If you listen to the marketing departments, AI is currently making you more productive, letting you create a million dollar ad in 15 seconds, and undressing every woman on the internet. Actually, the last one might not have been marketing.
Regardless, in the cycling world, the AI tech is real. Vekta, the AI-powered training and coaching platform for endurance sport, has already proven to be a useful enough tech that it’s forced the biggest teams in the world to open their wallets. And its presence at the highest level of professional cycling is accelerating, with multiple WorldTour and elite development teams now using the platform.
The AI-powered training platform has announced that it has been adopted by a fresh wave of WorldTour heavyweights, including Lidl-Trek, Decathlon CMA CGM, and Team TotalEnergies. They join existing believers like Jayco AlUla and FDJ-SUEZ, meaning a significant chunk of the professional peloton is now running their performance analysis through Vekta’s algorithms.
So, what does it actually do? At its core, Vekta is trying to solve the “data drowning” problem. Modern power meters, heart rate monitors, and glucose sensors generate terabytes of noise. Josu Larrazabal, Head of Performance at Lidl-Trek, put it bluntly: “The capacity to collect data has increased exponentially… far beyond what we can realistically analyse.”
Vekta acts as the filter. Instead of a coach spending four hours manually digging through TrainingPeaks files to see if a rider is overcooked, Vekta’s AI automates the pattern recognition. It flags fatigue, spots training anomalies, and identifies talent. That last point is particularly interesting. The platform claims its scouting tools can spot performance markers in young riders that human scouts might miss, essentially bringing a “Moneyball” approach to the junior ranks.
Vekta’s elevator pitch is that by outsourcing the number-crunching to the software, coaches can stop being data entry clerks and go back to actually talking to their riders. Whether that ideal balance exists remains to be seen, but with teams like Lidl-Trek and Decathlon—squads known for their rigorous, no-nonsense performance setups—buying in, Vekta is clearly offering more than just a shiny dashboard.
Vekta is available to athletes and coaches worldwide, with a 14-day free trial available. We don’t get any commission, but the links are www.joinvekta.com and www.joinvekta.com/partnerships. If enough of you click, maybe they’ll send us some swag.
