Team Car Ride: Tour de France Femmes Behind the Scenes (and Smart Trainers)

As part of the time trial stage, I was checking out all the sports tech goodness the women had on tap. If you remember from my previous post, I dove into the cycling power meters and other pieces.

However, for time trial stages things are quite different. You’re looking at totally different bikes, and often different gear on them. Be it different bike computers, different mounts, sometimes different power meters, and of course, smart trainers.

Now, I’ll get into the smart trainers in a moment, but in the video above, I got a chance to join a team car from Team Human Powered Health. Meanwhile, my wife joined a team car from FDJ. Both of these rides were relatively short, given the stage was just 6KM long. But with the route and crowds packed for the women, it was still a blast.

Inside the car, as is the case for virtually every pro cycling team, you’ll find VeloViewer on the dashboard. This is the same company that makes the famed Strava integration for analysis and such. But when it comes to pro teams, the company does a ton of work to painstakingly ensure every single stage is precisely correct for not just big-name events like the Tour de France (men’s and women’s), but also a slate of races that most people don’t ever watch.

The map allows teams to mark upcoming items of note, as well as bits like sharp turns, areas of concern, and plenty more. Plus showing various distances and speed in real-time. And lastly, it has elevation profiles built-in, as well as the ability to switch to StreetView mode too. Here’s a shot from within the stage:

There’s a bit of an older post on VeloViewer’s site describing all the pieces to it, for those interested. In the case of my car ride, it was a relatively basic usage of it, since the stage length was short, the route repeated half a dozen times for each team, and frankly, not too much of concern on the route.

Meanwhile, I thought it was notable to see the live coverage from the local TV broadcaster shown as well within the TV in the team car.

When it comes to how much each rider gets assistance from the team car, it’ll vary by rider (and director). In this case, I’m specifically referring to instructions via their race radios they have (earpiece on the rider). For the ride my wife was following, that rider (Cecilie Ludwig of FDJ) specifically requested and prefers a lot of motivational encouragement, and as such, Lieselot Decroix (FDJ Co-Director of Performance and former pro cyclist and Olympian herself) more than gave it to her, as you can hear in the video (approx 12-min marker).

Whereas for the team car I was in with Human Powered Health, the rider (Daria Pikulik) didn’t generally need much instructions. Team Sports Director Clark Sheehan (who I was with) only gave her one little heads-up about a pothole on a turn, that’s it. Daria had just come off of a silver-medal performance less than 48-hours prior (and this was her 3rd-stage in that time period). So the goal here was a bit more around getting through the 6KM stage without drama, rather than trying to win something.

In any event, changing topics entirely, a quick run-down of the smart trainers I found floating around. I dive into this a bit more in the video, but here’s the totals:

The Totals:
Garmin/Tacx Trainers: 7 Teams
Elite Trainers: 9 Teams
Magene Trainers: 1 Team
Wahoo Trainers: 5 Teams

The surprise here was honestly the Magene trainer. I believe that’s the first time we’ve seen them on either side of the Tour de France.

And here’s the team breakouts:

UCI Women’s WorldTeams
* AG Insurance–Soudal: Tacx NEO 3M
* Canyon–SRAM: Elite Suito
* Ceratizit–WNT Pro Cycling: Wahoo KICKR V6
* FDJ–Suez: Elite Justo 2
* Fenix–Deceuninck: Wahoo KICKR V6
* Human Powered Health: Wahoo KICKR V6
* Lidl–Trek: Wahoo KICKR V6
* Liv AlUla Jayco: Elite Justo 2 and Elite Suito
* Movistar Team: Tacx NEO 2T
* Roland Cycling: Elite Suito
* Team dsm–firmenich PostNL: Elite Suito
* Team SD Worx–Protime: Tacx NEO 3M
* UAE Team ADQ: Elite Avanti
* Visma–Lease a Bike – Tacx NEO 2T
* Uno-X Mobility – Tacx NEO 2T and 3M

UCI Women’s Continental Teams
* Arkéa–B&B Hotels Women: Elite Suito
* Cofidis: Elite Direto XR
* EF–Oatly–Cannondale: Wahoo KICKR V6
* Laboral Kutxa–Fundación Euskadi: Magene T100
* Lotto–Dstny Ladies: Tacx NEO 2
* St. Michel–Mavic–Auber93: Elite Suito and Elitę Direto XR
* Tashkent City Women Professional Cycling Team: Tacx Rollers

Phew, got all that? Good. In that case, definitely go watch the video – and of course, watch the final stage on Sunday going up Alpe d’Huez. Looking forward to it!

Thanks for reading (or watching!)

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