Boston-based racing team ButcherBox Cycling is turning to AI, both to maximize its training and build its fanbase.
The team, named "UTC-ButcherBox Cycling p/b LOOK" in full, is partnering with Boulder, Colorado-based Humango to bring the firm’s endurance sport AI technology into the fold.
The Humango platform bills itself as being more holistic and more actionable than wearable trackers on the market.
Humango can use any number of wearable data trackers, from heart rate monitors to power meters on bikes, and can combine their information to give advice and suggestions, said Pav Bryan, master cycling coach at Humango. It makes the data actionable, he said, which has been a criticism of wearable fitness trackers.
“The more data we have, the better we can do,” Bryan said.
The Boston racing team will use the Humango technology to aid their own training. Humango’s platform has an AI coaching function that incorporates data from wearables and can tell athletes or their coaches when they might need to adjust training based on recent workout performances, Bryan said.
Its most critical function, in Bryan’s perspective, is a fatigue-detection ability that acts almost as a warning signal for overtraining.
The partnership will also include a social element that will allow fans more access to the training regimens of the cyclists.
“It will give people a look behind the scenes,” said Dino Piskopanis, team founder and Executive Director at UTC-ButcherBox Cycling p/b LOOK.
The cycling team is also partnered with ButcherBox, a Boston-based meat delivery brand founded in 2015.
The technology is available for amateur athletes, too, and those who join the virtual training group can get a five-week free trial for Humango. Otherwise, it will run you between $9 and $29 dollars a month, depending on the level of AI analysis you’re looking for.
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