FLOWBIO, the wearable sweat sensor company, is preparing to move hydration and sodium tracking from post-ride analysis into live race data this season, with CEO Stefan van der Fluit confirming the company's real-time feature is close to launch.
"The future of sports performance and spectator experience is on the horizon," Van der Fluit wrote on LinkedIn last week. "It won't be long now till spectators and athletes will have a real-time streaming of their carb and hydration combustion during events to add an extra layer of fan engagement and performance."
The company has publicly teased the project under the label Project RT, signalling a real-time integration with bike computers and existing fitness hardware. Van der Fluit confirmed further details to Velora.
If the rollout occurs this summer, it would add hydration and sodium loss to the short list of live performance metrics available during racing, alongside power output and heart rate – data already commonly broadcast during the Grand Tours by organisations such as Velon and Whoop.
What a rider actually loses in seven hours
Van der Fluit used data from a UCI WorldTour rider at Milan-Sanremo to illustrate the scale of in-race fluid and sodium depletion. The athlete lost 5.1g of sodium and 4.3 litres of water over the course of the race, which Van der Fluit said amounted to "more than two days' worth of traditional guideline intakes for adult men" consumed in a single effort.
That kind of data currently arrives after the race is over. If real-time metrics were introduced it could offer tactical insights that could enrich the viewing experience. In hot stages or long one-day races, the difference between an educated guess and a measured readout could affect pacing, feeding schedules and how teams manage bottle hand-ups.
FLOWBIO's current product, the FLOWBIO Sensor, is a 10g sensor that clips to a heart rate strap or arm band. It samples sweat every eight seconds using a conductivity sensor paired with a skin-temperature sensor, then sends data via Bluetooth to the FLOWBIO app. Post-session, the app estimates total sweat loss, sodium loss and recommended replacement amounts. The technology has been used by pro cyclists, and EF Education–EasyPost have been a key technical partner.
The jump from post-ride summaries to live data introduces a separate technical challenge. Displaying sweat metrics on a bike computer during a ride is one step. Getting that data off the device and into a broadcast feed for spectators requires additional infrastructure, typically a Bluetooth-to-mobile-network pipeline of the kind already used to transmit power and heart rate data to television.
FLOWBIO is backed by the founders of Ŋura, Athletic Brewing Company and Qualcomm Wearables. The company is currently raising $4 million to fund its next phase of development, with Van der Fluit confirming to Velora that Project RT is central to that roadmap.
Cover image credit: Billy Ceusters
