritize athlete experience above all else. We want to produce races that give athletes the upward mobility close to home that I wish was available during the early stages of my DH career. Other downhill regional series such as the NW Cup, DH Rockies, and Downhill Southeast all do a great job promoting the sport in their regions. The Southwest needs its own elevated downhill series and I am thrilled to finally bring this to life. See you at the races!” – Steven Walton, Series Director
For the latest Southwest Downhill Series news, visit our website and follow long on Instagram or soutwestDH.com
I was coming to say that if no one else had 🤣
awesome, now all american dh needs is a sanctioned dh series north of the Mason Dixon line. Somehow UsOpen is the only sanctioned race in the entire Northeast?
150bpm while on a DH race run seems low.
Assuming Loic has a somewhat normal max HR, I would expect to see more in the 180+ range during or right after a sprint.
6 times World Champion, 16 World Cup wins and 3 time World Cup overall, I would lean towards the freak side.
When he was Finn's age he was 2 x Elite World Champion and had 2 more WC wins, so IMO the gap isn't as big as you're inferring.
I also can't help notice that you tend to fall on the side of defending the UCI on here and the other site, if you don't mind me asking, are you in any way affiliated?
Bruni will go down as one of the GOAT's, Finn has the potential but time will tell.
0% affiliated with UCI, Discovery, WB etc. If anything I have more personal and business contacts with non UCI, Disco etc. businesses.
I simply see the constant bashing (some warranted, most not) of the current organisers tiresome and am happy to point out how RB has/had plenty of issues that people ignore.
while i agree with the sentiment, this one is a bit of a headscratcher (the whoop sponsorship that is). i'm not sure what their angle is trying to get into cycling as their hardware lacks core / critical functionality needed for cycling. plus, there are plenty of established players in the wearables / computers space for cycling.
I don't think they're trying to get into cycling so much as they're trying to expand their customer base.
IMO their value isn't as a real-time data device, it's as a performance and trend monitor (disclaimer: I have one and that's how I use it) that gives you data on your performance and capacity over time. This makes it easier to figure out how to peak for a given event, factors that contribute to good performance (their sleep-tracking works well for me for this) etc.
Many cyclists are a great customer for this kind of data which is why I think they're they're doing this.
/derail
With the athletes I coach: I have the majority of the endurance athletes run whoop straps, just to track their sleep and recovery. They are already paying me a bunch of money every month for my listening and observation skills, and I do value an additional metric to look at total load on the athlete enough to ask these folks to subscribe.
We use ecg chest straps paired to the athletes power meter head units to monitor and record heart rate info during training and racing.
People with “high performance mindset” can and do often push themselves too hard, and are oblivious to it. A product that specifically tells ya when to chill out isn’t for “normal” couch bound people- it’s for try-hards who are working too hard on and off the bike and don’t have the presence of mind to take it easy when needed... self-reflection is free, but it’s not a skill that modern society prioritizes.
Y'all are missing something very obvious- Bruni's jersey is SO TIGHT that he can't breathe, and that's why his heartrate is as low as it is...
Which likely proves the idea that people will overlook a ton of issues if the coverage is inexpensive and easy to access (and for some... includes Rob Warner).
interesting, thanks for sharing. how do you like it? for cycling do you use it in conjunction with another device (garmin / suunto / wahoo / etc)? not trying to get too far off track, but i do tend to nerd out on devices & tech.
Seconded. I thought Whoop was well known in the cycling world. A ton of people around me have been using them for the past 3 years or so to track all aspects of recovery, they usually pair this with a power meter and base their training around all of that info and make a reference point of data on how to potentially recreate a “good day” numbers wise.
Thanks for the reply.
For sure RB had some issues, but they were much easier to ignore as it was free.
If you're going to charge for a service it needs to be something worth paying for. IMO WB/D haven't achieved that as yet.
i might have missed this, but does anyone know why the BME at Rock Creek was suddenly moved to Windrock?
this touches on a relevant aspect - the kind of rider/racer that is willing to invest in coaching services is much more likely to also pay for a monthly subscription than a more casual rider, who is more likely to pony up a one time purchase fee for a piece of hardware (like garmin).
It's the dyneema fibers. He's one fiber away from a heart transplant
Legitimately wondering, not just trying to crap on whoop.
Why not use a device (from Garmin as an example) that provides the same metrics while also providing accurate HR.
Whoop HR data is widely reported as inaccurate and that makes it difficult to believe the rest of their metrics because most if not all rely heavily on HR. I don't have first hand experience with whoop but have had lots of experience with Garmin.
I've been unfortunate enough to have my Garmin Fenix 5+ on while connected to a full cardiac monitor and it was very accurate. My Fenix 7 compares very accurately to hospital HR and pulse Ox monitoring that I get checked out with monthly.
re: why coaches don’t hate Whoop
The athletes want to use Whoop because it is marketed to them consumer tech and wearables is not my personal preference, but people who want to pay me to tell them what to do aren’t always interested in writing me 600 word summaries of their life stress, mood state, sleep, etc... All i know about Whoop is that it has a decent .api interface with Training Peaks, which is the SAAS platform that most coaches are using to build and monitor programs for athletes that are in established endurance sports with a “tech ecosystem”.
20+ years before before ai was a buzzword, coaches have relied on algorithms and password protected excel spreadsheets to do the basic math of periodization, and Training Peaks has incorporated most of the validated periodization schemes into their program building tools.
I only want to look at one platform to deal with an athlete, if their weable tech makes them happy and can port into my customized dashboard I make to keep track of a client, and their goals and priorities, i’m not going to say no.
People who work, tend to work too hard. A subscription that can “allow” you to take a rest day is a kind of social reinforcement many people who consume products crave.
That makes sense.
Thanks for the detailed answer. I appreciate it.
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