Velon has renewed its agreement with RCS Sport to provide live rider data and on-bike cameras at the Giro d’Italia and a number of the world’s most demanding professional cycling races, starting with Strade Bianche, which took place on Saturday, March 6.
The two-year partnership will see pro rider teams carrying Velon’s tracking devices. These gather position, speed, power and cadence information from the bikes and relay it to live television coverage and to Velon’s live Race Centre on www.velon.cc, which charts the progress of the race in real-time.
Luca Guercilena, General Manager at Trek-Segafredo, said “The teams are delighted this partnership can show the fans these great races in new ways. We’re looking forward to letting the millions of viewers on TV and online all over the world feel the race like the riders do.”
Graham Bartlett, CEO at Velon, said “RCS have always been a leader in pioneering new race technology with Velon, and we’re looking forward to creating more innovations with them over the next two seasons.”
Velon, which is developing fan engagement content in professional cycling with the support of the pro teams, uses rider data to tell the story of the race as it unfolds and after the finish line.
One element is Velon’s own ‘Red Zone’ concept, first used in 2020 and which will be shown more extensively this year. The Red Zone shows how much effort a rider has expended throughout the race and highlights their team role – a protected GC rider who shelters within the peloton or a domestique who burns out to deliver his leader safely to the finish line.
Other data visualisations are in the pipeline for 2021 and will be developed with RCS Sport and its graphics provider, Swiss Timing.
Last year, Velon brought its expertise in the use of on-bike cameras to the Giro d’Italia, providing a high-definition perspective of the race from the riders’ point of view.
‘The footage was massively popular on Velon and team social media channels and was widely acclaimed by the broadcasters who also used it.’
The new agreement builds on Velon’s previous partnership with RCS Sport, which began in 2017. It covers Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-Sanremo, the Giro d’Italia, Milan-Turin, Gran Piemonte and the Tour of Lombardy. For the first time, it enables Velon and the teams to show race highlights from those races on their own digital channels.
Velon is itself owned by many of the biggest teams in pro-road cycling. Velon’s objective is to take the fans inside the world’s best professional cycling teams to give them full access to the riders and people who work with the teams. Working in partnership with teams, race organisers, media and sponsors, Velon aims to bring more of the racing to the fans.
Velon is owned by 11 WorldTour teams: BORA-hansgrohe, Deceuninck – Quick-Step Team, EF Education – NIPPO, INEOS Grenadiers, Intermarché Wanty Gobert Matériaux, Lotto Soudal, Team BikeExchange, Team DSM, Team Jumbo-Visma, Trek-Segafredo, UAE Team Emirates.
