Supersapiens and Team Qhubeka ASSOS, Africa’s only UCI-registered WorldTour cycling team, are partnering for the 2021 race season.
Supersapiens, billed as the first direct-to-consumer energy management ecosystem, utilizes the Abbott Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor. This glucose sport biosensor is designed specifically for athletic performance. It will help the pro cycling team manage their fuelling strategies in training, racing, and recovery.
The latest partnership with Team Qhubeka ASSOS builds on a number of endurance sport team alliances for the Supersapiens brand. These include: the BMC Pro Triathlon Team, INEOS Grenadiers, Team Jumbo-Visma and CANYON/SRAM.
Phil Southerland, CEO and Founder of Supersapiens, said “Beyond the team’s incredible success over the last decade, we are inspired by their core mission — the Qhubeka organization’s vision to change lives through bicycles is in line with our own purpose.
“We’re thrilled to work with this team to incorporate feedback from these incredibly talented riders who will be utilizing our product at the highest level of the sport.”
For any athlete, energy management is key to success. With the Supersapiens app paired to the Abbott Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor, Team Qhubeka ASSOS riders and staff will learn and train with real-time fuelling data and retrospective analysis tools.
‘Continuous glucose monitoring will allow team riders to better understand their body’s individual fuelling requirements, discover stable and sustainable fuel sources, dial in their pre-race glucose loading strategy, and maintain their optimal fuel ranges during races — allowing their body to put out its maximum effort without concern for running out of energy.’
“Our team name Qhubeka means ‘to progress’ or ‘to move forward’ in Nguni,” said Doug Ryder, team founder and principal.
“Not only will our team be focused on raising funds to purchase bicycles that will be used to improve lives, our partnership with Supersapiens also gives us new insight to better glucose management.
“This information and what we learn, will be shared with the company and improve performance for athletes around the world. All of this is true progression.”
Team Qhubeka ASSOS will also kick off an affiliate program with Supersapiens. Here, athletes in the eight countries where Supersapiens is available can purchase the energy management ecosystem and a portion of the sales will support the team and its mission to improve lives via bicycles.
“We all know the consequences of poor fuelling,” said Team Qhubeka ASSOS team sport scientist Elliot Lipski. “Low or unstable glucose levels can cause an array of physiological and performance degradations, ranging from impaired judgment, to loss of power or speed, all the way down to completely depleted energy stores.
“Working with Supersapiens will help us to train and race better as well as empower more athletes around the world to do the same.”
The Supersapiens ecosystem includes the Abbott Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor, the Supersapiens app, and a wrist wearable device in the final stages of development that displays data from the biosensor in real time.
The app continuously tracks glucose data and allows athletes to create events – workouts or races, meals, and rest – so they can correlate specific glucose levels with their body’s physiological performance during racing, training, and recovery.
And the Education Hub offers information to help athletes better understand glucose and the impact it has on performance, so anyone can learn how to optimize fuelling for sustained performance.
The Supersapiens ecosystem powered by Abbott Libre Sense is now available in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
www.Supersapiens.com
www.TeamQhubeka.com
