\u201cF*** marginal gains,\u201d Allen Lim tells Velo<\/i>. \u201cAnd f*** anyone who says that word.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is marginal gains don\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t take care of the communications bottleneck first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working on how riders trust and interact with one another is just one of the changes the colorful Boulder-based physiologist has sought to make to St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93, a French squad in the UCI\u2019s ProTeam second tier, this season.<\/p>\n
Having worked with top teams and riders such as Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, Tejay van Garderen, Christian Vande Velde and Taylor Phinney in the past, this is taking on a very different challenge.<\/p>\n
In his own words: \u201cHow do you take the worst team at the Tour de France and, with the smallest budget at that race, actually make them better?\u201d<\/p>\n
How Lim landed at St Michel<\/b><\/h2>\n![\"Allen](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0028-scaled-e1786548121910.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Allen Lim has been working with top cycling teams for over 20 years. (Photo: Andy McGrath)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThat is no exaggeration. The long-running squad, based in the Paris outskirts, finished 21st out of the 21 teams in the race\u2019s teams classification 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
This squad, backed by a beloved French baked goods brand, and Lim make for an unlikely couple.<\/p>\n
The Skratch Labs founder says he got involved through top US cyclocross racer Tim Johnson, who linked him up with the president of the cycling club through a Parisian restaurateur.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were lamenting that last year at the Tour de France, St Michel had finished in last place,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were struggling with how to make things better with a very limited budget, with only $1.5 million to spend on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lim was \u201dnot interested at all\u201d in helping out initially, feeling there was no incentive for him to collaborate with a French team.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nHowever, Lim was, and remains, engaged in helping talented American racers. He feels they lack opportunities in Europe, given what he sees as the \u201cgatekept\u201d entry point to pro cycling, primarily limited to younger European women who can live at home.<\/p>\n
He asked if they could combine their sports science and technology expertise with their opportunities in some of the sport\u2019s biggest races.<\/p>\n
It was a deal, with Skratch Labs officially coming on board as a major partner and nutrition supplier in February 2026.<\/p>\n
The North American connection<\/h2>\n![\"Heidi](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8A_1306-720x517.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
American rider Heidi Franz was signed for the team ahead of 2026, making her Tour de France Femmes debut this August. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSt Michel have been looking west for growth for some years. They have had Cannondale as a bike sponsor for four seasons, with SRAM and Premier Tech on board as partners too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found people who love cycling, who want to invest and who can invest,\u201d team CEO St\u00e9phan Gaudry says. \u201cIt\u2019s true that in France and Europe, it\u2019s complicated with the economy currently.\u201d<\/p>\n
They have already decided to stop their long-running men\u2019s team at the end of 2026 to focus on the women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nAs a by-product of all these trans-Atlantic connections, the roster looks very different. Having had one North American rider in 2025, there are five in 2026, including former Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson, Giro stage winner Clara Emond and climber Heidi Franz \u2013 all fueled, hydrated, and optimized for performance by Lim and his Skratch Labs team.<\/p>\n
Starting from Skratch<\/h2>\n
While Lim has worked for top-tier powerhouses like Phonak, Radioshack and Garmin in the past, he has also experienced times when his relationship with the sport was damaged and peppered with trauma.<\/p>\n
He finds this challenge a lot more fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, I love helping the underdog,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I also love innovation and when you get to a level of a bigger team, I think people are less willing to experiment and want to change anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they\u2019re already in a situation where things are working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crucially, St Michel management were curious and open to change. \u201cIt\u2019s really, really hard on a big team to try new ideas because if you don\u2019t succeed, you blame the new thing. Of course, you blame the outsider, you blame the innovation,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Lessons from Colorado camp<\/b><\/h2>\n![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_7661-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Racing in the heat was a thirsty business. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHe has not been shy to introduce new ways of working and systems.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nA three-week July training camp in Boulder, Colorado was a big shift for a team with predominantly French riders and staff.<\/p>\n
Working year-long on hydration and fueling, they were able to do lab testing before and after sessions there.<\/p>\n
Lim and his team looked at substrate utilization and the ratio of carbohydrate to fat being burned at different intensities of riding.<\/p>\n
They weighed each rider pre-and-post training to work out total body water loss. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about how dehydrated you are, it\u2019s whether that dehydration is happening inside or outside the cell,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when it comes to performance, it\u2019s the water outside the cell, in your blood stream and plasma volume, which is most important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Secrets of the blood<\/b><\/h2>\n
The Skratch Labs staff carried out finger tip blood samples before and after each Tour de France Femmes stage too. A more dilute result means a gain in plasma, a more hemoconcentrated one means they\u2019ve lost plasma, which also damages red blood cells considerably.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nSodium is a key governor of that, so it has led to them exploring individual sodium loss in fueling.<\/p>\n
\u201cReplacing sodium in athletes who are losing plasma volume, so that we\u2019re not forcing them to drink more, which could cause hyponotraemia, but we\u2019re making them more thirsty,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re adding more sodium to those athletes who drop in plasma volume, so that they naturally want to drink more. We stay in water balance, electrolyte balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who needs altitude camps?<\/h2>\n
They also did work with high-intensity hypoxia using the portable Hepox device.<\/p>\n
Essentially, it involves rebreathing into a bag with a CO2 filter, dropping oxygen saturation significantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw improvements in hemaglobin mass in all the riders here, significant changes that I believe are better than altitude training or [altitude] tents,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Playing, communicating, and training<\/b><\/h2>\n![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_1348-720x1080.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Photo: Gruber Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIt goes beyond sports science. A simple shift was spending dedicated time training together mid-season, which Lim likens to kicking the ball to each other in soccer.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nFor the physiologist, the biggest bottle-neck in the sport is communication and learning to trust one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is getting really good at getting really fit, everybody is optimizing for their power to drag or their power to weight, but as a team, racing a bicycle is still about communication between one another,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
In Colorado, they did dynamic race simulation in training, putting in several daily 5 to 10 kilometer races on all kinds of terrain, from the flat to Flagstaff Mountain.<\/p>\n
Lim acknowledges that for all the work on better communication, they \u201cprobably had to really sacrifice engine building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students, cooks, and cool customers<\/b><\/h2>\n
It did not stop there. Lim was there for the whole team, with a Skratch Labs team including three chefs.<\/p>\n
They work on cooking breakfast, pre-ride meals, recovery food, snacks and dinner as well as hydration and recovery drinks.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWith the likes of pineapple braised beef, sesame avocado toast, mochi-dusted crispy chicken and pan-seared salmon on the dinner table, St Michel\u2019s riders were kept energized with some novel fare.<\/p>\n
Dr Peter Kim and a team of three students from the University of Colorado Boulder were also with the team, experimenting and innovating.<\/p>\n
In a Tour of sweltering heat, cooling was another focus. Before the stage 4 TT, riders swallowed ingestible temperature sensors to monitor their core temperature.<\/p>\n
Process over results<\/b><\/h2>\n![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2289327850-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Alicia Gonzalez Blanco races during stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes. (Photo by Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLim is not a fan of pro cycling\u2019s traditional hierarchy. He has no official title; he simply \u201ctries to go where the help is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other issue with sport and business as a whole is people are so fixated on outcome goals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid we win or not win? Did we get a jersey, get on the podium or get a result?<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cThose results bias process goals. You win and it masks the fact that you got everything wrong with training, nutrition, whatever else. Or you get all of those things right, you lose and think whatever you do isn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lim has gone back to the process of performance, likening getting that right to \u201ccard counting,\u201d a technique to help beat the odds and make one\u2019s own luck.<\/p>\n
St Michel\u2019s improved Tour performance<\/h2>\n![\"Alison](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8C_4191-720x623.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Alison Jackson, happy to get past Mont Ventoux. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThat said, sport is a results business and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 have the aim of being the best UCI ProTeam in the next two years.<\/p>\n
So, how did things go for this year?<\/p>\n
Better than 2025, for one.<\/p>\n
St Michel has been far from the worst team. They finished 15th out of 21 in the teams classification and their best stage result was 14th for Emilie Morier on the final day into Nice, helping her to move to 19th overall.<\/p>\n
Alison Jackson joined breakaways as they earned \u20ac1,420, three times more than last year \u2013 even if three abandons on the final day meant they had two finishers.<\/p>\n
It is still a battle to get into escapes let alone fight for the win against richer WorldTour powerhouses.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThere is a \u201cMoneyball\u201d part to this endeavor; wealth means less friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to talk about doping and cycling today, doping is called the almighty dollar. Or Euro, or Swiss franc,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Focusing on data and the process<\/h2>\n
Of course, even if the Tour de France Femmes is the biggest race in women\u2019s pro road racing, this is about a lot more than one event and its results.<\/p>\n
For Lim, this is a \u201clong-term investment in these processes that over time will pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowledge \u2013 and all the data gained \u2013 can be power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process is way more important than the result,\u201d he says. \u201cBut \u2013 and this is where it is hard, right? If you focus on the way, I think over the long haul, I think you create a culture where success can beat the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nAndy McGrath<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUpdated August 12, 2026 10:47AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/from-moneyball-sweat-science-allen-lim-transforming-tour-de-france-femmes-worst-team\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_9257.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 12, 2026 10:47AM \u201cF*** marginal gains,\u201d Allen Lim tells Velo. \u201cAnd f*** anyone who says that word.\u201d \u201cThe bottom line is marginal gains don\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t take care of the communications bottleneck first.\u201d Working on how riders trust and interact with one another is just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2090336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
That is no exaggeration. The long-running squad, based in the Paris outskirts, finished 21st out of the 21 teams in the race\u2019s teams classification 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
This squad, backed by a beloved French baked goods brand, and Lim make for an unlikely couple.<\/p>\n
The Skratch Labs founder says he got involved through top US cyclocross racer Tim Johnson, who linked him up with the president of the cycling club through a Parisian restaurateur.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were lamenting that last year at the Tour de France, St Michel had finished in last place,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were struggling with how to make things better with a very limited budget, with only $1.5 million to spend on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lim was \u201dnot interested at all\u201d in helping out initially, feeling there was no incentive for him to collaborate with a French team.<\/p>\n
However, Lim was, and remains, engaged in helping talented American racers. He feels they lack opportunities in Europe, given what he sees as the \u201cgatekept\u201d entry point to pro cycling, primarily limited to younger European women who can live at home.<\/p>\n
He asked if they could combine their sports science and technology expertise with their opportunities in some of the sport\u2019s biggest races.<\/p>\n
It was a deal, with Skratch Labs officially coming on board as a major partner and nutrition supplier in February 2026.<\/p>\n
The North American connection<\/h2>\nAmerican rider Heidi Franz was signed for the team ahead of 2026, making her Tour de France Femmes debut this August. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSt Michel have been looking west for growth for some years. They have had Cannondale as a bike sponsor for four seasons, with SRAM and Premier Tech on board as partners too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found people who love cycling, who want to invest and who can invest,\u201d team CEO St\u00e9phan Gaudry says. \u201cIt\u2019s true that in France and Europe, it\u2019s complicated with the economy currently.\u201d<\/p>\n
They have already decided to stop their long-running men\u2019s team at the end of 2026 to focus on the women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nAs a by-product of all these trans-Atlantic connections, the roster looks very different. Having had one North American rider in 2025, there are five in 2026, including former Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson, Giro stage winner Clara Emond and climber Heidi Franz \u2013 all fueled, hydrated, and optimized for performance by Lim and his Skratch Labs team.<\/p>\n
Starting from Skratch<\/h2>\n
While Lim has worked for top-tier powerhouses like Phonak, Radioshack and Garmin in the past, he has also experienced times when his relationship with the sport was damaged and peppered with trauma.<\/p>\n
He finds this challenge a lot more fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, I love helping the underdog,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I also love innovation and when you get to a level of a bigger team, I think people are less willing to experiment and want to change anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they\u2019re already in a situation where things are working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crucially, St Michel management were curious and open to change. \u201cIt\u2019s really, really hard on a big team to try new ideas because if you don\u2019t succeed, you blame the new thing. Of course, you blame the outsider, you blame the innovation,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Lessons from Colorado camp<\/b><\/h2>\nRacing in the heat was a thirsty business. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHe has not been shy to introduce new ways of working and systems.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nA three-week July training camp in Boulder, Colorado was a big shift for a team with predominantly French riders and staff.<\/p>\n
Working year-long on hydration and fueling, they were able to do lab testing before and after sessions there.<\/p>\n
Lim and his team looked at substrate utilization and the ratio of carbohydrate to fat being burned at different intensities of riding.<\/p>\n
They weighed each rider pre-and-post training to work out total body water loss. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about how dehydrated you are, it\u2019s whether that dehydration is happening inside or outside the cell,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when it comes to performance, it\u2019s the water outside the cell, in your blood stream and plasma volume, which is most important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Secrets of the blood<\/b><\/h2>\n
The Skratch Labs staff carried out finger tip blood samples before and after each Tour de France Femmes stage too. A more dilute result means a gain in plasma, a more hemoconcentrated one means they\u2019ve lost plasma, which also damages red blood cells considerably.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nSodium is a key governor of that, so it has led to them exploring individual sodium loss in fueling.<\/p>\n
\u201cReplacing sodium in athletes who are losing plasma volume, so that we\u2019re not forcing them to drink more, which could cause hyponotraemia, but we\u2019re making them more thirsty,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re adding more sodium to those athletes who drop in plasma volume, so that they naturally want to drink more. We stay in water balance, electrolyte balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who needs altitude camps?<\/h2>\n
They also did work with high-intensity hypoxia using the portable Hepox device.<\/p>\n
Essentially, it involves rebreathing into a bag with a CO2 filter, dropping oxygen saturation significantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw improvements in hemaglobin mass in all the riders here, significant changes that I believe are better than altitude training or [altitude] tents,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Playing, communicating, and training<\/b><\/h2>\nPhoto: Gruber Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIt goes beyond sports science. A simple shift was spending dedicated time training together mid-season, which Lim likens to kicking the ball to each other in soccer.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nFor the physiologist, the biggest bottle-neck in the sport is communication and learning to trust one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is getting really good at getting really fit, everybody is optimizing for their power to drag or their power to weight, but as a team, racing a bicycle is still about communication between one another,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
In Colorado, they did dynamic race simulation in training, putting in several daily 5 to 10 kilometer races on all kinds of terrain, from the flat to Flagstaff Mountain.<\/p>\n
Lim acknowledges that for all the work on better communication, they \u201cprobably had to really sacrifice engine building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students, cooks, and cool customers<\/b><\/h2>\n
It did not stop there. Lim was there for the whole team, with a Skratch Labs team including three chefs.<\/p>\n
They work on cooking breakfast, pre-ride meals, recovery food, snacks and dinner as well as hydration and recovery drinks.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWith the likes of pineapple braised beef, sesame avocado toast, mochi-dusted crispy chicken and pan-seared salmon on the dinner table, St Michel\u2019s riders were kept energized with some novel fare.<\/p>\n
Dr Peter Kim and a team of three students from the University of Colorado Boulder were also with the team, experimenting and innovating.<\/p>\n
In a Tour of sweltering heat, cooling was another focus. Before the stage 4 TT, riders swallowed ingestible temperature sensors to monitor their core temperature.<\/p>\n
Process over results<\/b><\/h2>\nAlicia Gonzalez Blanco races during stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes. (Photo by Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLim is not a fan of pro cycling\u2019s traditional hierarchy. He has no official title; he simply \u201ctries to go where the help is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other issue with sport and business as a whole is people are so fixated on outcome goals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid we win or not win? Did we get a jersey, get on the podium or get a result?<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cThose results bias process goals. You win and it masks the fact that you got everything wrong with training, nutrition, whatever else. Or you get all of those things right, you lose and think whatever you do isn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lim has gone back to the process of performance, likening getting that right to \u201ccard counting,\u201d a technique to help beat the odds and make one\u2019s own luck.<\/p>\n
St Michel\u2019s improved Tour performance<\/h2>\nAlison Jackson, happy to get past Mont Ventoux. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThat said, sport is a results business and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 have the aim of being the best UCI ProTeam in the next two years.<\/p>\n
So, how did things go for this year?<\/p>\n
Better than 2025, for one.<\/p>\n
St Michel has been far from the worst team. They finished 15th out of 21 in the teams classification and their best stage result was 14th for Emilie Morier on the final day into Nice, helping her to move to 19th overall.<\/p>\n
Alison Jackson joined breakaways as they earned \u20ac1,420, three times more than last year \u2013 even if three abandons on the final day meant they had two finishers.<\/p>\n
It is still a battle to get into escapes let alone fight for the win against richer WorldTour powerhouses.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThere is a \u201cMoneyball\u201d part to this endeavor; wealth means less friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to talk about doping and cycling today, doping is called the almighty dollar. Or Euro, or Swiss franc,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Focusing on data and the process<\/h2>\n
Of course, even if the Tour de France Femmes is the biggest race in women\u2019s pro road racing, this is about a lot more than one event and its results.<\/p>\n
For Lim, this is a \u201clong-term investment in these processes that over time will pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowledge \u2013 and all the data gained \u2013 can be power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process is way more important than the result,\u201d he says. \u201cBut \u2013 and this is where it is hard, right? If you focus on the way, I think over the long haul, I think you create a culture where success can beat the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nAndy McGrath<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUpdated August 12, 2026 10:47AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/from-moneyball-sweat-science-allen-lim-transforming-tour-de-france-femmes-worst-team\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_9257.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 12, 2026 10:47AM \u201cF*** marginal gains,\u201d Allen Lim tells Velo. \u201cAnd f*** anyone who says that word.\u201d \u201cThe bottom line is marginal gains don\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t take care of the communications bottleneck first.\u201d Working on how riders trust and interact with one another is just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2090336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
St Michel have been looking west for growth for some years. They have had Cannondale as a bike sponsor for four seasons, with SRAM and Premier Tech on board as partners too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found people who love cycling, who want to invest and who can invest,\u201d team CEO St\u00e9phan Gaudry says. \u201cIt\u2019s true that in France and Europe, it\u2019s complicated with the economy currently.\u201d<\/p>\n
They have already decided to stop their long-running men\u2019s team at the end of 2026 to focus on the women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
As a by-product of all these trans-Atlantic connections, the roster looks very different. Having had one North American rider in 2025, there are five in 2026, including former Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson, Giro stage winner Clara Emond and climber Heidi Franz \u2013 all fueled, hydrated, and optimized for performance by Lim and his Skratch Labs team.<\/p>\n
Starting from Skratch<\/h2>\n
While Lim has worked for top-tier powerhouses like Phonak, Radioshack and Garmin in the past, he has also experienced times when his relationship with the sport was damaged and peppered with trauma.<\/p>\n
He finds this challenge a lot more fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, I love helping the underdog,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I also love innovation and when you get to a level of a bigger team, I think people are less willing to experiment and want to change anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they\u2019re already in a situation where things are working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crucially, St Michel management were curious and open to change. \u201cIt\u2019s really, really hard on a big team to try new ideas because if you don\u2019t succeed, you blame the new thing. Of course, you blame the outsider, you blame the innovation,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Lessons from Colorado camp<\/b><\/h2>\nRacing in the heat was a thirsty business. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHe has not been shy to introduce new ways of working and systems.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nA three-week July training camp in Boulder, Colorado was a big shift for a team with predominantly French riders and staff.<\/p>\n
Working year-long on hydration and fueling, they were able to do lab testing before and after sessions there.<\/p>\n
Lim and his team looked at substrate utilization and the ratio of carbohydrate to fat being burned at different intensities of riding.<\/p>\n
They weighed each rider pre-and-post training to work out total body water loss. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about how dehydrated you are, it\u2019s whether that dehydration is happening inside or outside the cell,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when it comes to performance, it\u2019s the water outside the cell, in your blood stream and plasma volume, which is most important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Secrets of the blood<\/b><\/h2>\n
The Skratch Labs staff carried out finger tip blood samples before and after each Tour de France Femmes stage too. A more dilute result means a gain in plasma, a more hemoconcentrated one means they\u2019ve lost plasma, which also damages red blood cells considerably.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nSodium is a key governor of that, so it has led to them exploring individual sodium loss in fueling.<\/p>\n
\u201cReplacing sodium in athletes who are losing plasma volume, so that we\u2019re not forcing them to drink more, which could cause hyponotraemia, but we\u2019re making them more thirsty,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re adding more sodium to those athletes who drop in plasma volume, so that they naturally want to drink more. We stay in water balance, electrolyte balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who needs altitude camps?<\/h2>\n
They also did work with high-intensity hypoxia using the portable Hepox device.<\/p>\n
Essentially, it involves rebreathing into a bag with a CO2 filter, dropping oxygen saturation significantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw improvements in hemaglobin mass in all the riders here, significant changes that I believe are better than altitude training or [altitude] tents,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Playing, communicating, and training<\/b><\/h2>\nPhoto: Gruber Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIt goes beyond sports science. A simple shift was spending dedicated time training together mid-season, which Lim likens to kicking the ball to each other in soccer.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nFor the physiologist, the biggest bottle-neck in the sport is communication and learning to trust one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is getting really good at getting really fit, everybody is optimizing for their power to drag or their power to weight, but as a team, racing a bicycle is still about communication between one another,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
In Colorado, they did dynamic race simulation in training, putting in several daily 5 to 10 kilometer races on all kinds of terrain, from the flat to Flagstaff Mountain.<\/p>\n
Lim acknowledges that for all the work on better communication, they \u201cprobably had to really sacrifice engine building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students, cooks, and cool customers<\/b><\/h2>\n
It did not stop there. Lim was there for the whole team, with a Skratch Labs team including three chefs.<\/p>\n
They work on cooking breakfast, pre-ride meals, recovery food, snacks and dinner as well as hydration and recovery drinks.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWith the likes of pineapple braised beef, sesame avocado toast, mochi-dusted crispy chicken and pan-seared salmon on the dinner table, St Michel\u2019s riders were kept energized with some novel fare.<\/p>\n
Dr Peter Kim and a team of three students from the University of Colorado Boulder were also with the team, experimenting and innovating.<\/p>\n
In a Tour of sweltering heat, cooling was another focus. Before the stage 4 TT, riders swallowed ingestible temperature sensors to monitor their core temperature.<\/p>\n
Process over results<\/b><\/h2>\nAlicia Gonzalez Blanco races during stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes. (Photo by Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLim is not a fan of pro cycling\u2019s traditional hierarchy. He has no official title; he simply \u201ctries to go where the help is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other issue with sport and business as a whole is people are so fixated on outcome goals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid we win or not win? Did we get a jersey, get on the podium or get a result?<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cThose results bias process goals. You win and it masks the fact that you got everything wrong with training, nutrition, whatever else. Or you get all of those things right, you lose and think whatever you do isn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lim has gone back to the process of performance, likening getting that right to \u201ccard counting,\u201d a technique to help beat the odds and make one\u2019s own luck.<\/p>\n
St Michel\u2019s improved Tour performance<\/h2>\nAlison Jackson, happy to get past Mont Ventoux. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThat said, sport is a results business and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 have the aim of being the best UCI ProTeam in the next two years.<\/p>\n
So, how did things go for this year?<\/p>\n
Better than 2025, for one.<\/p>\n
St Michel has been far from the worst team. They finished 15th out of 21 in the teams classification and their best stage result was 14th for Emilie Morier on the final day into Nice, helping her to move to 19th overall.<\/p>\n
Alison Jackson joined breakaways as they earned \u20ac1,420, three times more than last year \u2013 even if three abandons on the final day meant they had two finishers.<\/p>\n
It is still a battle to get into escapes let alone fight for the win against richer WorldTour powerhouses.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThere is a \u201cMoneyball\u201d part to this endeavor; wealth means less friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to talk about doping and cycling today, doping is called the almighty dollar. Or Euro, or Swiss franc,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Focusing on data and the process<\/h2>\n
Of course, even if the Tour de France Femmes is the biggest race in women\u2019s pro road racing, this is about a lot more than one event and its results.<\/p>\n
For Lim, this is a \u201clong-term investment in these processes that over time will pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowledge \u2013 and all the data gained \u2013 can be power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process is way more important than the result,\u201d he says. \u201cBut \u2013 and this is where it is hard, right? If you focus on the way, I think over the long haul, I think you create a culture where success can beat the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nAndy McGrath<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUpdated August 12, 2026 10:47AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/from-moneyball-sweat-science-allen-lim-transforming-tour-de-france-femmes-worst-team\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_9257.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 12, 2026 10:47AM \u201cF*** marginal gains,\u201d Allen Lim tells Velo. \u201cAnd f*** anyone who says that word.\u201d \u201cThe bottom line is marginal gains don\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t take care of the communications bottleneck first.\u201d Working on how riders trust and interact with one another is just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2090336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
He has not been shy to introduce new ways of working and systems.<\/p>\n
A three-week July training camp in Boulder, Colorado was a big shift for a team with predominantly French riders and staff.<\/p>\n
Working year-long on hydration and fueling, they were able to do lab testing before and after sessions there.<\/p>\n
Lim and his team looked at substrate utilization and the ratio of carbohydrate to fat being burned at different intensities of riding.<\/p>\n
They weighed each rider pre-and-post training to work out total body water loss. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about how dehydrated you are, it\u2019s whether that dehydration is happening inside or outside the cell,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when it comes to performance, it\u2019s the water outside the cell, in your blood stream and plasma volume, which is most important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Secrets of the blood<\/b><\/h2>\n
The Skratch Labs staff carried out finger tip blood samples before and after each Tour de France Femmes stage too. A more dilute result means a gain in plasma, a more hemoconcentrated one means they\u2019ve lost plasma, which also damages red blood cells considerably.<\/p>\n
Sodium is a key governor of that, so it has led to them exploring individual sodium loss in fueling.<\/p>\n
\u201cReplacing sodium in athletes who are losing plasma volume, so that we\u2019re not forcing them to drink more, which could cause hyponotraemia, but we\u2019re making them more thirsty,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re adding more sodium to those athletes who drop in plasma volume, so that they naturally want to drink more. We stay in water balance, electrolyte balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who needs altitude camps?<\/h2>\n
They also did work with high-intensity hypoxia using the portable Hepox device.<\/p>\n
Essentially, it involves rebreathing into a bag with a CO2 filter, dropping oxygen saturation significantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw improvements in hemaglobin mass in all the riders here, significant changes that I believe are better than altitude training or [altitude] tents,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Playing, communicating, and training<\/b><\/h2>\nPhoto: Gruber Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIt goes beyond sports science. A simple shift was spending dedicated time training together mid-season, which Lim likens to kicking the ball to each other in soccer.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nFor the physiologist, the biggest bottle-neck in the sport is communication and learning to trust one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is getting really good at getting really fit, everybody is optimizing for their power to drag or their power to weight, but as a team, racing a bicycle is still about communication between one another,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
In Colorado, they did dynamic race simulation in training, putting in several daily 5 to 10 kilometer races on all kinds of terrain, from the flat to Flagstaff Mountain.<\/p>\n
Lim acknowledges that for all the work on better communication, they \u201cprobably had to really sacrifice engine building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students, cooks, and cool customers<\/b><\/h2>\n
It did not stop there. Lim was there for the whole team, with a Skratch Labs team including three chefs.<\/p>\n
They work on cooking breakfast, pre-ride meals, recovery food, snacks and dinner as well as hydration and recovery drinks.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWith the likes of pineapple braised beef, sesame avocado toast, mochi-dusted crispy chicken and pan-seared salmon on the dinner table, St Michel\u2019s riders were kept energized with some novel fare.<\/p>\n
Dr Peter Kim and a team of three students from the University of Colorado Boulder were also with the team, experimenting and innovating.<\/p>\n
In a Tour of sweltering heat, cooling was another focus. Before the stage 4 TT, riders swallowed ingestible temperature sensors to monitor their core temperature.<\/p>\n
Process over results<\/b><\/h2>\nAlicia Gonzalez Blanco races during stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes. (Photo by Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLim is not a fan of pro cycling\u2019s traditional hierarchy. He has no official title; he simply \u201ctries to go where the help is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other issue with sport and business as a whole is people are so fixated on outcome goals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid we win or not win? Did we get a jersey, get on the podium or get a result?<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cThose results bias process goals. You win and it masks the fact that you got everything wrong with training, nutrition, whatever else. Or you get all of those things right, you lose and think whatever you do isn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lim has gone back to the process of performance, likening getting that right to \u201ccard counting,\u201d a technique to help beat the odds and make one\u2019s own luck.<\/p>\n
St Michel\u2019s improved Tour performance<\/h2>\nAlison Jackson, happy to get past Mont Ventoux. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThat said, sport is a results business and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 have the aim of being the best UCI ProTeam in the next two years.<\/p>\n
So, how did things go for this year?<\/p>\n
Better than 2025, for one.<\/p>\n
St Michel has been far from the worst team. They finished 15th out of 21 in the teams classification and their best stage result was 14th for Emilie Morier on the final day into Nice, helping her to move to 19th overall.<\/p>\n
Alison Jackson joined breakaways as they earned \u20ac1,420, three times more than last year \u2013 even if three abandons on the final day meant they had two finishers.<\/p>\n
It is still a battle to get into escapes let alone fight for the win against richer WorldTour powerhouses.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThere is a \u201cMoneyball\u201d part to this endeavor; wealth means less friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to talk about doping and cycling today, doping is called the almighty dollar. Or Euro, or Swiss franc,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Focusing on data and the process<\/h2>\n
Of course, even if the Tour de France Femmes is the biggest race in women\u2019s pro road racing, this is about a lot more than one event and its results.<\/p>\n
For Lim, this is a \u201clong-term investment in these processes that over time will pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowledge \u2013 and all the data gained \u2013 can be power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process is way more important than the result,\u201d he says. \u201cBut \u2013 and this is where it is hard, right? If you focus on the way, I think over the long haul, I think you create a culture where success can beat the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nAndy McGrath<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUpdated August 12, 2026 10:47AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/from-moneyball-sweat-science-allen-lim-transforming-tour-de-france-femmes-worst-team\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_9257.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 12, 2026 10:47AM \u201cF*** marginal gains,\u201d Allen Lim tells Velo. \u201cAnd f*** anyone who says that word.\u201d \u201cThe bottom line is marginal gains don\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t take care of the communications bottleneck first.\u201d Working on how riders trust and interact with one another is just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2090336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It goes beyond sports science. A simple shift was spending dedicated time training together mid-season, which Lim likens to kicking the ball to each other in soccer.<\/p>\n
For the physiologist, the biggest bottle-neck in the sport is communication and learning to trust one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is getting really good at getting really fit, everybody is optimizing for their power to drag or their power to weight, but as a team, racing a bicycle is still about communication between one another,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
In Colorado, they did dynamic race simulation in training, putting in several daily 5 to 10 kilometer races on all kinds of terrain, from the flat to Flagstaff Mountain.<\/p>\n
Lim acknowledges that for all the work on better communication, they \u201cprobably had to really sacrifice engine building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students, cooks, and cool customers<\/b><\/h2>\n
It did not stop there. Lim was there for the whole team, with a Skratch Labs team including three chefs.<\/p>\n
They work on cooking breakfast, pre-ride meals, recovery food, snacks and dinner as well as hydration and recovery drinks.<\/p>\n
With the likes of pineapple braised beef, sesame avocado toast, mochi-dusted crispy chicken and pan-seared salmon on the dinner table, St Michel\u2019s riders were kept energized with some novel fare.<\/p>\n
Dr Peter Kim and a team of three students from the University of Colorado Boulder were also with the team, experimenting and innovating.<\/p>\n
In a Tour of sweltering heat, cooling was another focus. Before the stage 4 TT, riders swallowed ingestible temperature sensors to monitor their core temperature.<\/p>\n
Process over results<\/b><\/h2>\nAlicia Gonzalez Blanco races during stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes. (Photo by Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLim is not a fan of pro cycling\u2019s traditional hierarchy. He has no official title; he simply \u201ctries to go where the help is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other issue with sport and business as a whole is people are so fixated on outcome goals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid we win or not win? Did we get a jersey, get on the podium or get a result?<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cThose results bias process goals. You win and it masks the fact that you got everything wrong with training, nutrition, whatever else. Or you get all of those things right, you lose and think whatever you do isn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lim has gone back to the process of performance, likening getting that right to \u201ccard counting,\u201d a technique to help beat the odds and make one\u2019s own luck.<\/p>\n
St Michel\u2019s improved Tour performance<\/h2>\nAlison Jackson, happy to get past Mont Ventoux. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThat said, sport is a results business and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 have the aim of being the best UCI ProTeam in the next two years.<\/p>\n
So, how did things go for this year?<\/p>\n
Better than 2025, for one.<\/p>\n
St Michel has been far from the worst team. They finished 15th out of 21 in the teams classification and their best stage result was 14th for Emilie Morier on the final day into Nice, helping her to move to 19th overall.<\/p>\n
Alison Jackson joined breakaways as they earned \u20ac1,420, three times more than last year \u2013 even if three abandons on the final day meant they had two finishers.<\/p>\n
It is still a battle to get into escapes let alone fight for the win against richer WorldTour powerhouses.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThere is a \u201cMoneyball\u201d part to this endeavor; wealth means less friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to talk about doping and cycling today, doping is called the almighty dollar. Or Euro, or Swiss franc,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Focusing on data and the process<\/h2>\n
Of course, even if the Tour de France Femmes is the biggest race in women\u2019s pro road racing, this is about a lot more than one event and its results.<\/p>\n
For Lim, this is a \u201clong-term investment in these processes that over time will pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowledge \u2013 and all the data gained \u2013 can be power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process is way more important than the result,\u201d he says. \u201cBut \u2013 and this is where it is hard, right? If you focus on the way, I think over the long haul, I think you create a culture where success can beat the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nAndy McGrath<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUpdated August 12, 2026 10:47AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/from-moneyball-sweat-science-allen-lim-transforming-tour-de-france-femmes-worst-team\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_9257.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 12, 2026 10:47AM \u201cF*** marginal gains,\u201d Allen Lim tells Velo. \u201cAnd f*** anyone who says that word.\u201d \u201cThe bottom line is marginal gains don\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t take care of the communications bottleneck first.\u201d Working on how riders trust and interact with one another is just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2090336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Lim is not a fan of pro cycling\u2019s traditional hierarchy. He has no official title; he simply \u201ctries to go where the help is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other issue with sport and business as a whole is people are so fixated on outcome goals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid we win or not win? Did we get a jersey, get on the podium or get a result?<\/p>\n
\u201cThose results bias process goals. You win and it masks the fact that you got everything wrong with training, nutrition, whatever else. Or you get all of those things right, you lose and think whatever you do isn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lim has gone back to the process of performance, likening getting that right to \u201ccard counting,\u201d a technique to help beat the odds and make one\u2019s own luck.<\/p>\n
St Michel\u2019s improved Tour performance<\/h2>\nAlison Jackson, happy to get past Mont Ventoux. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThat said, sport is a results business and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 have the aim of being the best UCI ProTeam in the next two years.<\/p>\n
So, how did things go for this year?<\/p>\n
Better than 2025, for one.<\/p>\n
St Michel has been far from the worst team. They finished 15th out of 21 in the teams classification and their best stage result was 14th for Emilie Morier on the final day into Nice, helping her to move to 19th overall.<\/p>\n
Alison Jackson joined breakaways as they earned \u20ac1,420, three times more than last year \u2013 even if three abandons on the final day meant they had two finishers.<\/p>\n
It is still a battle to get into escapes let alone fight for the win against richer WorldTour powerhouses.<\/p>\n
\nADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThere is a \u201cMoneyball\u201d part to this endeavor; wealth means less friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to talk about doping and cycling today, doping is called the almighty dollar. Or Euro, or Swiss franc,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Focusing on data and the process<\/h2>\n
Of course, even if the Tour de France Femmes is the biggest race in women\u2019s pro road racing, this is about a lot more than one event and its results.<\/p>\n
For Lim, this is a \u201clong-term investment in these processes that over time will pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowledge \u2013 and all the data gained \u2013 can be power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process is way more important than the result,\u201d he says. \u201cBut \u2013 and this is where it is hard, right? If you focus on the way, I think over the long haul, I think you create a culture where success can beat the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nAndy McGrath<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUpdated August 12, 2026 10:47AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/from-moneyball-sweat-science-allen-lim-transforming-tour-de-france-femmes-worst-team\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_9257.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 12, 2026 10:47AM \u201cF*** marginal gains,\u201d Allen Lim tells Velo. \u201cAnd f*** anyone who says that word.\u201d \u201cThe bottom line is marginal gains don\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t take care of the communications bottleneck first.\u201d Working on how riders trust and interact with one another is just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2090336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
That said, sport is a results business and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 have the aim of being the best UCI ProTeam in the next two years.<\/p>\n
So, how did things go for this year?<\/p>\n
Better than 2025, for one.<\/p>\n
St Michel has been far from the worst team. They finished 15th out of 21 in the teams classification and their best stage result was 14th for Emilie Morier on the final day into Nice, helping her to move to 19th overall.<\/p>\n
Alison Jackson joined breakaways as they earned \u20ac1,420, three times more than last year \u2013 even if three abandons on the final day meant they had two finishers.<\/p>\n
It is still a battle to get into escapes let alone fight for the win against richer WorldTour powerhouses.<\/p>\n
There is a \u201cMoneyball\u201d part to this endeavor; wealth means less friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to talk about doping and cycling today, doping is called the almighty dollar. Or Euro, or Swiss franc,\u201d Lim says.<\/p>\n
Focusing on data and the process<\/h2>\n
Of course, even if the Tour de France Femmes is the biggest race in women\u2019s pro road racing, this is about a lot more than one event and its results.<\/p>\n
For Lim, this is a \u201clong-term investment in these processes that over time will pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowledge \u2013 and all the data gained \u2013 can be power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process is way more important than the result,\u201d he says. \u201cBut \u2013 and this is where it is hard, right? If you focus on the way, I think over the long haul, I think you create a culture where success can beat the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/from-moneyball-sweat-science-allen-lim-transforming-tour-de-france-femmes-worst-team\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_9257.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 12, 2026 10:47AM \u201cF*** marginal gains,\u201d Allen Lim tells Velo. \u201cAnd f*** anyone who says that word.\u201d \u201cThe bottom line is marginal gains don\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t take care of the communications bottleneck first.\u201d Working on how riders trust and interact with one another is just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2090336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}