How Team Garmin-Slipstream uses Apple tech to train harder and smarter--and rack up more pro cycling wins.

Case Study: Allen Lim, PhD

Occupation: Sports Physiologist for Team Garmin-Slipstream

Gear:  15-inch MacBook Pro, loaded with custom analysis software that crunches cycling data logged on Garmin Edge 705 bike computers

Performance-enhancing drugs? They’re a big no-no in the world of pro cycling (see Floyd Landis, the indictment, disqualification, and subsequent disgrace thereof). But performance-enhancing technology in pro cycling? Bring it on. And while you’re at it, grab your MacBook Pro and maybe even your iPhone, because if you want to follow the lead of Team Garmin-Slipstream, a Mac travel pack is essential.

Dr. Allen Lim, a sports physiologist, is the focal point of the team’s Apple-centricity. With degrees in exercise science and exercise physiology already under his belt, Lim started his own pro women’s cycling team in 1998, and began helping a nascent Team Garmin-Slipstream in 2005. Today, Garmin-Slipstream is a top-tier racing program, with impressive stage wins and overall placements in storied competitions such as Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Tour of California.

Garmin-Slipstream riders and the rest of the peloton leave Davis for Santa Rosa in stage 1 of the Tour of California. (Click to embiggen)

The riders still have to pedal their bikes to claim victory, but Lim’s technology tools are essential in extracting the last iota of performance from their taxed-to-limit bodies, as well as orchestrating strategy for combined team efforts. At the front of this workflow is the Garmin Edge 705 bike computer.

“You’re able to monitor everything that happens on the bicycle,” Lim says. “Everything that happens to the athlete’s body is recorded on the computer.”

Much like the data-acquisition systems used in automotive racing, the Edge 705 records and stores a wealth of data—the cyclist’s power output, torque, speed, heart rate, distance traveled, elevation gain, and other metrics. The computer stores the data until it can be downloaded and analyzed by coaches. And this is where Lim’s Mac mojo comes in.

Most software for analyzing training and race data is PC-based, and Garmin code is no exception. But Lim wanted Mac-based software to analyze rider data on his Mac, so he enlisted a developer friend to create a custom Mac app, dubbed Phoenix. The app collects the data points recorded on each cyclist’s computer and combines it in a way that helps Lim and other team members drill down into what’s going on with each rider’s physiology as he trains and competes.

Garmin's Edge 705 computer acts like a USB drive, holding a rider's data for later analysis. Soon the team might use an iPhone app for sending rider information to coaches with the tap of a button.(Click to embiggen)

“With all our team using Apple computers for their everyday life and for travel, we’ve just had to adapt and build our own software,” Lim says. “So we’ve written our own code and do the analysis in our own way.”

With Phoenix fully deployed, Lim is working on the logical next step: an iPhone app that would eliminate the bottleneck in the team’s data-acquisition process. Right now, to get his data from point A to point B, a cyclist has to pull his computer off his bike, transfer the data to a Mac, and then send it as an email attachment to Lim for analysis.

An iPhone app could streamline everything. “What we want is an iPhone or some other cell device that can pick up that information on an ANT+ network,” says Lim.

ANT+ is an ultra-low-power wireless transmission system that connects electronic devices (much like Bluetooth). At the end of a training session or race, a rider would tap a button on his iPhone, which would grab data from the Edge 705 over ANT+ and then send it to a server over Wi-Fi or 3G. From there, Lim or other staffers could download the data and immediately begin analyzing it in Phoenix.

Current U.S. Time Trial Champion David Zabriskie pedals down the start ramp at the Tour of California prologue in Sacramento. Zabriskie finished the prologue 3rd and finished 2nd overall in the tour.(Click to embiggen)

The iPhone app would have tactical race applications too. Coaches sitting in team cars could receive real-time rider data, which they could use to give their cyclists better advice on how to manage themselves during a race.

“Take, for example, the Tour de France,” Lim says. “If the team is defending the yellow jersey, we encourage the guys to protect that jersey. The person wearing that jersey should spend the least amount of energy during the day and have the lowest average power output. The rest of the team, meanwhile, should be expending all their energy to protect the yellow jersey.”

Lim says he’s “working very aggressively” to finish the iPhone app, and he thinks it will be done soon. Can they finish before July 4, when the 96th Tour de France begins? Maybe, maybe not. But, hey, riders still need to pedal to win that yellow jersey.

All the Mac power in the world can’t buy a race win.