Whilst the weather has hardly been scorching in the UK this past week, things are undoubtedly looking a bit brighter. The election is out of the way, football appears to be coming home, Lewis is the undisputed King of Silverstone (possibly because of the rain rather than the sun but...) and the long-range forecast suggests the sun is back towards the end of the week.
In the meantime we've been hard at work with some of our athletes as they face somewhat hotter conditions. Here's a roundup of some of those from the past week.
PROTECTING THE YELLOW JERSEY
For years we've worked with various cycling teams and riders at the Tour de France, offering sun protection strategies to cope with increasingly hotter conditions at the world's toughest bike race.
We've been lucky enough to support a number of cyclists into yellow (including a few who've kept it until Paris) and couldn't be happier to have added Richie Carapaz to that list last week. The sun has been punishing in this first week (37°c on day 1) so we had to hit the ground running to make sure the team were in the right shape to capitalise. When we say our sport-specific sun protection is tested at the very top of sport, we mean it!
GUSTAV IS GOING TO KONA
When we spent the day with Gustav and Kristian at their training camp in Font Romeu a couple of weeks ago, it was clear Gustav was starting to come into some form but biding his time for Kona later this year, the race where he rewrote history in his first appearance.
So we're super happy that after coming through IRONMAN 70.3 Les Sables D’Olonne in good shape, he's now qualified for the big one. The hard work continues and we'll be working with Gustav on his sun protection strategy to handle some of the most punishing conditions in triathlon...
PODIUM FOR HAYDEN AT WSER 100
We also saw another edition of one of the most iconic ultra running races on the planet, Western States 100 miler. Renowned for incredibly hot conditions, this year was no different... temperatures hovering around the 36°c mark and, at one point, a creek fire breaking out requiring some evacuations.
Thankfully all our athletes made it through safely, including Hayden Hawks who managed to get himself into a sprint finish (after 100 miles?!) and finished third on the day, with a well executed heat management plan. Our range of sunscreen enables the skin to breathe and sweat effectively during running and high intensity sports - it doesn't get much more intense than this!