This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
NEW OPENING PEAK PERFORMANCE


British Cycling’s Shane Sutton (second from left) has joined the team at Athlete Lab, bringing elite expertise to the programming W


ith its first UK site open just three months, the team behind indoor cycling studio Athlete


Lab is already eyeing up more London sites. Approaching 50 per cent capacity in the first quarter since opening, the club’s performance paints a positive outlook for quick growth for the brand, especially as it opened in what the owners expect to be their quietest time of the year. Moving quickly is something the


founders Michael Flynn, a former Glencore oil trader, and Neil Franks – head of South East Asia and Australia at Cordea Savills private equity group – know well, both in business and in the saddle. They met during cycle training sessions in Singapore, where they were both working at the time. Looking for better places to train, but failing to fi nd quite what they were after, they decided instead to open their own studio where cyclists could bring in their own bikes to train indoors in a convenient location. Within two weeks of the fi rst Athlete


Lab opening, the pair already had two sites: the inaugural site in Singapore and a club in Sydney, Australia. Two years later, Athlete Lab has arrived in London with a £1m studio targeting the cycling fanatics of the city’s fi nancial heartland.


There are 20 bikes in the main studio


David Thompson pays a visit to the new


Athlete Lab cycle hub, to see how its focus


on cycling enthusiasts rather than fitness fanatics is giving it a different spin


“London was the obvious next step


for us,” says Flynn. “Cycling is massively popular here, and it’s very diffi cult to train year-round due to the infamous English weather. Wherever there are dedicated cyclists and triathletes who have busy jobs, there will always be a demand for convenient indoor training.”


LONDON MODEL Unlike the Athlete Labs in Singapore and Sydney, the London club only has fixed bikes, custom-made for an authentic experience – the other clubs have the option of bringing your own.


46 Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital


and 10 more in the basement studio, along with a stretch and conditioning area. The bikes, called Adjustabikes, are made exclusively for Athlete Lab by Powerwatts, a Canadian company that developed the training hardware for Olympic athletes. They feature clip-in pedals (with shoes available from reception), gears and rear wheel of a real road bike, mounted on a modifi ed frame which sits in a turbo trainer. Data from the turbo trainer and


sensors fi tted to the pedals generate an impressive array of performance information. This data is displayed on a huge screen at the front of the studio, and this is the driving force behind the workouts. By matching power output and cadence (pedal speed) to the targets on-screen, you’re guided through the ride. The system also links up with heart rate monitors and results can be sent to tracking programmes such as Strava. You also get a ride report sent by email. There are ride programmes for


endurance, sprint intervals, HIIT, fi ve- minute intervals and Ironman triathlon training, all of which make up the club’s regular schedule of 16–18 classes a day. The rides at Athlete Lab have been developed by the in-house team of


August 2014 © Cybertrek 2014


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90