The American professional cycling team Cannondale-Drapac, which is currently competing in the Tour de France, announced on Friday that it was teaming up with the Verizon-owned company Oath as its digital-media partner for the 2018 racing season.

After Verizon completed its acquisition of Yahoo in June, it merged Yahoo and AOL, naming the new subsidiary Oath. Oath's portfolio of 50 media and technology brands include HuffPost, Yahoo Sports, AOL.com, Tumblr, Yahoo Finance, and Yahoo Mail.

As we previously reported, by 2020, Oath said it wanted its brands to reach 2 billion consumers and pull in up to $2o billion in revenue.

The deal is a nice win for Cannondale-Drapac, which has been looking to increase its exposure and budget, in part so that it can become more competitive against the top teams, including that of defending Tour champion Chris Froome's Sky team. Froome is on track to win his fourth Tour title on Sunday in Paris.

If that happens, Sky will have won five of the past six Tours de France.

Bike racing as 'untapped potential'

"Our mission at Oath is to build brands people love," said Stacy Lambatos, Oath's VP of brand experiences. "There's untapped potential to grow the global audience in professional cycling. Through our diverse portfolio, we can provide unique content experiences and engaging stories."

For Cannondale-Drapac general manager Jonathan Vaughters, it's a partnership that should help get his team's story out to the world.

"The crux of it is, I think a lot of people look at the Tour de France and say, 'Well, that's a beautiful event' and so on," Vaughters told Business Insider by phone from the Tour on Friday. "But they don't understand — even fairly hardcore cycling fans don't have a true grasp of it — the day-to-day what-it-takes to be an athlete of that level and what these guys' lives are like.

"This content would be focused on how to bring excellence and high performance — how they do it and how you can bring it to your life, and how cycling is the interface thereof."

In an op-ed for Business Insider in May, Vaughters said cycling represented the best sponsorship deal in sports that brands have been missing out on.

Pro cycling's 'Moneyball' team

For years, Vaughters has led his organization with what he's referred to as a "Moneyball" strategy, in reference to the baseball bestseller. Cannondale-Drapac has an annual budget of around $15 million, which is about one-third of Team Sky's budget.

"This will obviously help our finances," Vaughters said. "It also gets us one step closer to competing with big-budget teams like Sky. It gets us one step closer to being financially stable. But we're still open for more business, let's put it that way," Vaughters quickly added. "I don't want people to read this and think, 'Oh well, I guess now I can't be the sponsor' — because that's not true. We are still open for business.

"It's definitely a major deal, but we're still talking with a number of potential partners to push us to the point where we can take Sky on head to head — which we already are — but really push those guys is what we want to do."

Cannondale-Drapac is owned by the sports-management holding company Slipstream Sports, which is owned by New York-based private investor Doug Ellis. Cannondale is a US-based bicycle manufacturer and Drapac is an Australian-American real-estate firm.

Asked if the new partnership would allow the team to hit pro cycling's transfer market and buy up another big rider or two, Vaughters said, "It gets us one step closer to that. It sort of depends on how the other pieces of the puzzle fit in.

"Like, what is Drapac contributing? What does Cannondale end up contributing? What does maybe a new sponsor contribute? All those pieces determine the overall outcome. But is it a Sky-esque sponsorship? No, it's not. We're certainly open to other companies who may want to enter, because we need that.

"We are definitely starting to poke around on the transfer market, no doubt about that.

"Haven't made any deals yet, but I also have a lot of trust in the talent we already have, and I feel if we could support them a little bit better, in terms of sports science, coaching, and sort of all the infrastructure needs that they have, I'm sure that talent would grow into being the best out there."

Argyle rising

Cannondale-Drapac is enjoying its best Tour de France in years. As of Friday morning, it had the race's third-placed rider, Rigoberto Urán of Colombia, who looks poised to stand on the final podium when the race ends on Sunday. Urán won one of this Tour's hardest, and most dramatic, stages, the ninth, in Chambéry.

The squad, nicknamed Argyle Armada, had a standout start to the Tour with Americans Taylor Phinney and Nathan Brown each donning the polka-dot jersey after leading the "king of the mountains" competition.

Phinney has been a popular figure on NBC Sports with his video diaries.

The new deal was born earlier this year when a former president of AOL's media group, Luke Beatty, talked to Vaughters and said he felt bike racing had "massive untapped potential for behind-the-scenes-content generation," according to Vaughters. Beatty attended the Belgian pro race Het Nieuwsblad and was impressed. Vaughters described his reacation after the race as essentially "Oh my gosh — there's so much we can do with this."

Beatty went back to AOL and effectively said, "Hey, would you look at this seriously? Because I think there's a big business opportunity for you here,'" Vaughters added. The deal took off from there.

Starting January 1 with Oath, Cannondale-Drapac hopes to generate "a lot of behind-the-scenes content," Vaughters told Business Insider. "Obviously content generation is a huge game right now."

Read the full news release below:

Slipstream announces Oath as exclusive digital media partner for 2018 Cannondale-Drapac Pro Cycling Team

Slipstream Sports has partnered with Oath, a digital media company of more than 50 media and technology brands, including HuffPost, Yahoo Sports, Tumblr, Engadget, Autoblog, and AOL.com. Oath will have its brand on team racing kits and vehicles as the Cannondale-Drapac team races over 240 days, across four continents, in the 2018 season. Additionally, Oath and Slipstream will collaborate in creating and distributing exclusive video content and experiences from inside the world of professional cycling. Through this partnership with Oath, Slipstream Sports, which manages the Cannondale-Drapac Pro Cycling Team, has the potential to reach over one billion consumers globally. Professional cycling is one of the fastest growing sports globally with more than 3.5 billion cumulative global TV viewers watching the World Tour in 190 countries.

“Professional cycling is rich with stories, only a fraction of which are actually told,” said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports. “This partnership will allow us to open up the team in terms of content well beyond what most of the world audience sees. Oath has the platforms, skill and ambition to tell the story of cycling in myriad ways. We want people to see us better, to get to know the riders, the staff, and what it takes to be in pro cycling. And we want to use our position as professionals in the realm of the everyday cyclist, too. This partnership gives us a chance to do all those things.”

“Our mission at Oath is to build brands people love. There’s untapped potential to grow the global audience in professional cycling. Through our diverse portfolio, we can provide unique content experiences and engaging stories,” said Stacy Lambatos, VP of Brand Experiences. “We have the technology and content creators to tell these stories through a new lens, including AR, 360 and Live video. This partnership defines what it means to build brands people love.”

Slipstream and Oath will begin sharing cycling content beginning January 1, 2018. For more on Oath, visit www.oath.com.

About Slipstream

The Cannondale-Drapac Professional Cycling Team is an American-registered UCI World Tour racing team. It competes at the highest level of the sport and strives to be open, attacking, and entertaining. In the 2017 season, it has the youngest roster and one of the most diverse squads in the World Tour. Our riders come from the United States, Canada, Australia, The Netherlands, Italy, France, Colombia and beyond. For more on Slipstream, visit www.slipstreamsports.com.

About Oath

Oath, a subsidiary of Verizon, is a values-led company committed to building brands people love. We reach over one billion people around the world with a dynamic house of 50+ media and technology brands. A global leader in digital and mobile, Oath is shaping the future of media. For more on Oath, visit www.oath.com.

DON'T MISS: Inside a Tour de France time trial with Rigoberto Urán, one of the world's best cyclists who's challenging Chris Froome for yellow

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British cyclist Chris Froome won the Tour de France on Sunday.

But before he could even toast his fourth Tour de France title, he helped a fan race toward an unforgettable marriage proposal.

After crossing the finish line at the Champs-Élysées in Paris, Froome stopped by a group of people, reached into his pocket, and pulled out an engagement ring.

"I've been carrying this around for three weeks with me," Froome said as he handed the box to a cycling fan.

The fan, a Channel 4 journalist called Tom Calverley, then got down on one knee and asked his girlfriend to marry him. With cameras rolling, Calverley's girlfriend said yes.

Here's the moment Calverley got down on one knee:

And the embrace after she said yes:

It gave Froome more than one reason to toast victory. A total of 198 riders entered the 21-stage Tour de France race and Froome topped the lot, beating second place Rigoberto Urán by 54 seconds.

Join the conversation about this story »

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While Chris Froome and his Sky team won yet another Tour de France on Sunday, for many cycling fans the more compelling story was that of Rigoberto Urán and his Cannondale-Drapac team. The Colombian finished second overall, just 54 seconds behind Froome after three weeks of intense racing, giving what Froome called his "closest and most hard-fought battle" in the world's biggest bike race.

Cannondale-Drapac has among the smallest budgets in the WorldTour, a third of Sky's, and is known as a scrappy squad that has resorted to a "Moneyball" strategy to compete against deep-pocketed juggernauts, with Urán its lone million-dollar rider. Jonathan Vaughters, the team's general manager, rolled the dice with Urán at the Tour, and it paid off big time, with the 30-year-old winning a key mountain stage and finishing on the second step in Paris, in a coup for the Argyle Armada.

While American fans who watch only the Tour may have seen Urán as a surprise, he's long been building a standout résumé, having raced in Europe for over a decade. Wildly popular at home and with die-hard cycling fans worldwide, he's a colorful character who loves to laugh and joke. But "Rigo" is also respected as a dedicated professional, and in Colombia he personifies a country that's trying to move forward from its war-torn past.

Following are some of the pivotal moments in Urán's life and career to date. Thanks to Klaus Bellon, a cycling journalist who reports on Colombian cycling at Alps & Andes, who shared his insights with Business Insider.

SEE ALSO: An American team with a 'Moneyball' strategy just won the biggest stage with its only million-dollar rider

DON'T MISS: Inside a Tour de France time trial with Colombia's Rigoberto Urán, one of the world's best cyclists who's challenging Chris Froome for yellow

Urán was born on January 26, 1987, in Urrao, Colombia.

Urán told Bellon in an interview that he had a fairly common childhood, going to school and playing a lot of different sports. His mother was a homemaker and his dad sold lottery tickets. Eventually Urán's father got him into cycling, and the two would go on long rides in the countryside. They wore street clothes because they could not afford cycling shorts and jerseys.

Urrao is in northwest Colombia, in the department of Antioquia.

Urrao has a violent past, with fighting between the military and paramilitary and guerrilla groups. As Bellon has pointed out, Urán's hometown was essentially at the center of a decadelong civil war in Colombia, a period known as "La Violencia."

Urán's family experienced the violence firsthand.

"Rigoberto's dad was — as so many people in that sort of socioeconomic scale in Colombia were, especially in the countryside — very keen on cycling," Bellon told Business Insider. "One day his dad was out on a training ride, and it was also around that time he had gotten Rigoberto into cycling. Rigoberto had just done his first race a few months earlier, a time trial, and they simply told him, 'Get to the finish line as fast as you can.' Of course he won ...

"So his dad was out on a training ride, on a Saturday or a Sunday, and he was captured. In Colombia, the military would have these checkpoints where they'd stop you and check your car. And the guerrillas would set up fake checkpoints, as though they were the military. His dad, as I understand, was kidnapped along with other people. What the guerrillas wanted to do was apparently move some cattle and they used the people they captured to move it, and then they just assassinated them afterwards. Rigoberto was left without a father at 14 years old."

The club Urán had just joined took him under its wing.

Urrao has long had a strong cycling culture, Bellon said, "and there are local business owners who sponsor kids. There's a guy who runs the little supermarket. Every day at 6 in the morning his house is open for any cyclists — kids — who want to have breakfast for free. He will feed them because otherwise they will never be fed."

British cyclist Chris Froome of Team Sky has done it again. On July 23, he pedaled his way through Paris to win his fourth Tour de France, 54 seconds ahead of Colombian Rigoberto Urán.

Froome has joined the ranks of the most elite cyclists ever — only four other riders have won four or more Tours. He has also worn the yellow jersey donned by the race's leader for more days than all but three other competitors.

As for what makes Froome so good, there's a long list of factors, including training, mindset, talent, determination, and an excellent team.

But along with that, Froome has an ideal physiology for a cyclist — likely the product of his genetics and careful physical effort.

Froome is 6'1" and at the time of the 2015 Tour (his wins have been in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017), he reported that he'd gotten his race weight down to a remarkably low 147 pounds. He attributed his weight loss to a strict diet that had him cut back on carbs in favor of protein.

After Froome's performance jumped from good to among the best in the world, he allowed physiological researchers to conduct a study on his body and publish the data. (Froome's more recent physiological data has not been published, however. Business Insider requested that information from Team Sky but did not immediately hear back.)

The researchers behind the study found that Froome had some of the best stats for cycling they'd ever seen when comparing the power his muscles put out to his body weight. He was able to put out sustained power levels equal to about 6.25 watts per kilogram, among the highest in the world. And his peak power output for a short sprint was even higher, about 7.8 watts per kilogram.

At the same time, the researchers calculated that Froome's VO2 max — a measure of how much oxygen his body can make use of — would have been 88.2 milliliters per kilogram of body weight per minute during the race, among the highest ever recorded.

And Froome's gross efficiency, a measure of the energy used to put power out, was extremely high as well. Elite cyclists rarely have high score in both gross efficiency and VO2 max, the sports scientists who conducted the study wrote.

All together, Froome is built to be a cyclist. Of course, talent, technique, and training are all important. But at elite levels of sport, there's been a trend toward athletes with certain "ideal" body types, Dr. Michael Joyner, a Mayo Clinic researcher and world expert on fitness and performance, previously told Business Insider.

Swimmers' bodies tend to be long and powerful, like Michael Phelps. Distance runners are often shorter and extremely light. As for cyclists, just look at Froome.

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When Chris Froome won the Tour de France on Sunday, he made history by becoming only the fifth rider to win at least four Tours.

Froome is now one behind the other four riders — Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain — who all won the Tour five times. Froome is just 32 years old, and it looks likely that he'll be joining that club in the next year or two, and perhaps become the first rider to win six Tours.

What makes Froome so good? He's one of the most naturally talented riders. He trains hard. He lost 20 pounds and transformed his body. His Sky team has the biggest budget and can afford to bring the deepest squad to the Tour. But besides being No. 1 at pedaling bikes fast, Froome has also matured, both as a rider and as a team leader, and that's made some difference, so his boss, Sir Dave Brailsford, told Business Insider. According to Brailsford, it's in moments of chaos that Froome shines, leading his troops coolly under pressure.

"It's been fun to watch over time," Brailsford said. "He knows when he needs to step in and make a decision, and he knows when others can make a decision. He's got that very well tuned in now, and that gives him the confidence, so he's not on edge all the time. He's focused but not intense. The people who are around a leader who is intense, they agitate, and it's not a pleasant experience."

Here are six reasons Froome is the world's best stage racer, according to his boss:

1. He is calmer now in moments of crisis.

Brailsford talked about how Froome handles stress, as on stage two of the Tour when Froome crashed.

"He knows there are highs and lows, but the way to manage chaos optimally — because it is quite chaotic in a crash like that — is to stay as calm as possible," Brailsford said. "If he's calm, everybody else is calm. When they all go down like that, you know, the pack — they stall, they all turn and they look at the wolf, and whatever he does next, they all go with him. If he's calm and he says, 'All right, guys — let's go,' boom, they all go again. If he's panicking or kicking off, then they all do the same, which creates even more agitation, more chaos."

2. He is more confident with experience and success.

Froome began this Tour with a whopping total of zero victories this season. He was still the favorite — he's just that good — but some people were speculating that he might get beat. But none of that fazed Froome, according to Brailsford.

"As he gets more experience and becomes more successful, he's got more confidence in his ability to gain the form at the right time, to peak at the right time," Brailsford said. He no longer maybe needs confirmation.

"When he started out, he had to develop leadership skills and he needed the confirmation of winning. And that's one of the insights for me — as he's getting older, his awareness of how to be a leader is fantastic. And he's very grateful, very generous with his support."

3. He is intrinsically driven.

Winners of the Tour don't win outrageous amounts of money, at least when compared to other sports. Froome won 500,000 euros on Sunday ($580,000), and tradition dictates he share that money evenly with his team. Most of his earnings come in the form of his $5 million salary paid by Team Sky. But when it comes to winning, according to Brailsford, it's not really about the extrinsic rewards.

"I think the one thing about Chris is he's highly intrinsically driven. He's very, very driven. For all the right reasons actually," Brailsford said. "It's not about the reward side of it — it's about the achievement side of it. So he's up for it, he's got hunger, he wants it. He's got the talent obviously, so there are your two credentials. Put a good plan in place and remove the distractions and all the barriers."

Chris Froome on Sunday won his fourthTour de France title in five years, and yet his victories were many years in the making.

So much is needed to win the world's most prestigious bike race, including the right genes, a superstrong team with a big budget, the best bikes and gear, support, commitment, and hard training. But Froome also had to lose significant weight, and he has developed physically from a younger and stockier version of himself into the quintessential three-week stage racer: lean, light, strong.

When Froome turned pro in 2007 at age 22, he weighed 167 pounds. Now, at 32, he is often cited as weighing 147 (in his 2014 autobiography he said he was 66 kilos, or 145 pounds). The 20-pound weight loss has allowed him to thrive on the bike, especially in the mountains. In scientific terms, his power-to-weight ratio— a key measurement used to express an athlete's performance — is about 6.25 w/kg, the envy of just about every cyclist. After the trimming, Froome is thought to have increased his power to weight by 10%.

"His success can be put down to a massive loss in weight, helping to explain his improvement from also-ran to Tour de France winner," William Fotheringham at The Guardian has said. "The engine was there all along," Jeroen Swart, a sports physician and exercise physiologist at the University of Cape Town, told Richard Moore for Esquire. "He just lost the fat."

Hello, protein — goodbye, carbs

For the first several years of his professional racing career, Froome had a modest résumé. By far his best result came in his fifth year as a pro, at the end of the 2011 season in the Vuelta a España, where he finished second overall, won a stage, and wore the leader's jersey. Until then, Froome was largely unknown.

In the years leading up to that remarkable performance, Froome had been carrying all kinds of extra weight — tipping the scales at up to 167 pounds. In a 2014 interview with Paul Kimmage for the Irish Independent, Froome said he had "always been aware of the weight issue" but took it for granted: "I don't think I necessarily thought that I could go much lower than [69 kilos/152 pounds] and apparently I have. I've gone a good three kilos lower [66 kilos/145 pounds] which is huge."

Michelle Cound, now Froome's wife, said in the same interview that he "starved himself" before his breakout performance:

MC: He starved himself before the Vuelta, and then he came back to South Africa and that's when we started dating. I've always had a bit of an interest in sports nutrition and my view was that he could still train on more protein and cutting back on the carbs at certain times. And also making sure he wasn't hungry, so having more meals, more often, things like that.

CF: But smaller portions. Basically, I think I lost the weight for that 2011 Vuelta in an unhealthy way; I was starving myself trying to get the weight off and I don't think that's healthy or sustainable. But since I've been with Michelle I've learned to do things in a ...

MC: It also keeps your weight more stable throughout the year, so you're not starving yourself, and then after a Tour you want to eat everything.

CF: (laughs) I still do.

MC: Especially the carbs, he's got such a sweet tooth. But he's found now that if he does cut back on carbs the weight does come down a lot easier than it did in the past. And cutting out foods like breakfast cereals and a lot of the wheat products and bread but still eating enough food — the right food — that he is able to not feel hungry during the day. If you look at his build from the 2011 Vuelta compared to now, he's still lean but his muscles look a lot more defined. So now he has found a way of doing it ...

In July 2012, 11 months after starving himself to ride well in the Vuelta, Froome finished second in the Tour. Then he won the race outright in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017. (He was favored to win the 2014 Tour but crashed out the first week.) As Froome told Kimmage: "In the Vuelta that year (2011), I think my muscles were probably lighter. I was quite gangly. You wouldn't look at me and say, 'That's someone who's strong.' Whereas now, my diet is a lot more protein based. I've cut back on carbs completely but I'm not losing muscle."

Big lungs, too

It's not just about being light. Froome has an exceptional VO2 max— 88.2 — a key performance indicator that measures the maximum amount of oxygen an athlete can use.

"The general population has a VO2 max of 35 to 40, with highly trained individuals in the 50s and 60s," AFP reported. "A few athletes have been measured in the 90s, including three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond. Phillip Bell, a senior sports scientist at GSK, told Esquire: 'Froome's values are close to what we believe are the upper limits for VO2 peak in humans.'"

It all means that Chris Froome has a huge, and hugely efficient, engine. When he won his first Tour he was already down to his ideal race weight of 147 pounds, which he has kept to these past few years, and it has paid off handsomely. He has four wins in the world's biggest bicycle race and earns at least $5 million a year — massive for a bike racer and a far cry from his neo-pro year when he made 22,500 euros.

Men's Health asked Froome whether it was easy for him to stay lean:

"No. I think hard about the quality of the food I'm eating – organic fruit, vegetables and meat wherever possible. It's a common misconception that because we're training five or six hours a day that we can eat what we want and burn it off. It really is a case of watching every little thing you put in your mouth and how it's going to benefit you. Your body really does respond to tweaks then."

In Froome's autobiography, "The Climb," he likens eating right to fidelity:

"I try to go very light in terms of diet. In the mornings I limit myself to just the one bowl of porridge, and normally a two-egg omelette, with no hint of extras on the side. No second helpings, no picking, nothing. If there is a big stage ahead that day I'll try a three-egg omelette, but warily, and I'll mix a small amount of white rice into the porridge ...

"On to the desserts, which no longer contain 'love' as I like to put it. Instead, I'll chew a few pieces of fruit or have a pot of yoghurt. I don't count calories or know the values of most things; I just let my instinct guide me as to what is the right amount to eat. My instinct always says that the right amount is less than I feel like eating. In a previous life I think my instinct lived in a remote monastery. I can think of food, see things in terms of food ... But I just can't eat food. Not like before. It's a fidelity thing."

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DON'T MISS: Why Froome is so good at winning the Tour de France, according to his boss

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When it comes to crazy, world-saving initiatives, the Netherlands just can’t stop won’t stop.

Here’s how the two-year pilot project works, as reported by the Guardian. A Dutch wastewater treatment plant uses an industrial sieve to sift through sewage and collect soiled toilet paper, extracting nearly 900 pounds of cellulose from the TP each day. That cellulose is then sterilized and turned into “fluffy material or pellets” that are used to make insulation or bottles — or, you know, bike lanes.

In the past, the wastewater treatment plant incinerated dirty toilet paper. Because the Dutch enjoy using fine bath tissue, that meant high-quality fibers often went to waste.

The toilet paper scheme isn’t the only way the Netherlands is using sewage for good. One company, AquaMinerals, turns wastewater into calcite pellets, which are great for water softening and producing paints and ceramics.

Next time you flush the toilet, just consider the possibilities!

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The most popular American cycling team, Cannondale-Drapac, was dealt a blow late last week when a promising sponsorship deal for 2018 fell apart, team boss Jonathan Vaughters has told Business Insider.

As a result, Vaughters says, the team is $7 million short for next year and will have to shut down unless it finds a new sponsor or moneyed backer in the next week or so.

While the team is currently racing in the Vuelta a España and set to finish this season as planned, next year is suddenly in question. The team's riders would be without a team for 2018 and its staff members would be without a job.

Vaughters said the riders were freed from their contracts over the weekend and could look to ride for other teams. Yet he says he's hopeful that, somehow, the money will come.

"If some company or someone wants to come forward in the next week, then they can save the only team that sends Americans to the Tour de France," Vaughters said. "And if not, then by Christmas this year Slipstream Sports LLC would no longer exist as a company."

Slipstream Sports is the sports-management holding company that owns Cannondale-Drapac. Slipstream is owned by the New York-based private investor Doug Ellis. Cannondale is a US-based bicycle manufacturer and Drapac is an Australian-American real-estate firm.

Ellis and Vaughters started Slipstream in 2005 as a "clean team" whose stated mission was to compete at the highest level of the sport without doping.

Cannondale-Drapac was the only team at this year's Tour with American riders.

"It was a done deal — I mean, I thought we had an agreement," Vaughters said by phone from Colorado, where Cannondale-Drapac is based. "We were deciding on uniform design and how the bus was going to look. But the agreement always had this clause that said, unless there was unanimous consensus at the board of directors meeting, the agreement could be terminated. We always knew there was a risk, and in the end consensus was not unanimous."

The news has stunned cycling. Besides being one of the sport's most popular teams with stars like Taylor Phinney and Rigoberto Urán, Cannondale-Drapac had its best Tour de France this July after Urán won a key stage and finished second overall, less than a minute behind Chris Froome. Other highlights included a stage win at the Tour of California and the Giro d'Italia and a podium appearance at Paris-Roubaix. During the Tour the team announced it had landed a new sponsorship deal with the Verizon-owned digital-media company Oath. Also at the Tour, Vaughters told Business Insider he had "superstrong leads" for new sponsorship and was hopeful one of them would work out.

In May, Vaughters wrote an op-ed article in which he described pro cycling as the best sponsorship deal in sports that brands were missing out on.

Cannondale-Drapac has become known as cycling's "Moneyball" team, in reference to the baseball best-seller. His organization has an annual budget of about $15 million, about one-third that of Froome's Team Sky. That has meant he has had to find undervalued riders with untapped potential whom he can afford to sign and who could win races. Urán, the team's only million-dollar athlete entering the Tour this year, recently renewed with the team on a lucrative three-year contract, but now his future, like that of all the riders, is uncertain.

Sources told Cycling Weekly that the company that pulled out of the sponsorship deal with Cannondale-Drapac at the last minute was the online betting website Unibet, the cycling site reported on Sunday. Unibet had previously sponsored a cycling team (coincidentally, it was one of the first teams Urán had raced with when he moved to Europe, in 2007, the same year Ellis and Vaughters launched Team Slipstream).

'This is no crying wolf — we've got 10 days from today'

Vaughters said the team already had "$10 million locked up for next year, committed." That $10 million is made up of roughly a third from Cannondale, a third from Drapac, and a third from Oath, with "some odds and ends" making up the last million.

"But we can't do the team on $10 million," Vaughters said. "Our operational expense is $4 million, then your rider payroll is $10 million on its own. We needed at least $15 million or $16 million to get through, and we came up with $10 million. We needed that last $5 million, which would be the cheapest naming-rights sponsor in all of cycling. We needed that last $5 million, and it just fell through.

"This is no crying wolf — we've got 10 days from today," Vaughters said Friday, "to either do it or pull the pin. It doesn't mean we need a $7 million check or whatever by tomorrow. I mean, we're fine till the end of the year. But we just can't run anything in 2018.

"You know, people ask, 'Why don't you just keep looking for a sponsor all the way till November?' But the reason for that is it's not fair to the riders. So I just keep all these guys locked up, right? Then in November I come up with a goose egg, then it's, 'Oh, OK, sorry — you guys are released from your contract.' They'll be, like, 'Well, how am I going to find a job now in November? All the positions are tied up.' So to be fair to the athletes I have to call all this, you know, very soon."

The team said on its website over the weekend that it was setting up a public fundraiser so that it could try to save its 2018 season. Vaughters told Business Insider in a follow-up call on Monday that he was exceedingly pleased with the initial interest from the public, in both financial and moral support.

Asked whether the team could run as a pro continental outfit — that is, one level below WorldTour, cycling's highest level— Vaughters said no, not really, because the team's other sponsorships are contingent on a WorldTour license.

"Unfortunately, you know, if you're a French team, you could do that, because you'll get invited to the Tour de France," he said. "It's like that new Vital team — it's like an $8 million budget. But they'll run a single program, not doing two races at the same time and all that. They won't be WorldTour, and they'll still get invited to the Tour de France, because they're French.

"Whereas if you're an American team, if we were a pro continental team, I don't think we'd get invited to the Tour. I mean, maybe if we had Rigo under contract — maybe. That might be the kicker, but you can't count on that. And all the sponsors who have to sign off on that 'maybe, maybe not,' well, you know.

"It just doesn't make any sense," Vaughters said. "We just had our best Tour de France ever. We really need somebody to step up."

Below are excerpts from an email that Vaughters sent on Friday.

Everyone:

Apologies for the mass email, but all of you on this list have either helped Slipstream Sports (Team Cannondale-Drapac) or have considered helping us out at one point or another. Thank you for that support; it's what has kept us going for over a decade.

However, unfortunately, I have some very bad news concerning the team. This morning we were notified by a very promising potential partner, that they would be unable to complete the deal, due to dissenting opinion on their board of directors. As a result, we were unable to finalize a naming rights sponsorship deal with them for 2018. Very disappointing, considering finishing 2nd in the Tour de France and winning stages in both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia. Our being unable to finalize a naming rights deal means we will not be able to continue as a team in 2018 or in the future. Instead we will need to wind down and end Slipstream Sports LLC, if nothing changes in the current situation. [...]

This is also very sad news for all of you who have helped us in the fight against doping and for the rights of clean athletes. We were the team that index tested the biological passport. We were the first team to promote open and transparent conversation regards doping and how to prevent it. We were the first to be honest about the topic. And that now stands at risk of being lost. [...]

For over a decade, despite our shrinking athlete payroll and increased financial demands, we were able to take on, and often beat, teams with over $40MM at their disposal. We were, and still are, incredibly proud of being able to confront these financial Goliaths - and - occasionally show them that it isn't always the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. 2017 was our best year ever, coming very close to winning the largest race in the world with a rider no one would have given a 1/1000 chance of winning at the start.

Sadly, we are now in our last fight. And that's our fight for existence. If any of you can think of any solutions or any party that wants to financially rescue this team, we are ready and willing to keep on with the good fight, and find the next, unexpected, Tour de France winner. I've attached a small presentation for you to send on to any interested parties. We have about 10 days left before we have to definitively turn the lights off for good.

Thank you all for everything you've done. Thank you for taking the time to read this note. And thank you for giving this one last push.

JV

SEE ALSO: Pro cycling is the best sponsorship deal in sports brands are missing out on

DON'T MISS: The most important skill every leader needs to succeed, according to a Tour de France team manager

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This e-bike can travel a staggering 236 miles on a single charge, that is further than a Tesla Model 3.

The bike comes in 3 different models, the "Prime" has the longest range, the "Top" has a top speed of 50mph, and the "Lite" is the cheapest version.

The Delfast e-bike is street legal and the cheapest version can be preordered on Kickstarter for £2,265.

Produced by Jasper Pickering

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Cycling in London has lots of great benefits: you avoid the rush hour crowds on the Underground, you save money on your travel and you get to pack in some exercise on your commute.

But everyone knows that there are dangers to cycling in any major city, especially when you have to share the roads with cars, lorries, busses and mopeds.

One of the big issues that cyclists and motorists face today is "car dooring" - where drivers carelessly open their doors and knock cyclists off of their bikes.

DfT data collected by charity Cycling UK revealed that between 2011 and 2015 there were 3,108 people injured and eight killed by motorists hastily exiting their cars without checking the traffic around them.

The group is now calling for car occupants to adopt the so-called Dutch Reach method, believing that it could save lives on the road.

But what is it and how do you do it? Here’s everything you need to know.

What is the Dutch Reach?

The technique originated 50 years ago in the Netherlands, where there are currently more than 13 million bikes on the road.

The simple maneuver asks motorists to reach for their car door handle using their far rather than near hand; this means motorists are forced to turn their body towards the door, allowing them to look in their rear view at the traffic behind them.

The idea is that they will have an extra second or two to look over their shoulder and see whether a cyclist is coming.

Opening the door with the adjacent arm also limits how far your car door can open, preventing you from creating a fatal obstacle in the road.

Why are people calling for the Dutch Reach to be adopted?

Some UK cities are starting to build protected paths for cyclists, but in most places, cyclists routes are situated in a "door zone" - between parked cars and the main road.

This means that until cities can invest in better infrastructure for cyclists, they remain at the mercy of drivers.

Cycling UK wrote to transport minister Jesse Norman this week, calling for the launch of an awareness campaign to teach drivers and passengers of the dangers of opening car doors without looking first.

"Dooring" was responsible for 474 accidents across the UK in 2015, according to the Department of Transport (DfT).

Cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen already use the method, while in the Netherlands, the Dutch Reach is taught to children in school.

Being able to perform the Dutch Reach is also a required section of the driving test in Holland.

Now cycling charities are calling for the method to become a necessary component of passing your test here in the UK.

Currently offenders in the UK only face a maximum penalty of just £1,000 for "dooring", even if a cyclist is killed.

"Some people seem to see car dooring as a bit of a joke, but it's not and can have serious consequences," Paul Tuohy, Cycling UK's chief executive, said.

"Cycling UK wants to see greater awareness made about the dangers of opening your car door negligently, and people to be encouraged to look before they open.

"In the Netherlands they are known for practising a method, known sometimes as the Dutch Reach, which we think could be successfully encouraged in the UK."

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CHICAGO — One of the best bike racers of all time, Belgium's Sven Nys, lit up the local cycling scene here on Sunday when he jumped into a beginners' cyclocross race at Caldwell Woods and ripped around the 1.5-mile course for a few laps before pulling out and letting the local riders battle it out for the finish.

Nys rolled up to the back of the packed field of Category 4/5 riders, the entry level for racing bikes in the US. Nys had not announced he was racing the ChiCrossCup and surprised everyone when he lined up in race gear with number pinned for the last race of the day.

"This is like LeBron showing up to a 4th grade pickup game," Wall Street Journal sportswriter Jason Gay tweeted. "But it's awesome."

Nys put on a show, wowing spectators as he flew through 100 or so riders to the front of the field before the first of four laps had even ended. When he got up to the leader, he sat in behind the local, in second wheel, before a friendly back-and-forth rivalry ensued.

Along the way the two-time Olympian displayed the bike-handling skills that helped him win two world titles and some 140 races. A video on Twitter of Nys bunny-hopping a barrier and then riding up the side of a set of stairs, coming up just short, then repeating it successfully, went viral on cycling social media:

At one point he helped himself to a mid-race beer:

Nys was in Chicago with fellow Belgian 'cross star Sven Vanthourenhout to put on skills clinic hosted by local team xXx Racing to benefit the Pieter Ombregt Scholarship Fund. Nys, 41, retired last year from cyclocross, a sport he dominated for the better part of two decades.

"That was really fun," Nys told Business Insider postrace. "It's not all about racing. It's also about having fun and letting the people see what cyclocross is all about. I have the technique, and I can show them something in a race. You hear the noise of the people — that's what we need. Racing is fun."

In addition to his stellar cyclocross career, Nys raced mountain bikes and competed in the Olympics twice in that discipline. Along with Dutch star Marianne Vos, Nys is considered the best cyclocross rider of all time.

Here's Nys during his clinic showing locals how to bunny-hop a set of barriers.

And here he is dismounting his bike at speed and jumping a barrier:

Here he rides alongside local riders as they practice their starts:

Nys was scheduled to travel next to Iowa City for the Jingle Cross World Cup race, September 17, with his Telenet-Fidea cyclocross team, which he owns and manages. On September 25, Nys and Co. will be in Wisconsin for the Waterloo World Cup, hosted by Trek Bicycle. Nys is a Trek brand ambassador.

What's cyclocross?

Cyclocross combines elements of mountain biking and road cycling but is really its own sport. Riders pedal but also run as they hop on and off their bikes, jumping barriers and going up and down short climbs and off-camber sections, on technically challenging courses that can feature a mix of pavement, gravel, grass, sand, dirt, and mud.

Races are held rain or shine, with the season starting around September and finishing around January. The bikes look like road bikes but have knobby tires and other features that make them suitable for off-road riding. Courses are short, about a mile long, and riders complete several laps with the winner being the first person across the line. Amateurs typically race for up to 45 minutes with the pros going a full hour or even longer.

It's a demanding sport that requires a high level of fitness, power, and skill.

Cyclocross is most popular in Belgium and northern Europe and is the fastest-growing discipline in US cycling. Old than the Tour de France, cyclocross started as a way for road cyclists to keep fit in the winter, but it's now very much its own sport, and it has seen explosive growth in the past decade, especially in the US.

Some would like to see cyclocross become an Olympic sport.

See more photos from the race and clinic below.

Cyclocross has seen explosive growth in the US. The ChiCrossCup is an 11-race series.

Nys jumped into the beginners' race unexpectedly and under the radar.

Spectators went wild when they realized Nys was racing.

The Atlanta Falcons are attempting to overcome a brutal Super Bowl collapse and once again contend for a championship.

To do so, they may lean on a key philosophy imparted to them by, not another football team, but world-class cycling team Team Sky.

According to The Ringer's Kevin Clark, Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff has become a Team Sky fanatic after meeting the team's GM Sir Dave Brailsford through a sports leadership program. A cycling fan himself, he jumped at the chance to spend some time following Team Sky and its leader Chris Froome at the Tour de France in 2016.

Dimitroff told Clark that he's not in awe of many athletes, but Team Sky blows him away for its attention to detail.

According to Clark, Team Sky goes above and beyond in its preparation and search for any tiny advantage. The team's philosophy is one that the Falcons have adopted: get 1% better at something every day and it will eventually mount to a massive gain.

According to Clark, Sky is intense in its preparation. They put their jerseys in wind tunnels to see which parts are causing resistance. They sometimes bring their riders' mattresses on the road so they don't change their normal sleeping position. They painted the floors of their bike trucks white so they can see dust that could accumulate on parts and cause mechanical issues. All of it is worthwhile when you've won the Tour de France three years in a row.

Nutritional and technological advances are next for the the Falcons as they try to get ahead of the curve in the NFL.

"When I look at athletes in the cycling community, I feel like they are so far ahead," Dimitroff told Clark.

The Falcons are 1-0 to start the season and only time will tell if their run to the Super Bowl last season was the beginning of an era or a flash in the pan. But in a copycat league often hardened in its ways, the Falcons' search for outside-the-box inspiration could pay off.

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The most talked-about cycling brand in the world right now is Canyon Bicycles, which opened for business in the US on August 15. The German company manufacturers high-end road, mountain, triathlon, and commuter bikes and sells in more than 100 countries. And though its origins date from 1984, Canyon is only now making its American debut.

Canyon says it differs from its rivals by offering technologically advanced performance bikes at comparatively low prices. And though price comparisons are not easy to make, because similar bikes are often specced differently, Canyon says its bikes sell for 20% to 30% less than comparable bikes from major rivals like Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, and Giant, but some observers suggest those figures are overstated.

Canyon sells only online, at canyon.com, direct to consumers. There is no bike shop or middleman. By comparison, if you want to buy a bike from Specialized, you must do it through a brick-and-mortar retailer. You can order a Trek online, but you still have to complete the transaction at a physical shop. Some lesser-known companies also sell bikes online directly, and there are successful third-party sellers, but Canyon is looking to be among the first brands to sell high-end performance bikes directly at a discount on a larger scale. Bike shops make money by assembling, marking up and selling, and servicing bikes, in addition to selling gear and accessories. Because Canyon sells direct and skips the shop, it says, it can afford to sell bikes cheaper. Canyon calls it "democratizing performance."

Canyons are highly desired, award-winning bikes, but US consumers haven't been able to purchase them until now. Riders in the States who own a Canyon most likely had the bike shipped from Europe through a friend or found other means. But their cachet also comes from a German-engineering heritage, which emphasizes a technology-driven approach and matters of detail drawn from a unique industrial-design language that appeals to discerning consumers. Canyon's chief brand officer, Frank Aldorf, who worked at the brand's chief rival, Specialized, comes from the advertising industry, where he did creative for BMW, Mercedes, Adobe, and other top brands. Canyon recently won the prestigious international Red Dot design award.

Canyon says customers will receive nearly fully assembled bikes on their doorstep (direct signature required), with US orders taking no more than a day to process. Customers choose from three shipping options: ground, three- to seven-day, depending on destination, $89; two-day, $150; and overnight, $175. Customers also pay tax.

Canyon's arrival in the US has many cyclists excited, but it's also brought about a sense of anxiety for some in the industry, and there is debate, on sites such as Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, over what effects, positive or negative, a successful consumer-direct sales model like Canyon's could have on brick-and-mortar retailers. In addition, though Canyon has been selling in more than 100 countries, its entry into the US won't be easy, several insiders who spoke with Business Insider said, pointing to a soft bicycle market and a lack of new riders buying bikes.

Business Insider spoke with Aldorf by phone from Canyon's headquarters, in Koblenz, Germany, and industry insiders about the company's bikes and business model. We also tried out one of the company's most popular bikes, the Aeroad (photos below), which Canyon shipped from its new Chino, California, warehouse by UPS to our doorstep. We had it assembled inside a half-hour and have already ridden it 500 miles.

SEE ALSO: From street vendor to Tour de France star, the extraordinary determination of Rigoberto Urán

A brief history.

In the mid-1980s, Roman Arnold was an amateur bike racer in Koblenz. In his teens he traveled to races with his father, a sales rep, who came up with the idea of selling imported bicycle parts from Italy. At first they sold the parts out of a trailer, which they towed around with their family car. When Arnold was 18, two days after he graduated from high school and was set to be conscripted into the army, his father died, Arnold told Pinbike in an interview. He suddenly didn't have to enter the service, so he and his brother, Franc, decided to grow the fledgling side business, which is when they started selling out of the family garage.

That eventually led to the opening of a bike shop, in 1985, and Arnold's shop became a dealer for other brands, including the American companies Specialized, Trek, and Cannondale. (Arnold has said he was for a long time the largest Trek dealer in Germany.) But Arnold dreamed of having his own bike brand, so he started off with a small mail-order catalog before eventually moving onto the web and becoming one of the first online cycling brands. At the time, positioning the business as an internet-based bicycle company was something of a bet, but, according to Aldorf, Arnold believed that selling online direct to consumers was the future.

Germany, then the world.

In developing his own bikes, Arnold said he looked at the best people in the industry and asked them to work for him. In 1985, he eventually put a team together, and "that is when the Canyon you know today was kind of born," Aldorf said.

The business grew, first in Germanic markets but then in France, Italy, and Spain and eventually in the UK and beyond. Canyon now sells bikes directly to consumers in more than 100 countries, and it has sold more bikes outside Germany than in its home country in every year since 2008, Aldorf told Business Insider.

Today, Canyon is one of Europe's largest bike makers, with a global staff of 850 and north of $180 million in annual revenue, according to Cross Border magazine, with revenue growing 30% year-over-year for the past seven years.

"We always knew the path was outside of Germany because that's where the biggest growth would come from," Aldorf said. "In European markets, it was an easier transition, closer to home, and in terms of legal, tax, and regulations. But for the past seven years, there's been a huge number of people overseas asking, 'When are you opening in the US?'

"So for a long time there was a huge demand there already. But it was something we couldn't get our heads around, and Roman was always just a little bit hesitant to go into this market and just didn't know the market well as he did those here in Europe. But at some point it was, like, 'Will we ever go to the US market?' 'When is the best time?'"

Click to doorstep.

While Canyon says a good deal of its success stems from its consumer-direct model — part of what it likes to refer to as "democratizing performance"— Aldorf said that, for him, it wasn't the business model that defined the company.

"We make higher-end performance bikes in road and mountain but also in our urban line and other performance-oriented bikes," he said. "We can offer them to a lot more people because of our business model. But 'democratizing performance' means first looking at the product, and no matter how you received our product, our bikes on a performance level can compete with all the bikes from Specialized, Trek, or our other competitors that go through the usual dealer network," Aldorf said.

"The bike itself is convincing — the design, performance, and quality. So it's part business model, part quality, but it's also the German part that plays into this, because our engineers and the department that takes care of our quality control is really top-notch. So that for us is the opportunity: a product that has won awards, is tested, and gets great reviews, without even taking consideration of how we distribute our product. Then, on top of that, we have our distribution, and it has a really nice price point. You get great value for the money. Combining these two things is the specialty of Canyon."

WATERLOO, Wisconsin — The rising cycling star Mathieu van der Poel has arrived here to do battle in Sunday's World Cup Waterloo, the second round of the 2017-2018 Telenet UCI Cyclocross World Cup nine-race series. The young Dutch sensation won last's week opening round of the cup in Iowa City, Iowa, at Jingle Cross and is now looking to defend his lead this weekend in the Badger State before he and the world-class series head back to Europe.

At 22, Van der Poel is already a multi-time world champion on the road and in cyclocross. His father, Andri, is a former world champion in cyclocross who also won stages in the Tour de France and several classics; his maternal grandfather, Raymond Poulidor, won the Vuelta a España and was runner-up at the Tour three times.

Van der Poel is the best rider in world cyclocross so far this season, though the reigning world champion, Wout van Aert, and other top rivals will try to spoil Van der Poel's party this weekend. Temperatures will be unkind to all the riders, with the forecast calling for 85 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday afternoon — very hot for what's traditionally a fall-winter sport.

Business Insider got a close-up look at Van der Poel's bike. See the photos below.

SEE ALSO: The most talked-about cycling brand has finally come to America, and it wants to disrupt the bicycle industry by selling some of the world's best bikes directly online at a steep discount, but insiders say it faces fierce headwinds

We shot Van der Poel's bike a few days before the big race in Waterloo, at Trek Bicycle Corp., host of the second round of the nine-race Telenet UCI Cyclocross World Cup series. This is one of Van der Poel's Stevens Super Prestige bikes. He has three on hand for each event.

Van der Poel rides a 58 cm carbon Stevens Super Prestige. According to Stevens, it weighs 8.2 kilograms, or 18 pounds.

Stevens Bikes is a German company; its bike are not available for sale in the US, and pricing is unavailable.

WATERLOO, Wisconsin — Custom-painted bikes have become de rigueur in the sport of professional cycling, as riders and their sponsors look to make the most of their victories and attract prospective customers by making bikes pop. And while we've seen a number of good-looking custom jobs over the years, reigning US cyclocross national champion Stephen Hyde's Cannondale SuperX takes the bacon. (Cyclocross combines elements of mountain biking and road cycling but is really its own sport.)

We got up close with Hyde's American glory at Sunday's World Cup Waterloo, the second round of the 2017-2018 Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup nine-race series. Check out the US champ's bike below, and stay tuned for a full review of the SuperX.

DON'T MISS: Will Germany's Canyon Bicycles disrupt the US bike industry?

NEXT UP: Cyclocross legend Sven Nys jumped into an amateur race in Chicago and put on a clinic, literarlly

Hyde rides for the Connecticut-based Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com team.

Hyde, 30, is a native of Pensacola, Florida, and the reigning US cyclocross champion, having won the title in Connecticut in January. Formerly a BMXer, mountain biker, and road racer, he now races cyclocross professionally and lives in Western Massachusetts.

Hyde's SuperX features a custom paint job and graphics that celebrate his national title.

Off the bike, she's friendly and funny. On the bike, she's ferociously competitive, which is how she got her nickname: Katie F---ing Compton.

If you're into cyclocross, the fast-growing discipline of bike racing that combines elements of mountain biking and road cycling, you know the name Katie Compton well. If you don't, just know she's one of America's finest athletes, not to mention its most accomplished cyclocrosser, having won the national title 13 times in a row.

The 38-year-old has won over 120 races in her 15-year career, including 22 World Cups. She's taken silver and bronze medals at the World Championships, consistently ranks among the world's top riders, and is again chasing gold as she begins what could be her penultimate season racing as a professional. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, Compton lives in Colorado in the offseason, though she primarily races in Europe — mostly in Belgium, the hotbed of 'cross.

Business Insider recently sat down with the reigning champ at the Waterloo World Cup, where she talked about what she's learned, overcoming setbacks, the struggle for equal pay, and how to grow American cyclocross.

Daniel McMahon: You're one of the most successful American cyclists of all time, and the most accomplished in US cyclocross. Do you ever feel as if not many people know your story beyond cycling? Did you ever wish the sport were really a lot bigger?

Katie Compton: I do, because I feel a lot of people would really enjoy watching it. It's fun to watch. It's spectator-friendly. It's dynamic. It's not watching a six-hour group-ride on TV during a stage of the Tour de France. It's entertaining for a short attention span, which is perfect nowadays the way our attention spans are. But I feel if it hit a wider audience and people knew what they were watching, there'd be a lot of interest in it. It's chicken and the egg. We need to get it on TV, but to get it on TV there needs to be interest. I mean, people watch poker and pool on TV, and I'm like, really? I feel like bike racing, especially 'cross, is slightly more entertaining than that. But it's hard to get on TV.

The more people who watch it and understand it, we could get somewhere where it's like a high-end sport, like golf and tennis and car racing. It's really fun to watch. We need to bring it to a bigger audience but also have it explained properly, too, so people know what's going on. In Belgium, they love it; it's like their national pastime. And they come out to actually watch the races.

McMahon: What's your true feeling about the state of 'cross in the US right now?

Compton: Well, it's growing. We've definitely had our ebbs and flows. We grow a bit, stagnate, then grow a bit, then stagnate. Right now I just feel we need more media and TV coverage. We're getting to that point where outside sponsors, outside industry sponsors would be good, but it's hard to get those without the TV coverage. It's growing, but I still feel like it needs more money and more attention, more media. I think having the CrossFit Games and having that 'cross race and putting that up, the number of people who liked it and watched it, I feel we need that audience. Like, if you liked watching that, you'd love watching this, because this is the elite of the elite. I feel a wider audience would help grow the sport even more.

McMahon: What performance improvements have you've made that have yielded the greatest results?

Compton: A lot of it is experience and lots of training time. Every year helps you get stronger for the next year, because with cycling and endurance sports, the more time you put into it, the better you are. And the older you get, I feel you get a little bit smarter with your training and preparation. But there's also nutrition and sleep and knowing what my body can do. Those are probably the biggest improvements I've made, and also just not doing too much, not overdoing it, not getting greedy with the intervals, and not getting overtired. People do too much and are usually racing under-rested, and you can see it.

Nutrition has been very important because you can adapt your diet, and choose to eat healthy foods, and do nutrient timing for performance and to feel better and to lean out. Nutrition and sleep have been the biggest areas I've improved in— sleep especially. I love sleep. I sleep eight to 10 hours a night. I need a lot of sleep. That's when your body recovers itself, when the brain processes everything you've done that day. I don't think people realize how important sleep is for aging well, recovering well, and just being mentally fresh.

McMahon: Do you nap as well?

Compton: I do, as much as I can. Sometimes I don't have time, or I'm just running around, or I'm not tired. But on big training days, I'll eat, have a shower, and sit on the couch, and within five minutes I'm asleep for about 20 minutes, and it's perfect. But I'm lucky I can do that. A lot of people who work full-time and try to ride their bike and they've got kids — they're like, "Napping? What's that? I have no idea."[Laughs] So rest and recovery are important for me.

McMahon: Are you a good sleeper?

Compton: I am a good sleeper. If I'm tired, I can sleep through anything. The older I get, it's harder at times, but if I manage my stress and my brain isn't so busy at night, I'm OK. That's, like, twice a month where I've got a busy brain, where I'm thinking about everything I should be doing instead of sleeping. But we all do that. I just like sleep. I've got a great, comfortable bed, and comfortable pillows.

McMahon: So you invested in getting high-quality sleep.

Compton: We did. We bought a Sleep Number bed a few years ago when I was having neck and back issues. I realized a Sleep Number is the way to go because you can adjust it to firm or soft. When I bruised my ribs and I was super sore for a good six weeks, I was really happy not to have a firm mattress. My husband and I like it, and we have different settings. For couples it's great because you can adjust it for what your needs are on either side. And I'm not sponsored by Sleep Number, but that would be nice. [Laughs]

McMahon: Were you always so into getting quality sleep, or did you come to appreciate it over time?

Compton: I've always been a good sleeper, and I've always tried to sleep as much as possible. But I feel like now is when I'm actually making the effort to sleep well. The older you get, the more you realize how important sleep is. Like, I try not to look at electronics before bed. I mean, sometimes I do, but if I have a couple of poor nights' sleep, I try to put the iPhone down, read a book, and go to sleep.

I also go to bed early, and I always eat early, and that helps. Sometimes I go to bed at 8:30. I'd say 9 is the latest. But it could be 10 if I've got a lot of stuff to do, like packing for a trip. If it's up to me, I eat dinner at 4 or 5 and I'm in bed by 8:30. I'm a morning person; I'm just more productive then. I'll wake up at 5:30 or 6 regardless, whenever the sun comes up. So if I go to bed early, I'm guaranteed a sleep that's enough. But if I go to bed at midnight, I'll still wake up at 6, and I'll be super tired.

McMahon: You mentioned nutrition. What are the foods you eat most often, and which do you avoid?

Compton: I can't have folic acid. I have a gene defect — MTHFR — where I can't have folic acid because my body doesn't metabolize it. I need methylfolate, so that has affected my diet. I don't eat any processed foods, I don't eat any wheats, and I can't eat anything that's enriched. I also eat a low-histamine diet for allergies, so I avoid foods that can trigger a histamine response in the body so that I can breathe better. That's particular to me, and I've dialed it in over the years. I've just had so many issues with not feeling well and breathing and energy levels, and I found nutrition helps with that.

So I eat potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, lots of fruits and vegetables, grass-fed proteins, wild-caught fish, healthy fats like avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil, and fish oil. Usually, I'll have vegetables and eggs for breakfast. For carbohydrates, I'll usually do them before, during, and after exercising. Evening will be more salad and protein. I try to change it up depending on the seasons, like which veggies look good. But there's not a ton of variety because I'm limited to what I can eat and what I like, so I just try to eat as much color and veggies and good protein sources and healthy fats.

McMahon: What has been your biggest challenge?

Compton: It's probably the health issues. With the gene defect, I've had recurring, severe leg pains since I was 18. Before I figured it out, it was every eight weeks for three or four weeks at a time. And it's painful. It's awful. And that also causes allergy and asthma and energy issues. Before I figured out the methylfolate problem, I'd say that was my biggest hurdle, because it was 20 years of having the pains and feeling bad, having really good results and then not being able to ride my bike. It's been an emotional roller coaster. I'd get just enough good results to not want to quit, but then I'd have so much pain and struggle with why's my body not working the way it should. That's probably been the biggest struggle for me. And I just kept pushing. I don't know why. Sometimes I look back and I'm like, how I did I keep doing it? I think I just don't like to quit. And I also just wanted to feel good; I want to be pain-free. I was like, there's got to be a reason this hurts so bad.

McMahon: How did you find out you had this defect?

Compton: I was listening to a podcast with a functional-medicine doctor, and he mentioned getting this genetic test if I had symptoms. And I had all the symptoms he listed, and I was like, "Well, that's an easy test to do. I'll just ask my doctor." It's a simple blood test, and it came back that I had defects. I'm 70% compromised with the methylfolate metabolism. It's actually fairly substantial, which is why I feel so bad when I eat folic acid. But everybody's different. One person can have one defect and not have any issues; it all depends. But I know how it affects me, and I know as long as I avoid certain foods and make sure I get enough rest and recovery, I'm 10 times better. It's a night-and-day difference.

McMahon: What are foods you never eat?

Compton: Anything processed.

McMahon: So nothing packaged, no fast food, no burgers and fries and all that?

Compton: I'll eat buffalo burgers, but I'll make them and grill them. I'll eat a burger if I go out to a restaurant, but I don't eat the bun because I can't have wheat, as it's enriched. I don't eat any grains — very few — just because they're usually all enriched. Sometimes I'll have quinoa. Buckwheat I can eat OK, but I have to make sure it's just that one ingredient in there. Even some of the gluten-free flours are enriched, so I have to be careful. Anything enriched or anything processed I stay away from.

I don't feel you should go to the start line thinking you're not going to win.

McMahon: What other challenges have you faced?

Compton: Honestly, I'd say it's probably just being a woman. As kind of silly as that sounds, it's true. As a woman in the bike-racing world, we have to work really hard, and we struggle. The discrepancy between sponsorship dollars and prize-money dollars is quite substantial. And I know that this is something that most women in most industries have dealt with. It's slowly getting better, but we have a long way to go.

And bike racing has been a man's sport for a long time, and women are just starting to get more attention, more media attention, and more respect — it's been a slow process, but I think it's going to progress — but I feel like we have to keep repeating ourselves and pushing forward the progress for it to happen. And also we have to do it "politically correct," too. We can't be "difficult," because then they're like, "Well, you're just lucky you have a race." Well, that's not what we're going for; we're over that. We're looking for equality, and not just in bike racing — in the working world generally.

We've struggled with sponsorship dollars, and staying in the bike-racing world, and making this an actual job where we're not living off credits cards. A man getting not even a third of the results I get can make more money. That doesn't make sense. I've won a ton of races; I'm good. How come this is such a struggle? So that's where it gets frustrating. But I'm also not going to quit and just give up, because that doesn't help anybody. I'm trying to do the best I can, and get the best results, and try to push women's racing forward without pushing too hard.

McMahon: At the Waterloo World Cup, the organizer, Trek, announced it was going to do something unprecedented: pay equal prize money to men and women. What has that meant for you?

Compton: It's pretty amazing. I'm really proud of Trek for stepping up and paying that equal prize money. There's a huge discrepancy between what the men get and what the women get. So, for now, it's going to be great. For whoever wins or gets top five, it's a good payoff, where we're not used to getting paid very well. It's progress. We have a lot to do in regard to equal prize money, and I think the UCI can step in and help facilitate that change a little better. But it's progress, and Trek's taken the first step. I feel we've got to start somewhere, and this is a good place to start.

McMahon: Now that we've had the opening of the 'cross season play out here in the US, you're headed to Europe to do a full season of racing. How do you decide to do a full or partial season across the Atlantic versus here?

Compton: Well, I can get start contracts over there. If I commit to a whole Belgian series, I can get contracts for the whole series, so it helps with money. But since Trek is livestreaming the DVV series, which is a series of eight races, and it's free, people in the US can actually watch me race easier if I'm in Belgium than if I'm in the US, because in the US they've got to travel to the races to see it, and our country so big, and it's expensive. This way, they can watch it on TV, and Trek can get the coverage. People can get up and enjoy the bike racing before they go out and start their day with a bike ride or a run. So that's kind of it, the TV coverage. And the racing's really good. There are courses I've been wanting to race. So now is the time to go over there.

McMahon: Do you have a world title in you?

Compton: I hope so. [Laughs] I've had it in me in the past. I've gotten four medals at worlds, never the first one. And I've also sat out of half the worlds with my leg pain, so I haven't been able to race in years that I was probably actually riding my best. Again, that hurdle — it's frustrating. I keep pushing for it every year. I try to set up for it and train for it. I've had some good luck, and I've had some back luck. I'm not going to say no, because I don't feel you should go to the start line thinking you're not going to win. I'm going to keep trying. At some point hopefully I can do it.

McMahon: What advice would you give to young women in sport?

Compton: Try a lot of sports; try different things. Whatever you have an option to do, try it and see what you're good at. There are so many different body types and things women can be good at. Figure out what suits you, and then train for it and work for it. I love cycling because it's a lifetime sport. It's always great to be able to ride a bike and feel confident riding in traffic, confident riding on trails. If you want to commute to work, it's a great way to stay healthy and not be sitting in traffic. Running and triathlon, too, because you don't need a team to play.

When you're young, in junior high and high school, playing a lot of sports is great because you need the athleticism — you need to play a variety of things to be good at it. But I feel as you get older and you go to college and such, finding something that you like to do frequently will keep you healthy, keep you fit, help you have a long life where you're not sick, which I think people forget about until they're 60 and they're unhealthy. If you exercise your entire life, at 80 is probably when you start feeling you're old, not 60 or 50. So I feel it helps prolong your healthy life, instead of just your lifespan.

McMahon: I have to ask: Marianne Vos — fair to say your greatest rival?

Compton: For sure, yeah. Honestly, she's such an exceptional athlete, and she's so great at what she does. I have beaten her in the past, but I haven't beaten her at a World Championships, and that's frustrating. But she's such a great athlete it's also hard, you know — she's won a ton of stuff, and she's 10 years younger than I am, so it's, like, I may never beat her. She's such a great competitor that when you do beat somebody like her, it's a big accomplishment, so I'll take that.

We have a good relationship, though I don't talk to her very often, because she lives in Holland. But we're definitely friendly and cordial. I really enjoy racing against her. She's very respectful, very hard, very smart. You know a win against her is a legit win. That always feels good.

McMahon: How many more years do you want to compete?

Compton: I have at least this year and next year. Then I'm going to reevaluate. I haven't put a timeline on it. I like the lifestyle. I still like the racing. I feel like I would miss it. When I do miss races, I feel I want to be on the start line. I'm going to wait and see what happens. When I get to the point where I say I don't want to do this anymore, I'm done. But I'm not there yet.

SEE ALSO: US cyclocross champion Stephen Hyde's custom-painted Cannondale SuperX

DON'T MISS: Mathieu van der Poel's custom-painted Stevens Super Prestige

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The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

While biking to work has considerable perks (health, endorphins, budgeting), it also introduces unique complications into your routine and outfit choices.

For instance, you might have encountered the conundrum of riding to work in a morning downpour only to have it burn off into a hot, humid afternoon ride home later.

You likewise might not love having to carry all of your possessions on your back — or if you don’t mind that, you haven’t found the right bag for the job.

If your morning routine requires physical activity, the most worthwhile qualities your possessions can have are adaptability, durability, and comfortability. And if your destination at the end of the ride is the office, they had also better look polished as well.

Keeping that in mind, we asked the team over at Competitive Cyclist to give us their top picks for the commuter essentials they value the most. Below you'll find their 11 favorites:

SEE ALSO: 26 of the best workout accessories you can get for under $50

Convertible pants to adapt to different temperatures and weather

It can be difficult for cyclists to dress properly and comfortably for the day, since the temperatures of the morning can differ wildly from the afternoon. Adaptable gear helps you get the most out of one piece of clothing.

These pants can zip off into shorts at the 3/4 point, so you can make a quick change to suit your temperature as a morning downpour turns into a clear, hot afternoon. They're also fully seam taped to ensure there aren't any drafts or water penetration.

Featuring lightweight, Artex fabric — a three-layer laminate that combines an inner, wicking fabric, a wind- and water-blocking membrane, and a durable, ripstop outer — these pants provide you with the weather protection you need as well as the breathability that means you won't overheat while you stay dry. Read more here.

Men's: Showers Pass Club Convertible 2 Pant, $149.95 also available on Amazon from $89.06

Women's: Showers Pass Club Convertible 2 Pant, $119.96 also available on Amazon from $119.96

A lightweight, unobtrusive rear bike light

Whether you bike during the day or commute home at night after dark, clip this LED light with 11 different modes (including a daylight option) onto your seat post to increase visibility. It'll project up to 150 lumens of light for an added reminder to motorists that you're on the road. You won't notice it, but others will.

To keep it simple, there aren't any cords or cables. The light is rechargeable, so when batteries are low just plug the entire light into a power source with the USB that's charger already integrated into the design. 

Lezyne Strip Drive Rear Light, $34.99 also available on Amazon from $34.99

A bike lock that will take much longer to cut off

Nobody is stealing your bike today! It'll take a long time to chop a bike lock off a bike, but this one will take a whole lot longer.

Unlike standard, round-shackled U-locks, this one features a hexagonal hardened steel shackle that can't twist in the locking mechanism, which basically means it's going to take a good while longer to get your bike free of this if you're trying to cut through it. A silicone sheath also increases cutting time, while also protecting your bike from nicks and scratches. 

It also comes with a lifetime warranty from the manufacturer. 

Blackburn Local U-lock, $23.35 also available on Amazon from $23.35

A Hungarian company has designed a bike that is powered by strings and not a chain.

The company says the bike is more efficient and cleaner than traditional bikes.

The strings can last 2000km and are easy to replace, watch the video to see them in action.

Produced by Jasper Pickering

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The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

The Insider Pick:

• The best bike locks are backed up with a guarantee, have thick steel shackles or cables, and they make stealing a bike a long and arduous task. The Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit Mini Bicycle U-Lock has all of these features along with anti-theft protection, easy mounting, and a double bolting system.

Whether you live out in the country or in a major metropolitan area, there is no bike lock system that will stop a well-equipped thief. However, there are a number of locks that will either slow down or completely discourage a criminal.

Though some thieves will try to drill the lock, the most common way bikes are stolen is when crooks cut through the lock’s shackle, cable, or chain. Of these options, the shackle of a U-lock is the hardest to cut through. The thicker the steel, the longer it will take to get through. Also, if the lock has a double bolt system, then the robber will need to make two cuts to free the bicycle.

If the idea of slowing down a thief or hoping to just discourage them with a bulky lock is not enough to let you rest easy, there are a few products you might consider adding to your bike protection arsenal. Though they are still relatively primitive and expensive, GPS tracking devices can help you track down the location of a stolen bike.

Of course, locating your bike is half the battle. We do not recommend confronting thieves. The Scout Universal Vehicle GPS Tracker is one of the highest-rated trackers available. But, as with most GPS Trackers, you will have to pay a monthly service fee. You might also consider the Pinhead Bicycle Locking Skewer Set to thwart wheel thieves.

The bike locks we review in the following slides were chosen based on their price, durability, manufacturer guarantee, and reported performance based on thousands of reviews and ratings from experts and novices. Read on to see which one is best for your needs.

Although the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit Mini Bicycle U-Lock is our top overall bike lock, in the following slides, we give reasons why you might want to consider the Kryptonite New York Standard Bicycle U-Lock, the UShake Bike Lock Cable, the Kryptonite Kryptolok Standard Bicycle U-Lock w/4-foot Flex Cable, and the Sigtuna Heavy Duty Bicycle U-Lock with Cable.

The best bike lock overall

Why you'll love it: If you live in a high crime area, the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit Mini Bicycle U-Lock does an excellent job of warding off criminals and protecting your bike.

Kryptonite is the top name in the bike lock industry. That’s why we’ve included three of its locks in our guide. One of the factors that set Kryptonite apart is its Anti-Theft Protection Offer. Basically, when you get your lock, you must register it with the company right away. Then, if your bike is stolen while it is covered by the anti-theft protection, the company will pay to replace your bike. For the Fahgettaboudit Mini, the first year of registration is free. After that, it is $24.99 for five years of coverage.

The New York Fahgettaboudit Mini offers the highest level of security of any of Kryptonite’s locks according to the company. The shackle is made of 18-millimeter hardened “MAX-Performance” steel. For extra security, the crossbar has an oversized hardened steel sleeve. The lock comes with three keys, which disengage the lock using a high-security disk-style cylinder. The cylinder is protected by a sliding dust cover. And, the center keyway is designed to make leverage attacks difficult.

Many industry experts state that the New York Fahgettaboudit bike lock is one of the best options on the market. The only reason The Sweethome rated this model as its second pick is that it is so heavy at 4.55 pounds. Other than that, the reviewers liked that the shackle is thick and would require a thief to make two time-consuming cuts to steal a bike.

Consumer Search found this to be the top option for the above reasons as well as the location of the keyway in the center instead of the side, where most locks locate it. The Best Bike Lock ranked this Kryptonite model the most secure U-lock.

Around 84% of the reviewers on Amazon give the Fahgettaboudit Mini either four or five stars. Buyers are impressed with how heavy duty and secure the lock appears. The biggest complaint is that the U-lock is fairly small. This is helpful for security, but it does make it hard for you to lock up all of the elements of your bike, including your seat post and seat. Users recommend that you buy multiple U-locks or a cable to lock to the U-lock. Also, one verified purchaser pointed out that Kryptonite does not honor any guarantees if you do not register your lock.

Pros: Takes longer to cut through than any other lock

Cons: Small, heavy

Buy the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit Mini Bicycle U-Lock on Amazon for $74.59

The best standard size U-lock bike lock

Why you'll love it: The Kryptonite New York Standard Bicycle U-Lock is large enough to easily lock your bike to most racks, and it offers you protection that rivals our top pick.

Whereas the Fahgettaboudit Mini features 18mm hardened MAX-Performance steel, the shackle for the Kryptonite New York Standard Bicycle U-Lock is slightly thinner at 16mm. The other major difference is that the New York Standard is larger at 4 x 8 inches versus 3.25 x 6 inches.

This gives you more options for locking your bike up, but it also makes it easier for criminals to get bolt cutters and other devices around it. Other than these two differences, the two models are essentially the same, including the center keyway, double deadbolt, and high-security disk-style cylinder.

Outdoor Gear Lab tested out the best locks on the market, including the Fahgettaboudit Mini, and the New York Standard got the highest score. The reviewer said it is the best lock for biking in urban areas. The Best Bike Lock included this Kryptonite lock in its short list of the best standard size U-locks because of the anti-theft protection as well as the double deadbolt locking and 16-millimeter-thick shackle. The Bike Tool Box recommended the New York Standard to anyone who wants to protect their bike in cities with high crime rates.

Of the users who reviewed the New York Standard bike lock on Amazon, 62% gave it five stars. Buyers comment that this Kryptonite lock is heavy (it weighs about 4.45 pounds), which makes them feel more secure. They also like that it’s easy to install the lock mount on your bike, and the lock can even be mounted on the side so the space inside your bike frame can be reserved for a water bottle or other accessories. One user did have trouble keeping the mounting assembly on tight.

Pros: Large enough to allow for more locking configurations, requires thieves to make two cuts to remove

Cons: May have trouble keeping mounting bracket in place

Buy the Kryptonite New York Standard Bicycle U-Lock on Amazon for $71.80

The best bike lock on a budget

Why you'll love it: If you live in a moderate-to-low-crime area, the UShake Bike Lock Cable is an affordable alternative that offers a variety of locking options.

The UShake Bike Lock Cable is made of flexible steel cables that measure about a quarter of an inch (6.5 millimeters) in diameter. The cable is covered with PVC coating for an overall thickness of 12 millimeters. The cable is four feet long and recoils back into its original shape. The four-digit combination lock has 10,000 possible passcodes. This lock is the lightest option in this guide at 0.7 pounds, and it mounts to your bike with the provided bracket. UShake stands behind this product with a six-month warranty.

TBPR Reviews has the UShake Bike Lock Cable as number two on its list of the best bike locks. The reviewers like it because of the hard-to-crack lock, six-month warranty, and flexible braided steel construction. A Secure Life ranked this model as the best cable lock because you don’t have to carry around a key, and it comes with a mounting bracket. However, it lost points because the lock isn’t durable and isn’t ideal for high-crime areas. Folding Bike List also rated this UShake product as the best cable lock because of the toughened steel cables and the 10,000 combination possibilities.

The UShake Bike Lock Cable has more than 1,600 five-star reviews on Amazon. Users like that you can set the combination yourself so that you can remember it. The mounting bracket appears to remain stable even after plenty of jostling. Many buyers have used a couple of these locks in tandem to create a longer cable or for added security. Yet, reviewers comment that they are sure crooks could cut through the cable easily with the right tools.

Pros: 10,000 possible combinations, four-foot reach

Cons: Cable locks are relatively easy to cut

Buy the UShake Bike Lock Cable on Amazon for $10.97 (originally $21.97)

What happens when a bicycle and rowing machine combine? You get the Rowbike.

The Rowbike is a bicycle that is used in a way similar to a rowing machine. It is powered by using your arms and
legs in a rowing motion, giving a whole body work out that engages your core and back.

The creators say that using the Rowbike can burn up to 50% more calories compared to riding traditional bikes.
Rowbike is also available in a 4-wheel variant too.

You can get a Rowbike for around £1,888.

Produced by David Ibekwe

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