A title partnership in action, more than just a name: Team dsm-firmenich

2023 is the third year with dsm-firmenich as the team’s title partner, building on a long-established relationship that has flourished since its beginning in 2015.

A partnership built on the concept of co-innovation, dsm-firmenich provide Team dsm-firmenich with cutting-edge products which help the team across four main pillars of performance: focus, endurance, resilience, and recovery. In return, Team dsm-firmenich is the ultimate stress test for the nutritional innovations with their athletes competing at the highest of levels and to the limit of human abilities. The team’s feedback and data can then help shape the future of nutrition, not only for cyclists and sportspeople but also help to find solutions to improve the health of everyone around the world.

Furthermore, the collaboration between Team dsm-firmenich and dsm-firmenich, plus the team’s sports nutrition partner Sanas, has seen the implementation of a variety of innovative ingredients into sports nutrition products that our riders use every day.

Focus – Come on, we’re racing!

Within cycling it is important to be switched on almost all of the time, and even on those slower transitional sprint days, you need to be able to turn it on at the flip of a coin to be able to react to the sudden melee of organised chaos that is professional bike racing. This then links to the concept of reaction time, visual acuity, performance under pressure and more. It goes without saying then, despite it maybe not being top on your list, that good brain health is a key component in being able to achieve optimal performance. Be that from managing to get an extra hour of quality sleep in, to your reflexes being on point to avoid a mid-slumber-stage crash beside you, having a focused and sharp mind can make a difference.

The team works hand-in-hand with dsm-firmenich to try discover new ways of supporting riders’ focus on the road and this comes in all different aspects. One of those is by enhancing riders’ quality of vision with FloraGLO® and OPTISHARP® which can be found in Sanas’ Sports gums; or it could the improvement of essential brain and eye health with life’s^TMOMEGA, which is a plant-based omega-3 supplement that is more sustainable than traditional fish oil and comes without the fishy taste…that sounds like a catch to us!

Endurance – In it for the long haul

The next pillar of performance that is key and is one of the most obvious when watching the sport as a fan is endurance. It’s an integral and core part of what makes our sport great, riders don’t only have to perform for ten minutes, they need to be able to produce world-class efforts after having spent five, six, or sometimes even more, hours in the saddle!

Good nutrition is then often the central point in the answer to how that is possible, and it goes beyond simply fuelling a rider. The right nutrition helps optimise the speed and efficiency of nutrient uptake and helps maintain the body’s durability and fitness over time, allowing riders to function at their peak for even longer.

Luckily for us, dsm-firmenich use the latest bioscience and advanced data analytics to help build personalised nutrition plans through a digital platform, We can plan exactly, when, what and how much each rider should eat throughout the day, so that they can perform at their peak – and with the added benefit of also reducing food waste!

Furthermore, inside of Sanas’ Isomix plus or Carbomix plus, you can find PeptoPro®, which is a peptide derived from dairy protein that contains all 20 amino acids and supports essential protein synthesis during exercise – something that helps keep us going for longer.

Resilience – The battle of pushing yourself to the limit

So we have covered the importance of being focused as a rider and having strong endurance capabilities and support, but it’s equally as important to have strong resilience qualities too. Of course, this can be mentally from the ability to dig deep for as long as possible, but also physically too.

It’s no secret that elite athletes and cyclists push their bodies to the limit but we as a team, and dsm-firmenich, feel that it is important that we do as much as we can to ensure that our riders are protected as best as possible from these extreme demands and have the resilience to fight off illness; which of course affects performance but also general health too.

It makes sense that having less illness means less stress on your body’s resources, so you are able to focus your energy elsewhere. With the right nutrition it is possible to boost a rider’s immune system to build resilience, from gut health to muscle strength.

At the leading edge of science in this field, dsm-firmenich has a variety of products which we as a team use to help improve resilience. Working like a probiotic, HiMO^TM Blend 5, a human identical milk oligosaccharide, enhances gut health and immunity whilst mitigating digestive distress damage. It works as an advanced prebiotic, supporting beneficial gut bacteria and a balanced microbiota. dsm-firmenich’s Lacto GG® also improves the balance of good bacteria in the microbiome.

Furthermore, dsm-firmenich’s Quali® range of vitamins also supports overall health and immunity – with tailor-made high-quality multivitamin premixes of essential nutrients. Quali®-B and Quali®-C offer optimal doses of vitamins B12 and C to support the reduction of tiredness and fatigue; something that is crucial for the final weeks of some of the biggest races on the calendar.

Recovery – Not just an Eminem album

The final piece of the puzzle is the pillar of recovery. Going through all of these incredible feats day-in day-out obviously takes a toll on your body, but it’s not just the prior day’s dehydration and exertion which require recovery, it is also returning from injury and illness too. Therefore, having the right nutrition can increase the speed and efficiency of a rider’s recovery, and as a result boost their overall performance capabilities throughout the year.

Due to their powerhouse status as market leaders, it comes us no surprise then that dsm-firemnich can support the team with nutritional solutions that cover all aspects of recovery as a cyclist.

For example, their Vertis™ CanolaPRO® nutrition bar which is manufactured by Sanas, provides our riders with an easily digestible plant protein. Rich in cysteine, it may also help protect against future exercise-induced muscle damage too. Oh, did we mention that bar recently came out on top as the best plant-based snack at the World Plant-Based Innovation Awards. Not a bad accolade to have, right?!

Previously mentioned supplements such as PeptoPro® (ensures a quicker uptake of essential proteins for muscle repair), life’s™OMEGA, and Quali®-C (water-soluble Vitamin C that contributes to collagen formation for the normal function of cartilage), all help aid the recovery process too; helping our high-performing athletes function at the highest of levels throughout the year.

What does the future bring?

With their high reaching goals, plus their entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, dsm-firmenich fit our Keep Challenging philosophy perfectly and are continuously developing and researching the latest advancements in nutritional technology. We’re sure that will benefit our riders’ performance on the bike for years to come, but also their broader health too, all with the aim of creating a healthier population worldwide in the process.

After all, their slogan is We bring progress to life™.