New technical partner
Swiss brand, a pioneer in monitorization of core body temperature, helps Telefónica-backed squad manage their physiological parameters and optimize their performance.
MORE ABOUT CORE | Official website
The Movistar Team is welcoming CORE to their partnership program as of the 2021 La Vuelta ciclista a España. During the weeks prior to the last Grand Tour of the season, the performance staff from the Telefónica-backed squad have tested the device for core body temperature monitorization developed by CORE. As a result of the good initial feedback, the team is already using this new technology during this year’s Spanish GT.
CORE is a technology created in Switzerland, the first device of its kind able to continuously monitor core body temperature with clinical precision. Data retrieved by the device are available to the rider in real time through their Garmin bike computers, and can be analized after every race or training ride by both the athletes and their coaches.
Patxi Vila, head of performance for the Movistar Team:
“Controlling our riders’ temperature is a parameter which gives us plenty of information to control our athletes’ physical development, helping us to know when we must stop carrying on with certain workloads or maybe insisting more oncertain aspects.
“We hope that, with time, we will be able to better understand these metrics, which are innovative in both its technology and its detail of information. It’s a new parameter for us, which is currently being used on an experimental basis.”
Chris Blomfield-Brown, Product Manager for CORE:
“We always appreciate having a chance to work with the world’s best, and helping us obtain maximum performance out of relevant data on their athletes’ performance is a big achievement for us. When the Movistar Team proposed us to collaborate on this, we didn’t hesitate to accept. We’re really happy to work with them, and we hope this will be the start of a long relationship between the Movistar Team and CORE.”
Core body temperature is a physiological parameter different from surface-level, skin temperature, also known as peripheral temperature. While the latter can change with exposure to wind or rain, the former is only modified by physiological processes, such as intense sporting activity, fever or menstruation. Until now, measuring core body temperature was only possible with invasive techniques, such as digital pills or intra-body probes. CORE has developed the first technology able to achieve this with a non-intrusive method, which can be used for as long as one wants.
Top-level athletes and coaches know that, when you practise any sport, your core body temperature increases, as a natural process of generation of energy in your muscles. When you reach a certain limit, a natural mechanism is triggered which cools your body down. This process takes blood from your muscles to your skin, reducing your sporting performance by a very significant margin. The technology developed by CORE allows to monitor this process on a screen, measuring each individual’s thermoregulation in real time. Through these data, training protocols and race strategies can be developed to obtain maximum performance from the athletes.
The device CORE has developed is a small, compact unit, which can be attached to the heartrate monitor band, works out the core body temperature and records the data directly into the Garmin bike computer. The device is based on an advanced energy transfer sensor, manufactured in Switzerland.