A former international cyclist has predicted his new tech platform will be to cycling what personal trainers are for the fitness industry.
Richard Lang competed for Australia in a glittering career before moving to Manchester and forging a new career as an entrepreneur.
The 30-year-old quickly found himself in demand as a cycling coach but realised he could only help a limited number of clients 鈥� so turned to tech to find a solution.
The result is SPOK鈥橠, a flexible online cycling coach to help users get fitter and faster.
Cyclists input a range of data sets, including distances travelled to hours slept, and receive a weekly training plan, all backed up by a support centre.
Subscribers pay a monthly fee of 拢9.99 and Lang predicted it could help find a future Olympic gold medallist or Tour de France winner.
Developers are currently creating an app version of SPOK鈥橠 that will be available in the App Store.
Lang said: 鈥淚t can help everyone from the beginner to the experienced cyclist. In the gym you have a personal trainer. This is the equivalent for cyclists. I鈥檓 getting lots of positive feedback.鈥�
The cyclist said he鈥檚 drawn on his own cycling experience in cresting the tech platform.
Lang, whose mum is English, was raised in Sydney and started his cycling career at 16, representing Australia at the U23 World Road Championships, the Australia Omnium Championships and the Oceania Championships.
At the age of 24 he moved to England to pursue his career but pushed himself so hard he literally crashed and burned.
鈥淚 over-trained, under-ate and put that much pressure on myself I probably crashed,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淎 contract fell through so I entered the real world and it was a shock to the system. All I knew was cycling so it was a real culture shock.鈥�
He initially launched a corporate cycling event business called Haute Rouleurs before getting interested in technology and setting up SPOK鈥橠.
鈥淚鈥檓 a cycling coach and I can only coach so many people because of the restrictions on my time,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f I want to help as many people as possible I thought I must be able to automate part of the process. That鈥檚 where the idea for SPOK鈥橠 came from.
鈥淚 realised there were so many people cycling that didn鈥檛 have any support.鈥�
Lang said cyclists generate so much data that it鈥檚 easy to track improvements in performance and believes the software could be expanded to include dietary advice to maximise performance.
鈥淪POK鈥橠 is primarily aimed at people who want to improve,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e help them achieve their goals. Running has the 鈥楥ouch to 5k鈥檌nitiative and if someone wants to start cycling we want then to use SPOK鈥橠.鈥�
Lang said he鈥檚 running a pilot project with British Cycling and working with a number of cycling clubs.
They鈥檝e already received a small amount of seed funding and employed a developer but Lang said the ambition was to scale the business.