The Tour de France experimented with live GoPro feeds during the neutral roll-out of stage 2. As part of production, Tommy Voeckler (Europcar) had this strapped to his seatpost
Vying with Voeckler for the very shortest of short straws was Lotto-Jumbo’s Thomas Leezer, who had to ride with this utterly monstrous front end GoPro set-up
Voeckler rode this bike for the neutral section of about half an hour, then he switched bikes
Hometown hero Bauke Mollema rode a GoPro with a Chesty mount for the neutral section
Race numbers are standard. Skinsuits with pockets are becoming common. But Tour pros with Chesty mounts? Very much a new thing
GoPro has 12 cameras in the race that are circulating among different teams each day
Mechanics had to install mounts for the GPS transponders that all Tour racers have to use this year
K-Edge’s new dual mount is seeing a lot of action at the Tour
Giant-Alpecin’s Koen De Kort had a GoPro on for stage 2
Alexander Kristoff seems to feel pretty good about his chances for the green jersey
Kristoff has been racing Mavic’s CXR60s with great success this year
When you’re a sprinter like Bora-Argon 18’s Sam Bennett, only two spots matter in the stage – intermediate sprint and final sprint
Mark Cavendish will be looking to increase his career Tour stage win tally of 25 again this year
Mavic’s neutral service car got a logo overhaul for 2015
Cancellara rode this Trek Domane into yellow on stage two
Enve-ous? We are
Let’s hope there are no hight restrictions along the way
The Movistar team had these neat out-front Garmin mounts protruding from the proprietary bars of their Canyon Speedmax bikes
The fittingly French saddle of FDJ’s Arnaud Demare
We’re not quite sure, but we think Adam Hansen might be a little bitter about his 12th Grand Tour appearance
Was Andre Greipel’s sprint victory on stage two in part down to his desire to escape the threatening gorilla on his saddle?
Greg Henderson was Lotto-Belisol pack horse for stage two, dragging around a few extra grams and adding a few extra grams of drag thanks to this GoPro
If there were an award for the team with the longest cumulative stem lengths, Lotto-Belisol would win. This is Greipel’s entry
There’s Greg Henderson’s
And finally Tim Wellens. That’s not to mention Adam Hansen’s 150mm monster (monster stem that is, just to be clear)
Orica-GreenEdge don’t have a full stable of the new and just-launched Scott Foil yet
Poor Daryl Impey has had all Scott’s aerodynamic tweaking undone with his front-mounted GoPro
Bora-Argon 18 riders have a mix of Gallium Pro and Nitrogen bikes for this year’s Tour
AG2R had plenty of SRAM electric groupsets on show. Surely it’s nearly time to let everyone else try it too
The Katusha team had these limited edition Russian-doll print bottles
As the Tour’s peloton busied itself with this year’s first road stage, we were more concerned about the moving cavalcade of bikes that allow the riders to do their jobs. BikeRadar stalked through the line of team buses, dodging harried mechanics, stressed PR folk and nervous pros to bring you the latest Tour tech.
While the GPS units weigh only 20-30g according to one team mechanic, the GoPro setups that at least one rider per team per day has to use weigh considerably more. There’s also the grams of drag to consider too, especially on a day that delivered on its promise of crosswinds, splitting the field and reshuffling the standings.
There were two GoPro configurations. The Tour organizers were experimenting with live GoPro footage during the neutral rollout. This meant extra batteries and a broadcasting aerial added to the GoPro in order to stream video for some riders like Europcar’s Tommy Voeckler who then switched bikes before the actual racing started. The second setup was just the standard GoPro mount, used on 12 bikes.
Of the 12 selected riders, some were instructed to turn on their camera with around an hour’s racing to go, which could involve some sketchy reaching around in the peloton. GoPro officials put a rear-facing camera on Mark Renshaw’s bike, hoping to get good leadout footage of Mark Cavendish winding up for the sprint. (Renshaw did lead Cav out, but Cav jumped too early and ended up fourth on the day.)
Vying with voeckler for the very shortest of short straws was lotto-jumbo’s thomas leezer, who had to ride with this utterly monstrous front end gopro set-up:
Lotto-Jumbo’s Thomas Leezer had to put up with this on his bars – including aerial and extra battery pack — for the neutral rollout
The idea behind the GoPro partnership is to get on-the-bike footage out as soon as possible. GoPro has had success in this arena with its immediate upload of X Games videos for use by broadcasters. We’ll wait to see how this one ‘plays’ out.
