Human Tecar has been assisting Giuseppe & Carlo Saronni’s cycling team for many years now, and is continuing under the new sponsorship scheme and team name of UAE Abu Dhabi (president: Matar Suhail Al Yabhouni Al Dhaheri); so needless to say, May 9 was a great day for all of us with Jan Polanc’s triumph at Stage 4 of Giro d’Italia, from Cefalù to Mount Etna, Sicily.
Jan Polanc had already proven himself best climber, winning the 2015 Giro’s blue, ‘mountain cycling’ jersey two years ago. On the occasion of this 100th edition of the race, the young Slovenian has confirmed this reputation and hit another milestone to boot, since he is only the fourth Giro rider to conquer the Sicilian volcano in half a century.
The finish line is at an altitude of over 6,200 feet (1,892 m), where oxygen starts to get rarified, at the end of a winding, spectacular 11-mile ascent over igneous stone roads with an incline between 6.6 and 12%, suspended between Mediterranean and moonlike landscapes of volcanic stone. The difference in altitude is almost 3,900 feet (1,187 m), the stress and fatigue are enormous, yet this 25-year-old pushed ahead at 111 miles (179 km) from the finish line: “I saw the others were almost at the end of their tether, and made my attempt”.
Captain and world champion Rui Costa and the UAE team have long been using customized Human Tecar protocols in their riders’ daily training routine, and utilize our methodology both before and after races. In particular, events like Giro d’Italia require painstaking planning of muscular recovery treatment in-between stages.
Ace cyclists like Polanc never get to the end of their tether. Or their Human Tecar.
