In the field
2011
Tour de France · Leopard-TREK
Tour de France 2011: Liquid Ice in use at Leopard-Trek
Tour de France, Tour de Suisse, Vuelta. In 2011 the ProTour team Leopard-TREK cooled its riders with Liquid Ice, and its team doctor wrote down why.
A Tour de France stage can last five or six hours. In July that means heat, all day, in the saddle. In 2011 the ProTour team Leopard-TREK went into that heat with Liquid Ice.
The team used Liquid Ice products through the 2011 season, at the races that matter most: the Tour de France, the Tour de Suisse and the Vuelta. We know because the head of the team’s medical department, Dr. Andreas Gösele, wrote it down for us at the end of the season.
“They don’t really want to race without it”
From his letter: “The concept of cooling the athletes not just in hot weather conditions, but also in moderate temperatures, is extremely innovative. Liquid Ice is easy to use and the athletes embrace it. Compared to other cooling methods it dominates regarding the handling and acceptance. The riders appreciated it from the very beginning and don’t really want to race without it anymore.”
That July, Leopard-TREK’s Andy and Fränk Schleck finished second and third overall in Paris. The riders did the riding. We are simply glad our liquid was part of that team’s Tour. For 2012 the medical staff planned to take it on to the newly formed RadioShack-Nissan-Trek team.
It started in Beijing
Dr. Gösele already knew Liquid Ice from the Olympic Games in Athens and Beijing, where he worked with the Swiss team. In a video interview we recorded later, he described what they did in the time trial: “We were using it under the time trial suit, we used the wristband, but we also had underwear. We poured Liquid Ice over a special kind of underwear and it worked pretty good.”
Liquid on fabric, even under a skinsuit
Beijing and the Tour used the same principle we sell today. Liquid Ice belongs on fabric: a base layer, a band, a bandage. There it evaporates slowly and takes heat from the skin underneath. On bare skin it would be gone in seconds.
For long days in the saddle, spray the 500 ml bottle onto a close-fitting base layer until the fabric is visibly damp. Teams that need more get Liquid Ice by the canister, for professionals.
