What is Velo Viewer?
Velo Viewer has become a must have in recent years for teams competing in cycling races. And you may be wondering what it is, how it aids teams, and how it plays into race strategy.
Simply put, VeloViewer has two offerings. One for the average cyclist and another for professional cycling teams. The average cyclist offering (which may also be used by professional riders) connects to rider's Strava accounts and pulls in their activities, segments and routes and outputs a variety of dashboards, charts, 3D graphics, and leaderboards based on the data.
The professional cycling package provides real-time info on the courses during the races themselves and has quickly become an essential for all race teams. So essential in fact that it is currently being used by all men’s and women’s World Tour teams, numerous Pro/1/2 teams, and race organizers.
The VeloViewer professional 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 and stage. Points of interest can be added to each stage to highlight the location of climbs, sprints, feeds, hazards which will then be displayed in the "Live" app used by directeur sportifs (DS) within the car and loaded onto the rider’s head-units.
- Live App – Designed specifically for use in the team cars, the Live app will show in real-time the upcoming course map and profile, distances to all the configured points of interest. Commonly points of interest are added when doing a recon before the race or in the course vehicle that travels ahead of the peloton. These points of interest will then automatically appear in the Live apps being used in the cars following the riders.
Why is it so heavily used?
There are numerous benefits for professional cycling team, some are intuitive, some are less so:
No more paper maps
This all used to be done by paper notes and maps. Imagine that. The "Live" app is an absolute game changer. Feedback from DS’s and coaches is continually integrated into the solution.
Consistent Graphics
The app provides a single location and consistent graphics for all of the team’s races with access for all staff and riders. You probably wouldn't be surprised that smaller race's road books aren't always super informative.
Adaptions to route changes
Race organizers also make changes to races all the time prior to the race, and adapting Velo Viewer to these changes is simple. Even simpler, as all World Tour teams have agreed to share the race information with each other.
So if one team updates the race route in their app, all the other teams receive updated information (excluding their points of interest obviously).
It's tricky and time consuming for a single team to chase up each and every race organizer 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
Reliable Elevation Data
What you say? Roadbooks also can't always be trusted for elevation data? Say it ain't so! 🙃
Elevation data is corrected prior to the race for each of the key climbs and time trials to make sure the gradients are trustworthy.
Support Staff Locations
Team soigneurs and helpers out on the course can add their exact location to the Live app and it will be synced to the team cars.
