In this article VeloViewer Founder and Director Ben, highlights how tech solutions are used in professional cycling and how they can be applied to improve rider safety.
VeloViewer commitment to safety
The close of the season is a good time to reflect on race safety. VeloViewer is centred around technical solutions and I am keen to offer my support and my opinion on how technology can be used to improve rider safety. Professional cycling is a high risk sport and there have been some devastating incidents over the last few seasons that we have to learn from. Lots of views have been expressed about tech as ‘the solution’ so I thought it might be useful to share some information on what the state of play is from a technical perspective. There are no quick fixes in an issue as complex and dynamic as race safety, but my hope is that providing a technical perspective might help to inform the conversation. This information has been gleaned from working with professional teams and other key stakeholders over the last 10 years, from my technical background and also my passion for the sport.
Types of tech available
Tech is a very broad church, there are a number of specific approaches all with their own strengths and limitations. None offers a complete solution, but they are tools at our disposal and their application in cycling isn’t always optimised.
Team radio
The obvious one to start with is probably team radio. Professional teams are used to using radios, they use them for sharing tactical information with riders, logistical information with their staff, and they undoubtedly have an important role in rider safety too. Typically, a DS will be in regular contact with their riders via the radio, when a rider doesn’t respond, the DS knows it could be for a number of reasons. For example, they could be out of range from the car, the radio may have broken, the rider may have removed their earpiece, or worse case scenario; they could have crashed & be unresponsive.
When a rider doesn’t respond, a DS will typically ask other riders to locate them in the peloton. If the peloton is together that might be quick and easy, but in a mountainous event, the group might be really spread out. If other riders can’t find them, then Soigneurs might be asked to look out for them crossing the next checkpoint or feed zone. So in this way, team radio provides an ongoing, crucial way for riders to be tracked and their safety monitored.
It’s important to note that team radios are only allowed in certain categories of racing (WorldTour, ProSeries, .1 class of races and time trials) and not in the lower .2 class of racing or at World/Regional/National Championships or the Olympics. They aren’t 100% reliable so when riders and vehicles are spread out (e.g. on mountain stages) the riders might not be able to communicate with the team cars or other riders.
Incident detection sensors
Another type of tech that’s had a lot of attention recently is incident detection sensors. They come in many forms, they are often built into head units and watches, specific sensors attached to or built into helmets. Typically, they have accelerometers in them that detect sudden changes in velocity and then send out some form of message.
Most, if not all, riders will have a head unit on their bike that likely has some sort of incident detection capability. So the tech is there on the riders’ bikes already, but the issue is one of connectivity. For a recreational rider, the device will be linked to a mobile phone, so if the sensor detects an impact, it will trigger an alert, the rider will have a set amount of time to deactivate the response (in the case of a false alarm), if this doesn’t happen, then the mobile phone will deploy a preset emergency response, usually a message to your chosen emergency contact. UCI regulations state that riders are not allowed to have mobile phones or other communication devices with them in races, so there’s no network available to transmit a crash detection alert.
Certain head units on the market have a SIM card (for example Hammerhead) or use the LTE network (Garmin 945 LTE watch), but I don’t think that is allowed under current UCI regulations as it then becomes a communication device. If that type of device was permitted, then teams could in theory be alerted to a rider incident without the need for an additional device for communication. However, it relies on a lot of other things falling into place, firstly the software needs to be enabled, anecdotally some people find that they get too many false positives, so they opt to disable the functionality. It also relies on a technical pathway being developed to collect the information and display it to the teams along with the rider’s location. Finally, someone needs to be looking out for that data and be ready to act.
Dedicated incident detection sensors could be introduced (worn on the body, in helmets, built into team radio), but knowing where the incident happened is key, so having some sort of GPS integration would also be required, along with the technology to transmit the information to the team.
GPS tracking
Head units are aware of your location, as anyone who records their rides on a head unit knows, but as I said above, for most devices, without a linked phone they can’t transmit anything. What we are actually talking about here is a separate device that is carried by the rider or on the bike that is collecting GPS data and sending it, via a network, to a destination where it is then made visible. GPS data tracking is really important and it works; we have anecdotes from DS’s saying they knew they saw x riders’ dot stop moving on the screen, and that’s how they knew that they had crashed. Of course, riders stop for many reasons, mechanicals, nature breaks etc but if they then don’t respond to team radio or don’t start moving again within a few minutes, you know their exact location.
Earlier this year VeloViewer partnered with Velon to do this in the Giro d’Italia, Tour of Norway,Tour de Suisse and Il Lombardia. Back in 2016, Velon, the company owned by 10 of the top teams and which works with almost every other World Tour and ProTeams, launched a live rider data system which was and still is intended to enhance fans’ understanding of what’s happening in a race. Small tracking devices are fitted under the saddles of bikes and are paired with power meters. They deliver speed, position and power output to the live broadcast coverage and social media, to increase fan engagement. Together, Velon and VeloViewer developed a by-product of this data by providing it as a responsive, real-time overlay in the VeloViewer maps of a race parcour, allowing Sport Directors to see exactly where their team’s riders are on the course. The data is exactly the same as fans see, the key difference is that it’s provided as a convenient layer in VeloViewer and they don’t have to flick between devices in the team cars.
As a result this is now a feature of the VeloViewer Live app, making vital rider data visible to teams within the VeloViewer interface that they are already familiar with, working to enhance safety and awareness of riders’ position. For example, If the device is still transmitting its location and that location isn’t changing, then the rider and their location is immediately highlighted in the Live app – this creates a critical opportunity to improve rider safety.
For the VeloViewer Live app, as long as the tablet/phone being used has internet access of some kind, then it can pull the available data down, typically that’s because it has a SIM card, so it uses a cellular network. Some of the team cars will have a wifi hub in them which uses the regular cellular network, and some of them have satellite internet as a backup if there is no cellular coverage. So, even in the mountains they can be pulling that data down. The Live app with the live rider locations can also be used by members of the teams or race organisation from a fixed base with constant internet access as a backup. This, paired with being able to see the live locations of the team cars/staff in the Live app, allows for a complete, real-time view of where everyone (staff and riders) is during the race.
There are numerous options when it comes to the actual tracking devices. There are companies that specialise in tracking riders through endurance events allowing friends and family to “dot watch” and follow a rider’s progress. They provide devices roughly the size of an airpod case, you charge it up and it transmits your GPS data via a mobile network at a chosen frequency. Other trackers are bolted directly under the saddle.
The downside to mounting devices to the bike is when a bike is swapped, riders either get a spare with no tracker, or they inherit a team mate’s bike + tracker. Usually the rider will try and swap back to their race bike but that isn’t always possible. Having a tracker that stays with the rider (i.e. device worn by the rider or the head unit) would give more consistent coverage.
GPS trackers are permitted by UCI regulations, since a rule change in 2022 but they need to be bolted to the bike (rather than carried by the rider) as this is a stipulation in the UCI rules (ARTICLE 1.3.006 BIS). This could mean that cellular connected head units (which can be removed from the bikes) or other devices worn on the rider wouldn’t currently be permitted.
Summary
All of this is technically feasible, although not necessarily straightforward and we have to consider factors such as connectivity, having the necessary services in place to provide the data to the teams/organisers as well as staying within the current UCI rules when considering tech options.
The combination of team radio and GPS tracking allows more rider information to be shared and enables a much clearer picture of how a rider is progressing around a course, especially when riders are out of sight. This allows a much more accurate understanding of their location and therefore a much greater ability to identify incidents and to respond quickly and appropriately. The safety of riders is such a big, complex issue and use of tech is, of course, only a small part of the discussion. There’s no silver bullet here, but I believe that it’s possible to use available technology to better effect.