The AI arms race in professional cycling has new competitors, with the Jayco-AlUla men's team and Liv-AlUla-Jayco women's team signing up with ai.io.
GreenEDGE Cycling, the organisation that runs the two teams, has penned an 'official partnership' with the UK-headquartered AI technology company, which is focused exclusively on sports.
The partnership will primarily be used to develop performance, with athlete motion analysis a key component of ai.io's offering. It will also be used more widely in talent identification and even outside of a sporting sense in the way the team engages with fans.
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"We are always looking for new ways to better the team in all areas and as road cycling develops at a rapid rate, we are pleased to stay at the forefront of technology and utilise this new partnership with ai.io across the board in all departments," said GreenEDGE general manager Brent Copeland.
Andrew Day, Operating CEO of ai.io, added: "The partnership is an exciting opportunity for us to bring our AI powered technology to one of the most progressive teams on the WorldTour.
"Coupling leading edge technology and data in the pursuit of gains across both elite athletes and support staff, we believe that together we will provide enhanced pathway opportunities, provide insights that drive better performance outcomes and engage fans in ways not previously possible."
Not another AI partnership
The partnership is the latest in a string of AI link-ups in pro cycling in the past couple of years, as teams fight to see how the ever-evolving technology can elevate their performance structures.
The Ineos team recently struck a title-sponsor deal with the Danish tech firm Netcompany, with AI said to be the driving force behind their plans to win the Tour de France again within five years.
Visma-Lease a Bike signed a parternship with Mistral AI earlier this year, having already used AI platforms for nutrition plans, while UAE Team Emirates-XRG partnered with Analog last year.
Elsewhere Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner has even built her own AI platform to harness all her performance data.
"This partnership represents another important step forward in positioning Team Jayco AlUla and Liv AlUla Jayco at the forefront of innovation within global cycling," stated Jayco-AlUla's senior advisor, Darach McQuaid.
How will the AI actually be used?
It is not always clear from teams' partnership announcements how the AI technology will actually be implemented, but GreenEDGE have offered a more detailed insight than most.
There's a wide-ranging brief, with performance-enhancement the obvious starting point, though the team say the tech will also help scout for talent and even re-shape their communications strategy, promising "new models of interaction between teams, athletes, and audiences".
The leading tool in the arsenal of ai.io is a motion capture tool called 3DAT, which, according to the company, "can analyze and report on any human, in any scene, performing any movement from any historical or live video - even from a mobile phone".
This could help assess a rider's fit and technique on the bike, with injury prevention cited as a use case for the team, but it could also in theory help the team to understand how their riders are performing in a live race situation.
ai.io will also provide a more traditional AI-based information platform, aiLab, which pulls in data from various sources, such as a rider's power output, heart rate, and so on, to build a responsive performance plan.
Finally, ai.io also has a tool called aiScout, a talent identification platform which was developed for football and is now broadening out to other sports. The tool works by "analyzing, scoring, rating individuals using advanced in-house AI tools" and will be used by the Jacyo teams in the ever-quickening race to find cycling's next big things.
