I was suspicious about Visma-Lease a Bike’s Tour de France “Control Room” van from the start. The idea behind it was, apparently, to create a command post from which the team could monitor a race and make tactical decisions.
My doubts were aroused because normally when a team concocts a new marginal gain, they are at least a tiny bit secretive about it. It seemed unusual to write “Control Room” on the side of the van in letters as large as would fit, and then release several moody photographs of it posing in a grassy meadow as if it was auditioning for a shampoo commercial.
The sceptic might almost imagine that the main purpose of this van was for the Tour de France to refuse it an accreditation and attract attention to the team sponsors. The only thing it didn’t have was a “Ban Me! Ban Me!” decal. The Tour duly refused it a vehicle accreditation, meaning that it couldn't access official Tour areas. Like a German tourist, it had to watch the race from a random bit of roadside in its flip-flops with its bib straps round its waist.
The contents of the van were not all that sophisticated. In the darkened, air-conditioned interior there were half a dozen screens, with TV feeds from several cameras, the Pro Cycling Stats overview of the race, the VeloViewer map, some social media feeds so they could keep up with anyone who might be tweeting about the weather or road conditions, and a team WhatsApp group. There was also an app that used AI to identify jerseys so they knew immediately how many riders from each team were in the TV shot, and weather radar for the route.
I’ll be honest, it looked like a fabulous place to watch a bike race. All this information, arranged for your viewing pleasure. It was bike-fan heaven. The only thing it didn’t have was a coffee machine.
The ASO banned it, pointing to Regulation 1.3.006 bis. This is a reg that allows for the transmission of data from a bike in a race, like its location, speed and the rider’s power. It also outlaws the transmission of a rider’s physiological data, like heart rate or body temperature, to anyone other than the rider.
Clearly, at least on the face of it, the control centre didn't contravene any of that. As it was presented, the control centre didn't contain anything you couldn't recreate with a few screens in your living room. The only substantive difference is that you have probably never tried to have your living room accredited so you park it at the finish of a Tour stage.
Even if the ASO suspected that the van was actually receiving banned telemetry like heart rate, the issue wasn't really the van, it was the transmission, which presumably would now just go to a team car. Honestly, I suspect that if the team were using illegal data they wouldn’t do it in a big yellow van with “Control Room” written on the side.
When it comes down to it, it didn’t get banned for that. It got banned because it’s not subtle enough. Everyone wants the tactical calls in a race to at least look like they’re being decided in the heat of battle, and that the riders are doing more than just obeying orders.
No one wants to shift the ‘race radio’ debate up another level, so that it’s not even a flustered DS trying to drive the car, watch the TV and bark, “Guys, get to the front” into a radio, it’s someone in a team onesie calmly drinking a flat white and making decisions from miles away.
Which is a shame, because it’s a job I badly want. I’ve even got a coffee machine ready.
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