UCI approves Visma | Lease a Bike's breathing sensors for Tour de France

Visma | Lease a Bike has received UCI approval to use innovative breathing sensors at the 2025 Tour de France, providing the team with previously unobtainable physiological data during competition, as revealed exclusively by Velo.

The VitalPro sensors, developed by Tymewear, measure ventilation and breathing efficiency in real-time racing conditions. This technology allows teams to analyse data beyond traditional metrics like power output and heart rate, potentially transforming how riders manage their efforts during races.

"Measuring ventilation in the field, in the most accurate way currently possible, will provide us massive learnings on how the body copes with efforts in competition," said Mathieu Heijboer, Visma | Lease a Bike's head of performance speaking to Velo, "These are efforts that cannot be replicated in training or in the lab."

The UCI confirmed the sensors comply with competition regulations as first reported by Velo, stating: "Considering that the sensor appears to be commercially available and the data it captures does not appear to undermine the fairness or integrity of the sport, the UCI has decided to permit the use of the sensor in competition."

Visma | Lease a Bike, have big ambitions for the upcoming Tour de France in July as they look to regain the title they claimed in 2022 and 2023 with Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane will have key riders like Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss to support him and these sensors could be useful for finding out more about their star riders.

Heijboer indicated the team plans to use the sensors primarily for data collection during the upcoming Tour de France, with strategy refinements to follow as they better understand the information being gathered. “We’ll definitely also use Tymewear in competition, but purely for data collection and learning, There’s still a lot to learn in this area,” Heijboer said.

While the immediate impact on race tactics may be limited, the insights gained from the VitalPro will likely influence the team's long-term training strategies. The technology aims to help riders fine-tune their performance through improved pain management and more precise effort assessment.

Arnar Larusson, co-founder and CEO of Tymewear, anticipates broader adoption of the technology throughout the professional peloton. The UCI approval represents a crucial milestone that could encourage other teams to implement similar systems. “This UCI approval is critical for other teams adopting the sensors,” Larusson told Velo.