Turning Race Data into Real-Time Performance Insights

Introduction

AG Insurance–Soudal is a professional Belgian women's cycling team competing at the highest level of the UCI Women's WorldTour, from week-long stage races to the biggest classics. During multi-day races, the coaching staff need a fast, reliable read on how every rider is holding up.

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Client

AG Insurance Soudal

Client since

2025

Solutions

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Technologies

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I really enjoyed working with Datashift. They helped build a solution that made a huge difference: what used to take me a full evening, I can now get done in just a few minutes.

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Martijn Kusters

Head Coach, AG Insurance–Soudal Women's cycling Team

I really enjoyed working with Datashift. They helped build a solution that made a huge difference: what used to take me a full evening, I can now get done in just a few minutes.

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Martijn Kusters

Head Coach, AG Insurance–Soudal Women's cycling Team

The problem

During stage races such as the Tour de France Femmes, the head coach built a post-stage analysis by hand almost every evening: opening each rider's page in TrainingPeaks, the platform that collects power, heart rate and speed data from riders' watches and bike computers, then copying it into Excel and Word. This left less time for coaching and ate into evenings that already ran late.

How we solved it

A dashboard built for women's racing

Datashift built a dedicated stage-by-stage BI dashboard for AG Insurance–Soudal's women's team, shaped around how the women’s team actually races. After each stage, coaches get an updated view of rider performance and recovery, giving sport directors the insights they need to make informed decisions between stages of a multi-stage race.

New metrics

The dashboard pulls finish positions and results from Pro Cycling Stats, the online database that tracks rankings live. It combines this with TrainingPeaks data to surface the key performance and training metrics a trainer needs to assess the team’s performance such as the training stress score, variability index,... Together with the trainers, we also designed a new metric: Matches Burned, counting how often a rider spikes above the desired boundaries, a proxy for wasted energy the coach used to judge ad hoc or by eye.

Putting effort into context

For Matches Burned, we also chose to show where those efforts happened during the race. This provides visibility into what happened during the early part of a race, when broadcast coverage may not yet be available, and allows coaches to compare riders with similar roles in the team.

The result is a more complete picture of how a rider used their energy throughout the race.

Recovery signals that weren't there before

Performance is only one part of the picture. How a rider recovers from one stage can be just as important when preparing for the next.  The dashboard brings recovery indicators such as heart rate variability and sleep into the same view as performance data. Rather than checking these signals ad hoc, coaches can follow them per rider over the course of a race week.

Data from the days before a race provide an individual baseline, giving the coaching staff context when interpreting changes in a rider's signals. A deviation from a rider's normal pattern can then provide an additional signal for coaches to investigate when assessing fatigue, recovery or readiness.

The results

AG Insurance–Soudal's staff now get a live read on every rider straight after the finish.

The results

From hours of manual reporting to actionable insights in minutes. AG Insurance–Soudal's coaching staff now have the information they need to assess rider performance, monitor recovery and prepare for the next stage.

~5 minutes — Instead of an entire evening

What previously took hours of manually collecting and processing rider data now takes just minutes, giving coaches more time to focus on their riders.

One dashboard — A complete picture of every rider

Race results, performance metrics and recovery indicators come together in one place, giving coaches a clearer understanding of each rider's condition throughout a stage race.

Smarter decisions — Backed by data

From identifying wasted energy to tracking recovery, coaches gain insights that help them assess fatigue, adjust race strategies and prepare riders for the next stage.

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