When Tadej Pogačar crossed the finish line to win Stage 14 of the Tour de France, he took a little piece of Geelong with him.
The Slovenian cyclist, considered by many to be the greatest of all time, matched a yellow nasal strip to his yellow leader’s jersey through the gruelling mountain ride.
Thousands of kilometres away, Nick Allitt and Daisy McCulloch held their own celebration.
Their business, Dopamine Lab, was behind that nasal strip.
And Pogačar, unexpectedly and without sponsorship, had just thrust their brand into the global spotlight.
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“It really, really was surreal,” Allitt told SmartCompany on Thursday. “We got a lot of messages that morning.”
Dopamine Lab is now fielding orders from across Europe, as its products reach a new international audience.
The Pogačar connection was certainly a stroke of luck for the small Victorian business.
But the duo say hard work and intelligent branding helped Dopamine Lab find its place in the peloton.
From “torture tests” to giveaways
Allitt and McCulloch founded Dopamine Lab to capitalise on the growing market for athletic recovery equipment.
Long gone are the days of a simple cool-down routine, with high-level athletes now turning to compression boots, ice baths, and saunas to manage the strain of elite competition.
Dopamine Lab developed options to compete with extravagantly priced recovery equipment affordable only to the wealthiest teams and athletes.
“It was a natural progression of things we were using ourselves and believed in,” said Allitt.
“We had used other products on the market and thought maybe we could make something a little bit better.”
After bringing compression boots and saunas to market, McCulloch set about designing a nasal strip capable of opening the airways through both sleep and rigorous activity.
Nasal strips are already commonplace in elite sport, but Dopamine Lab sought stronger silicone springs and adhesives that would not irritate sensitive skin.
The brand’s local sponsored athletes put the strips through “torture tests”, said Allitt, including a 26-hour ultra marathon and a half Iron Man.
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With those battle tests concluded, the business brought its strips to market in mid-2025.
The strips proved successful from early on, and garnered interest during high-level UCI cycling events held in the Surf Coast region.
“A lot of the events usually have an expo for one to two days before the main event, so that’s typically where we set up and do the free trials,” said McCulloch.
At one event, “I believe we did 160 free trials, and sold 125 packets,” she added.
First exposure to cycling elite
Dopamine Lab’s first truly unexpected breakthrough came during this January’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
There, elite British cyclist Adam Yates, a rider for UAE Team Emirates, purchased a pack of nasal strips from the Dopamine Lab exhibitor tent.
“We thought we might see him strip on the road at a local event, and that would be cool,” said McCulloch.
“And then in the coming months, we started seeing photos pop up all over Instagram of him using them in a few different countries,” she added.
A few months passed after Yates wore the strips during the Tour of Oman.
“We didn’t really hear anything else,” said Allitt.
“He only bought a pack of 30, so we just kind of assumed that they’d run out.
“And then the Tour de France popped up, and we got sent a video of Tadej.”
Teamwork makes the dream work
In footage captured ahead of the Saturday stage, Pogačar sported the distinctive yellow nasal strip with black chevrons.
A reporter asked the 27-year-old about the colour-coordinated accessory — which he said was a gift from Yates, his teammate on UAE Team Emirates.
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“Adam gave me just before… When Adam gives you his gadgets, you take,” said Pogačar.
“We thought, ‘Oh, wow, Adam liked the strips enough to save them for the Tour de France’, and then also to give one to his teammate, wearing the yellow jersey, which was just unbelievable,” said McCulloch.
Not only did the four-time overall Tour de France winner sport the strip during the Stage 14 victory, but he also elected to wear one again during the next day’s brutal time trial stage.
“That was even more mind-blowing,” said Allitt.
“We know that the guys are very selective with their gear for a time trial.”
After the stage win, the rider, affectionately dubbed ‘Pogi’ by fans, shared photos of the victory to his nearly three million Instagram followers.
Local business’ global plans
Beyond the morale boost to the young, local cyclists sponsored by Dopamine Lab, Allitt and McCulloch say the exposure is helping the business reach new customers overseas.
“We’re getting a lot of European traffic to our site at the moment today, this morning as well,” he said.
“So Australia is still our biggest biggest traffic, but closely followed now by France, Spain, Portugal, and a few other countries in the area, which is pretty awesome.”
Dopamine Lab had already provided nasal strips to an elite Latvian rider, and compression boots to the Portuguese cycling team.
But “this has been obviously very helpful for our endeavours to crack the European market,” said Allitt.
The business hopes to delve even deeper into the cycling market by securing deals with major Australian bike wholesalers.
Dopamine Lab plans to continue with its compression boots offering, and will adapt its sauna business to the demands of the market.
For now, the pair will keep their eyes on the Tour de France, where the business’ surprise ambassador has a real chance to secure his fifth overall title.