Kate Veronneau’s Zwift voyage into the world of women’s cycling
The innovative sports-tech startup Cambio Sports has announced the launch of the first-ever scouting platform, cambio.cc, dedicated solely to professional cycling. Leveraging the latest technology and AI, Cambio offers users the opportunity to drill deeper than ever before into performance data and go beyond the traditional metrics normally used to evaluate a rider’s potential.
Cambio’s vision of the scouting process is driven by their “aim to transform talent scouting in professional cycling by democratising access and bridging the gap between emerging talents and opportunities” within all disciplines of the sport.
Cambio’s goal to level the playing field in the scouting process is largely a result of their research on the current makeup of the pro peloton.
(Source: Cambio Sports)
While the global imbalance in the pro peloton may not be a shock to those who follow cycling, it does underscore the need for the sport to seek new talent outside of Europe for continued grow. This is especially true for the women’s peloton, where our own research shows that almost 87% of the riders in the women’s WorldTour come from the European continent, followed by approximately 12% from the the English-speaking countries of Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A., and Canada. Less than 1% of the women’s WorldTour peloton can claim origins from Africa, Asia, South America, or the Middle East.
The fact that four nations (Netherlands, Italy, France, UK) supply 53% of the riders to the women’s WorldTour also suggests that women’s cycling could be in a precarious position in the future if it relies too heavily on a few nations to supply the talent needed to grow. With a women’s ProTeam division to be added in 2025, and many Continental-level teams facing financial difficulties, it would appear that Cambio’s scouting platform is something that is greatly needed.
A CLOSER LOOK AT CAMBIO
Cambio for Riders
Integration in the platform allows fluid movement between the four categories, as well as synchronization of data from other platforms. For example, data from Strava and TrainingPeaks synchronizes automatically and can be displayed on a rider’s Performance page, while race results from FirstCycling become automatically displayed on the Results page.
While primarily a platform for riders, agents, and teams, Cambio can also be used by job seekers – soigneurs, mechanics, nurtitionists, etc. – seeking to showcase their skills to potential teams, as well as by national federations interested in finding staff for their terms.
About Page
The About page is the landing page, the first page you see of a rider’s profile. It allows riders to fill and add several information about the rider’s person and personality such as name, age, nationality, cycling disciplines, languages, ambitions, resume, expected salary, team history, and so forth.
(image: courtesy of Cambio)
Calendar Page
The Calendar page is simply a page that allows the scoutsto see where a rider will be competing in the future and useful to plan and schedule meetings at race point.
(image: courtesy of Cambio)
Results Page
The Results page provides specific race results for riders through Cambio’s partnership with First Cycling.
Below the results, there’s a section called Race Comments, which can be used to add information that might reveal more about the circumstances – good and bad – of a rider’s race result: solo victory, bunch sprint, group sprint, mechanical problems, early breakaway, sacrificed for teammate, illness, etc.
The final section of the Results page allows riders to upload videos from races under the rubric, Race Videos. The old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words, rings even truer today with video and this can be a great way for riders to show clips of themselves during races.
Performance Page
The Performance page provides a variety of information about a rider’s on-the-bike attributes in several sections. Riders have the opportunity to connect their Strava or TrainingPeaks and show their activities on platform, providing useful insights to professional scouts looking at their profiles.
Riders who might be hesitant to upload sensitive data need not worry. Cambio safeguards information like performance metrics, which are confidential and only available to agents and teams that have been approved and verified by Cambio.
Agents, Managers, Teams and Federations
Cambio is not intended to replace Agents or Manager but rather to offer them, and to Teams and Federations, an innovative platform where it is possible to make scouting in a more modern, efficient and holistic ways. The 1-click view rider’s profile is what really makes Cambio as a unique tool to be used by pro-scouts.
Through an intuitive and easy to use dashboard, professional scouts have the opportunity to search and identify riders by several filters, review rider’s profiles including their results and performance data and deeper metrics. Moreover, scouts are also able to compare two riders.
Messages to riders and notifications can be sent and retrieved, and notes can be made and stored in the system.
(image: courtesy of Cambio)
User Feedback
So far, feedback from users indicates that the platform has great potential for transforming the process of talent scouting within pro cycling:
“I won’t need to spend days finding team manager email address to send my profile anymore” – U23 rider, Germany.
“With Cambio I finally I can get high visibility in front of cycling teams scouting riders from all over the world” – Junior rider, Colombia.
“With Cambio I can search a vast number of talents that otherwise I couldn’t discover for my scouting activities” – Head of Performance, pro cycling team.
“A great platform to view detailed profiles of riders of different cycling disciplines from all over the world and make more rational decisions on scouting.” – General Manager, women’s Continental team.
To Sum Up
Cambio has told us that their platform has already been adopted by six teams that raced the recent Tour de France, as well as three teams from the Tour de France Femmes. Additionally, national federations are in the process of partnering with Cambio to enhance the international visibility of their riders, alongside organizations such as Foundation Esteban Chaves in Colombia, and Road to Equality, which is led by former World Championpro Alessandra Cappellotto.
For women’s cycling, Cambio could help increase the number of riders and the depth of talent available, which would in turn help grow women’s cycling at the Club, Continental, Pro (in 2025), and WorldTour levels. In the present recruiting system, there is a great deal of lateral movement by riders from one WorldTour team to another, but very little vertical movement from Continental to WorldTour level. With a larger pool of talent, there would be a far greater incentive for women’s teams at the WorldTour level to support and develop promising riders at the Continental and lower levels. In the coming years, as superstars like Vollering and Kopecky retire, the women’s peloton will not only need more riders, but more talented riders.
Ultimately, the genius of the Cambio platform is that it allows users anywhere in the world to upload or access a wealth of information all in one place. The discovery of Biniam Girmay, the first black African to win a Tour de France stage and the green points jersey, showed the possibilities of discovering new talent outside Europe. Cambio’s platform increases these odds of discovery by super-charging the scouting process so that agents, mangers, and teams can discover those talents that might otherwise go unknown.
For more information on Cambio, visit the Cambio platform. You can also find Cambio on Instagram, and LinkedIn.