Stages Cycling moves into pro ranks

Power meter company sponsors its first World Cup team, Scott-3Rox

Courtesy Scott-3Rox

Published: December 10, 2012 at 4:32 pm

Although its crank-based power meter is not yet on the market, Stages Cycling has already teamed up with Scott-3 Rox as the team’s official power meter supplier for next season.

Stages Cycling will soon commercially release its 20g power meter that uses strain gauges inside the nondriveside crank arm. Retail will be $699/£435.

“We are looking forward to this partnership with Stages Cycling,” said Kyle Douglas, the founder/manager of Scott-3 Rox. “The units offer the team advantage while training and racing — it allows every rider to have detailed information without sacrificing any weight or performance.”

Scott-3 Rox will race the 2013 World Cup with the Stages Power Shimano XTR model, and the team will also have the Stages Power Dura-Ace road models for training and cyclocross.

The Stages power meters work on both ANT and Bluetooth Smart, which send information wirelessly to head units like the Garmin Edge 500 or to your smart phone. Stages does not offer its own head unit.

Power meters measure in real time the amount of work, measured in watts, that a rider generates while pedaling. The main competing systems on the market are the spider-based SRM system (which starts at $1,950/£1,212) and the hub-based PowerTap (which starts at $899/£559).

The stages power meter weighs just 20g: - James Huang/BikeRadar

The Stages Cycling power meter weighs just 20g and works with smart phones and head units like the Garmin Edge 500

“No matter what your training philosophy is, it is essential to be able to quantify your performance accurately,” said Geoff Kabush, Scott-3 Rox team member. “In cycling power measurement is an incredibly valuable training tool to target workouts, gauge progress, and track load.”

For 2013, Scott-3 Rox will be a UCI Elite Trade Team, based out of Ontario, Canada.

"Power capture and data analysis is still in its infancy in the off-road realm, and we hope to help the team reach a new level of performance by providing this crucial data to them, without compromising their bikes,” said Matt Pacocha, marketing manager for Stages Cycling.