As well as the public facing side of VeloViewer which lets us mere mortals view all of our Strava activity history and segment info in lots of engaging and motivational ways, there is also a package offered to the top level men’s and women’s professional cycling teams to help the staff and riders prepare effectively for their races and provide real-time info on the courses during the races themselves. It is currently being used by 18 WorldTour, 4 ProTour, 10 women’s teams and 10 national teams.
History
Back in 2015 I heard that the classic VeloViewer 3D profiles were being used by a number of WorldTour team DS’s for race briefings including at Team Sky. For the 2016 season VeloViewer became an Official Supplier to Team Sky as I worked closely with their DS’s to build up the beginnings of my WorldTour package. In 2017 Orica-Scott (men and women) began using the package alongside Team Sky with FDJ and BMC joining them for the 2018 season. Since then the number of teams using the package has increased every year.
Current teams using the package
AG2R Citroën, Alpecin-Fenix (♂♀), Androni Giocattoli – Sidermec, Arkea Samsic, Astana Premier Tech, Bahrain Victorious, BEAT Cycling, BIKE AID, BikeExchange (♂♀), Black Spoke Pro Cycling, Bora-hansgrohe, Canyon-SRAM, Cofidis, Cycling Sheffield, Deceuninck-QuickStep, Drops, DSM (♂♀), EF Education – Nippo, EOLO-Kometa, FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, Groupama-FDJ, Hagens Berman Axeon, INEOS Grenadiers, Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux, Israel Start-Up Nation, Jumbo-Visma (♂♀), Liv Racing, Lotto-Soudal (♂♀), Movistar (♂♀), Nero Continental, NXTG Racing, Parkhotel Valkenburg, Qhubeka-Nexthash, Saint Piran, SD Worx, SEG Racing Academy, TIBCO-SVB, Total Direct Energie, Trinity Racing, UAE-Team Emirates, UNO-X, Voralberg, Austrian Cycling, Belgium Cycling, British Cycling, Cycling Australia, Cycling Canada, Dutch Cycling, German Cycling Federation, Israel Cycling, Latvian Cycling, Norwegian Cycling and USA Cycling.
So what is it?
The VeloViewer WorldTour package is made up of two main parts:
- Race Hub – A single page that lists all of the team’s races for the season with links to the details of each race/stage. Any number of custom waymarkers can be added to each race/stage to highlight the location of cimbs, sprints, feeds, hazards or anything else along the route which will then be displayed in the Live app and can also be exported and loaded onto the rider’s head-units.
- Live App – Designed specifically for use in the team cars, the Live app will run on iOS and Android devices to show you in real-time the upcoming course map and profile, distances to all the configured waymarkers and a multitude of other features created to make the job of the DS easier and more effective. It can also be used to add waymarkers when doing a recon before the race or in the avant course vehicle which will then automatically appear in the Live apps being used in the cars following the riders.
The easiest way to see how it works is to watch this short video. Lots of new features have been added since I recorded it though:
Benefits
The main benefits for the teams are:
- A single location for all of the team’s races with access for all staff and riders.
- Consistent graphics for all the races across the season removing any mid-race surprises caused by less-than-informative race manuals/graphics.
- Huge time saving for the team DS’s/coaches as I process all of the race routes and keep them up-to-date when the organisers need to make changes.
- All of the teams have agreed to share the race information with each other so once I have received the files for a race from one team, all the other teams doing that race will see the race in their own Race Hubs. It is tricky and time consuming for a single team to chase up each and every race organiser for route information across the season, especially to keep on top of route changes, so this shared approach is of benefit to all of the teams using the package, once again freeing up more time to allow the staff to concentrate on the real planning.
- Reliable elevation/gradient data. As part of the processing of each race, I correct the elevation data of the key climbs and time trials to make sure the gradients are trustworthy so even if a team hasn’t been able to physically recon a route, they can still plan their tactics or pacing strategies effectively.
- TCX export for the rider’s head-unit which includes any number of custom waymarkers added by the team or even the individual rider if a completely bespoke set of info is wanted.
- The Live app is a complete game-changer in the car removing (or at least lessening) the need for paper maps and notes. Everything about the app is designed from the ground up for use in the team car based on the feedback from DS’s and coaches from the WorldTour teams.
- The Live app also provides a “Recon Mode” that allows the adding/editing of waymarkers when pre-driving the course prior to the race or in the avant-course vehicle. It can also be used by team helpers out on the course to add a waymarker to show their exact location that will be automatically sync’ed to the Live apps in the team cars.
More info
The WorldTour package (including the Live app itself) is available to men’s WorldTour teams, women’s UCI teams, Pro-Continental and Continental teams along with national cycling teams.
For more information please drop me (Ben) an email at veloviewer@gmail.com
Wilson Sandoval says:
Quiero saber si se puede utilizar en latino América y es específico en Colombia. Las rutas son sólo para Europa?
Ben Lowe says:
Best to drop me an email Wilson. STrava/VeloViewer will of course allow for routes in any country. The WorldTour teams using VeloViewer use it for their South American races as well as everywhere else in the world they race.
Pascal BERAUD says:
Hello Ben !
First of all thank you for creating Veloviewer which is a valuable tool.
On this Worldtour package, I wanted to know if you hadn’t considered a version for paying Veloviewer subscribers, in the form of an option for example?
I see an interest in it for users who want to prepare circuits.
thank you for your attention.
(Excuse me for my English, but I’m French)
Best regards
Ben Lowe says:
You can of course create routes in Strava and view them in VeloViewer which gives you a large part of what the pro teams have. The integrated weather and the ability to add waymarkers is of course only something the teams can use (along with the Live app in the car and a number of other features) but those are getting pretty specialised for what a team needs to do. All of that functionality is wrapped up together and only available in the team package which I need to charge a considerable amount more for than £10 a year. More than happy for event organisers or tour operators to sign up to the package for the same costs as the domestic/conti teams if interested as it could be of great use to that sort of organisation as well. Proved very useful for the Rapha film crew following Lachlan Morton at the AltTour.
Alejandro says:
Hi Ben,
It looks like a fantastic and useful tool. Yesterday Alberto Contador was talking on Eurosport that they are using this tool to know all kind of data in live such as Watts of each rider, position of each rider in the bunch. Is possible for a user pay the same suscription than a World Team to have the same data about the rider.
Many thanks in advance
Alejandro
Ben Lowe says:
Hi Alejandro. Good to hear that Alberto was giving me a plug! Was he commentating on Tirreno? My software doesn’t do anything in terms of rider live data so I think he must be confusing it with the Velon app/site. At the RCS races (e.g. Strade, Tirreno, Giro) Velon have data transmitting devices on the rider’s bikes so power and heart-rate can be shown on the tv images and you can also see that live data on Velon’s app and website. At the Tour de France ASO have a similar system to track rider location (provided by NTT) but I don’t think that passes the power/heart data though.