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Cycling esports team Canyon ZCC has partnered with Verve Cycling.
Canyon ZCC and Verve Cycling have joined forces to ensure all team bikes are equipped with the InfoCrank, providing fully validated power measurements for all online races.
The announcement comes as the Canyon ZCC team takes part in the Zwift Tour for All this week – the first pro-am race to introduce new rules that make dual-recording of power mandatory for all participants.
Verve Cycling has also provided VINC, its unique online data-analytics platform, to support the team, which will allow each athlete to gain greater insight into their performance on the bike.
“I spent a long time researching power meter products before deciding that InfoCrank was the right choice for us,” said Rhys Howell, team manager of Canyon ZCC. “Unlike all other cycling disciplines where the data is secondary; often utilised only after the race, the opposite is true of eRacing where the data is the race.
“So I had two criteria: I wanted the most accurate product I could find and I wanted the most bullet-proof product that couldn’t suffer from miscalibration. I firmly believe we’ve found that product and are excited to be working closely with Verve Cycling, both with their hardware and software, to help make Canyon ZCC the most accurate team in eRacing.”
The InfoCranks will be rolled out across the Canyon ZCC riders over the coming month. Bryan Taylor, Verve Cycling president, added: “As eRacing’s first professional team, Canyon ZCC has set themselves the highest of standards, and when Rhys reached out and articulated his vision we knew straight away that we had to be involved.
“Enabling the acquisition of consistently accurate and reliable cycling power data is everything we do at Verve Cycling and the InfoCrank has shown itself time and again to be the choice of those who are serious about the reliability of their numbers. The partnership is, therefore, a natural fit and we cannot wait to see the InfoCrank used by one of the strongest teams in the eRacing domain.”
Together with the power reading for the team’s Wahoo Kickr 18, the team will now be able to ‘dual-record’ – the new standard for ensuring a primary power source is accurate – which is a step forward in ensuring riders are not riding miscalibrated equipment.
Canyon ZCC has six core brand pillars – one of which is ‘remove all variables’ – and even though dual-recording is not a requirement for races at the moment, the team’s aspiration is to take a leading role on transparency and so will be the first team in eRacing for whom every rider has the same primary and secondary source. All of the team’s dual recordings will be uploaded to Zwiftpower.
Howell added: “Once the InfoCrank power meters are set up on all of the team bikes, then we shall be updating our Transparency page as well as our internal guidelines to reflect these changes. We look forward to seeing more teams and riders following suit. Together we can make our sport fairer for all and ultimately, more enjoyable to both participate in and watch.”
