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A Game Changer for Coaches
How the Velocity app helps coaches reach new heights, PTO pursues profit, and is training at night good for you?
Matthew Sharpe
April 18, 2023
Good morning everyone,
I hope you had a great weekend training, racing, or just relaxing. If you happened to catch the Boston Marathon yesterday it was quite the race. The athletes were super inspiring battling it out in extreme conditions. Can you imagine swimming and biking before that?!? Now that would be really impressive 😉
In today’s edition:
Former pro cyclist Robbie Ventura breaks down his game-changing app for coaches and athletes 📈
The PTO pursues profits 🤑
Are there benefits from training at night? 🌕
And what is the right way to clean your chain? 🧼
Thank you for being here.
-Matt Sharpe, newsletter editor
Have a triathlete in your life who can't stop swimming, biking, or running? Fire this off to them. Forwarded from a friend? Sign-up for free.
QUICK NEWS
🏆 EmmyMan: A documentary featuring triathlete Kyle Brown’s emotional journey to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships finish line while battling ALS has earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Short Feature. [Ironman]
🌉 Spain games: Pontevedra, Spain has been awarded the 2025 World Triathlon Multisport World Championships. The event is a celebration of sport with over 13 events crowning World Champions. [World Triathlon]
📡 Challenge live: The Challenge Family Championship men’s and women’s pro races will be broadcasted live on May 21st. [Challenge Family]
ONE BIG THING
Smaller Fields, No Long Distance Races. Inside the PTO’s Push for Profits
PTO/Darren Wheeler
As reported by Triathlon Magazine Canada, the new Chairman of the Professional Triathletes Organization, Chris Kermode, is putting his signature on the PTO Tour in a bid for maximum growth and profitability. His wide-ranging decisions include:
🔬 Smaller race fields.
🤑 More marketing investment in key athletes.
⛔ No longer-distance PTO events.
The PTO’s goal is to create a stand-alone professional triathlon race series that can exist without a mass-participation component like Ironman. These moves demonstrate a further commitment to that goal.
With key investments from television giant Warner Bros. and Kermode’s background as an executive with the ATP. The goals of these decisions are clear, create a compelling TV product highlighted by “household name” athletes.
Tempo’s take: These moves by the PTO are critical for it to try to achieve commercial success, stand out from Ironman, and become the PGA tour/ATP of triathlon.
The knock-on effects of these decisions bring up interesting scenarios:
Will there be longer (think Ironman) distance-focused pros who completely give up on the PTO and its shorter distance?
Could Ironman then cement itself as the only true long-distance pro game in town?
Will it lead to a schism in the professional ranks, with a large contingent of Ironman pros and a smaller cohort of PTO-focused pros creating further confusion?
One thing is sure, these decisions aren’t made lightly.
TOGETHER WITH VELOCITY
From Peloton to Platform: How Robbie Ventura is Helping Coaches and Athletes Be Their Best
Robbie Ventura is well-known for his roadside commentary for NBC’s Tour de France coverage, but he’s also been a long-time cycling coach.
He’s well-versed in the pain points of scaling a coaching business while maintaining strong personal relationships with his remote athletes. His startup, Velocity, aims to do both, while also giving athletes the best training platform to achieve their goals.
Robbie, you’ve been coaching for over twenty years, but you previously raced at the highest level of cycling on the World Tour, what are your stand-out memories from your racing career?
I loved to train and I loved trying to maximize my limited talents! I did well in criteriums mostly and I had a good sprint but didn’t have the VO2 max to compete in the biggest of races.
My career highlight was when I just missed out on the podium at World Championships, finishing in 5th. And I always loved racing in the Kenosha criterium during Superweek!
Looking back on your coaching career, what has been the most significant change you’ve seen while working with your athletes?
The biggest change has been wearables to determine how we can measure recovery. HRV and resting heart rate have helped a ton in determining when athletes get tired. And so far, our Velocity platform has been an amazing tool to remotely coach athletes all over the world, and teach at a much higher level.
Can you tell us about your new Velocity cycling platform, and why it’s so game-changing for coaches?
At the heart of the Velocity cycling platform and IOS app are “coachable moments.” From a performance perspective, coaches can immediately see if an athlete is in their optimal zone based on the color coding of the athlete’s video box.
🟦 Blue means power or cadence is below the target,
🟥 Red is too high, and
✅ Green means good!
🚴 The coach can also see the athlete’s face and body position to provide feedback on effort and form.
And there is also the opportunity for the coach to recognize many of the softer moments like an athlete's 70th workout, their birthday, or just encourage them to move up the leaderboard through skills-based gamification.
For coaches who are looking to grow their business and scale revenue, how does Velocity help?
Velocity knows that coaches feel extremely gratified when they help athletes achieve their goals, and also appreciates that coaching is a business, and for many, a livelihood. Velocity helps coaches:
📈 Achieve better results,
🤝 Retain their athletes for longer, and
🤗 Deepens their relationships and understanding of their athletes.
Athletes are no longer geographically constrained to certain coaches, and vice versa. Coaches can now reach any athlete in the world and maintain a very personal relationship.
From a business mechanics perspective, coaches can craft any combination of subscriptions to offer basic to premium tiered subscriptions as well as offer additional services like strength, running, yoga, or pilates. Velocity has three workout formats: live, on-demand, and replay.
A “replay” class is exactly like a live class - see and compete with other live athletes - except that instead of a live coach, it’s a recording of the coach from an earlier live class. We believe replay is a really special tool for coaches to build community.
For example, a coach in California, can put their replay class at 7 AM in the UK, and they don’t have to be awake to coach it, but the UK athletes all get to see and interact with each other, which builds community and stronger connections with those athletes.
Coach? Sign up for a demo at www.velocity-coaches.com to take your business to the next level!
When I joined your on-demand workout the other day I had a ton of fun (and got my butt kicked 😂). I found the dashboard with my live data super useful in helping me stay in my proper zones.
The skill-based gamification on Velocity makes it fun and engaging for athletes of all ages and abilities to participate on an even playing field. I like to encourage athletes and reward them as they score points in classes.
✅ Athletes really enjoy how the interval steps are color-coded after they finish the step, and I love when they send me a photo of their workout with a complete workout profile of green intervals!
🔎 The VOD’s have all-time leaderboards attached to them, so an athlete can go in and compete against their past efforts. It’s a great comparison of how an athlete performs in the same workout to measure growth.
🥳 The athletes love when they see a breakthrough pop-up on their screen and I can also see it and announce it to the class - “Julie just got her best 1-minute power EVER!”.
Are you an athlete and want to experience the Velocity platform? Email [email protected]
What does the future success of the Velocity platform look like to you?
One of the fun ideas that we envision coaches executing is setting up a training program and a plan for a particular event,
➡️ get a big group of registered athletes from all over the world to train together virtually,
➡️ Then meet up in person at the event and have an awesome experience.
➡️ and then look forward to the next event they can train together for!
We also have some advanced technical features that will analyze and provide feedback in real-time aerodynamics, CdA as well as metabolic analysis, but that’s a little further down the pipeline 🤫
Take your coaching business to the next level with Velocity!
And experience the fun and fitness with Robbie and Vision Quest!
Email [email protected]
Would you like to partner with The Tempo and reach our incredible audience? Reply to this email and we’ll get back to you ASAP.
TRAINING TIP
A Clean Bike is a Fast Bike
Have you ever wondered if you’re cleaning your chain correctly? We definitely have!
Take a look at this super simple and very informative video from YouTuber/Bike Mechanic One Last Lap
Are you an expert and want to be featured in The Tempo? Fill out this form and we’ll get back to you ASAP
WEEKEND RACES
Zaferes Bests the Rest in Missouri Madness
St. Peter’s, Missouri America’s Triathlon Cup
Women’s race: It was an opportunity for the first head-to-head in years between Olympic medalists Gwen Jorgensen (USA) and Katie Zaferes (USA). Both athletes are fighting hard at another appearance at the big show in Paris.
Zaferes took it to the field, soloing out of the water, extending her lead on the 🚴♀️ to over a minute, and cruised to victory on the run ahead of Jorgensen.
🥇 Katie Zaferes (USA)
🥈 Gwen Jorgensen (USA)
🥉 Amelie Kretz (CAN)
Men’s race: In the 🏊♀️ a group of 8 formed that included Charles Paquet (CAN), Jeremy Briand (CAN), Tyler Smith (BER), Marc Dubrick (USA), and Drew Shellenberger (USA) and they put some serious time into the chasers on the bike. Paquet would pulll away on the run to take his first win of the season.
🥇 Charles Pacquet (CAN)
🥈 Jeremy Briand (CAN)
🥉 Darr Smith (USA)
XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championships
Women:
🥇 Alizee Paties (FRA)
🥈 Solenne Billoun (FRA)
🥉 Loanne Duvoisin (SUI)
Men:
🥇 Arthur Forissier (FRA)
🥈 Ruben Ruzafa (ESP)
🥉 Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen (DEN)
FAVOURITES
🎯 Hana’s big goal: Triathlete Hana Al Nabulsi has always been pushing herself to the limits, she completed a 262km ultra-marathon when she was 16! Her next challenge, competing for the U.A.E. at the Paris Olympics, and being the first Emirati triathlete to do it might be her toughest challenge yet! [The National News]
🦉 Night sweats: Endurance athletes are usually associated with early mornings on the roads or at the pool. But are there benefits to working out at night? Increased muscle mass may be one. Night Owls, its time to rejoice. [TrainingPeaks]
🎧 Super chat: D’Hulst on Super League’s future: The gang from ProTriNews recently sat down with Super League Triathlon Co-Founder, Micheal D’Hulst. It’s a great conversation touching on Super League’s beginnings, and where the most dynamic franchise in Triathlon is heading.
TEMPO EXCLUSIVE ARCHIVE
Expert analysis: How to nail your Ironman training nutrition.
That Triathlon Life gives back to future pros.
Expert analysis: Are you making the four most common nutrition mistakes.
Expert analysis: How do smartphones affect performance? A breakdown with Nate Wilson.
LATEST EDITIONS
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Arena Games Champions crowned. And are you in the right shoe?
Is there a better way to breathe? And quick tricks for a better aero position.
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