The news didn’t take long to spark a reaction. While the Visma-Lease a bike team announced this Thursday that it was going to use a van to collect live data during the Tour de France, the International Cycling Union (UCI) immediately declared that it would “carry out checks”.
Two days before the start of the 111th edition in Florence (Italy), Jonas Vingegaard’s group said it was “proud to present its “Control Room”, a van equipped with modern technologies to centralize the harvest of real-time data during the Tour de France such as TV images, the latest weather information and race radio.
“This allows us to collect and analyze even more live data and have a better overview of the race. We will be able to provide information to sports directors in the cars and help them make tactical decisions more quickly,” explained Mathieu Heijboer, performance director at Visma, referring to a “unique case in cycling”.
Visma regularly pinned by the UCI
The UCI reacted with a press release in which the body said it was “currently carrying out checks to ensure that the system put in place by the team complies with the regulatory framework in force, particularly with regard to harvesting and transmission. Datas “.
The Visma-Lease a bike team prides itself on pushing the limits very far in terms of performance optimization. But it is regularly criticized by the UCI, most recently regarding particularly futuristic time trial helmets which were ultimately deemed non-compliant.
