Pro cycling outfit Team SmartStop has had quite a year so far, competing in UCI races, the Redlands Bicycle Classic, the Novant Health Invitational Criterium, the Belmont Criterium, the Charlotte Criterium, the Tour of the Gila, and the US National Road Championship – to name a few.
Today the team is made up of fifteen riders who come from various backgrounds but share the same common passion for cycling. Polar Bottle has been the water bottle sponsor for Team SmartStop since 2013 and has now announced its continued support for the team and its presence in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
Not only has Team SmartStop accomplished a smooth transition from a criterium-focused team to a road-focused team; the team’s riders also gave a scare to the best criterium team in the US [United HealthCare team] at the Charlotte Criterium and pulled out a win at the US Road National Championship under gruelling conditions.
Those successes have given them a spot in the 2014 US Pro Cycling Challenge – a first for the team since its inception in 2007. “It was a big goal at the start of the year and I didn’t know if we could pull it off but luckily the boys really stepped up and proved that they deserved to be there and we look forward to proving that in the race as well and proving that we should be a worthy consideration every time,” said Michael Creed, the Director of Team SmartStop.
Hydration is an important aspect of having a successful race, and Polar Bottle has been able to supply the team with water bottles to keep them hydrated.
Fifth place finisher at the US Road National Championship, Julian Kyer, stated, “Hydration is the number one reason why we were successful. We knew each time we reached down to our bottles they were going to be cool.”
Judy Amabile and Robert Heiberger founded Product Architects Inc (Polar Bottle) in 1994. As avid cyclists and budding entrepreneurs, they wanted to develop a bottle that would keep liquids cool during long rides.
Robert, a mechanical engineer with experience working with heat loss, adapted his expertise to create the insulated Polar Bottle water bottle. From there, he and Judy began making the reusable insulated water bottles by hand with plastics sourced from Denver.
At that time, Polar Bottle had one employee, who helped produce bottles while Judy and Robert travelled around Colorado selling the product to individual bike shops. Today, Polar Bottle has grown to a company of more than 50 employees with customers around the world.
