Monthly Archives: May 2016

Trudi’s Respite

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

Trudi flew back to Kansas City from Brussels yesterday.  She had been working full-on for the past 30 days and now gets a couple days off before having to head out to the Tour of California.

Flashback to when she left, the Brussels airport had been attacked a few days earlier, so she flew to Paris and had to drive back to to the BMC service course in Belgium. She did a race with the BMC development team and then flew to Pisa and drove a team car to take a ferry to Sicily.

She sat on top of Mt. Etna for a couple weeks while BMC shuttled riders in and out for an altitude training camp. She got back on a ferry, drove back up to France and did the Tour de Bretagne.  She was working once again for the BMC U-23 guys.  An American, Adrien Costa, won the race overall.  Pretty stellar result.

She went to the Brussels airport on Monday night, expecting chaos, which it was.  The airport is open, but under super security.  She was flying with Rohan Dennis and Michael Schär, who were going to Colorado to train a bit before California. They were staying in the Sheraton, across the street from the airport.  Like a stones throw from the terminal.  It still took over two hours in a line outside, to get to the tents set up outside to do security and check luggage.  Man, is the world jacked up.

Anyway, Tucker was ecstatic to see her.  She got up at 4 am this morning, which is par for the course returning from Europe.  I bet she can’t wait until she get to California where it is 2 hours earlier.

She is usually pretty done, so I doubt the 4 hours sleep last night will do her for the day.  It isn’t really that glamorous of a life supporting professional bike racers as one might think.  Lots of long work and travel days.

Alright, the weather is looking perfect for her couple recovery days back in Kansas.  High around 70 and lows around 50.  The roses are just starting to bloom, so spring is in full swing.

 

Both Trudi and Tucker were very happy to see each other.

Both Trudi and Tucker were very happy to see each other.

Hotel up on Mt. Etna.

Hotel up on Mt. Etna.

Ferry going and coming from Sicily.

Ferry going and coming from Sicily.

Tucker was running around like a crazy boy at the airport before Trudi's flight arrived.

Tucker was running around like a crazy boy at the airport before Trudi’s flight arrived.

Velon, GoPro and Cameras

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I’ve already wrote a post about cameras and bicycle racing.  But it was an article about how the UCI DQ’d a cyclocross rider that streamed a race live from his bike.  I still don’t know the rule that the guy broke, but there must be one.

And then along come Velon.  Velon is a group of World Tour teams that have tried to gain some clout against all the evil forces of the sport, ie. the UCI, and ASO.  Velon has been trying to figure out a way to leverage some television dollars for the teams.  Velon’s mission statement, as of now –

“Velon wants to create a new economic for the sport and bring fans closer to the riders, races, and teams – by working together and in partnership with others.”

So they did this in a round-about way.  They signed a partnership with Infront, an international multi media sports marketing company, that has very deep pockets.  Infront dwarfs the UCI and ASO, owner of the Tour de France.

And now Velon has signed a two year deal with GoPro, to stream onboard media footage from the riders bikes.  Velon seems to have claimed the “ownership” of the onboard media just because they feel they can.  I find that interesting.

I’m wondering how just last year that the UCI disqualifies an individual rider for streaming media from a UCI cyclocross event and then all these World Tour Teams, sign their own camera deal and agree to stream media from their bikes.  It seems to me that the UCI thought they owned the rights to this media.  If not the UCI then the races themselves, the ASO.

I wondering when ASO sells the TV rights to the Tour or Tour of California, or other events the ASO owns, do they now feel they have to deal with Velon to buy the onboard camera footage?

What about teams that are racing the events and don’t belong to Velon.  Velon is just 11 teams. Can those guys have their own cameras and then sell the footage to whoever?  It seems to me that it is a sticky situation.  Maybe not?  Maybe they have all figure it all out.  I haven’t seen it in print if that is the case.

Anyway, I like the onboard footage.  I think that watching bicycle racing live is a thousand times more exciting that viewing it on a screen.  Onboard footage seems more realistic than other views.  It is going to be interesting seeing how this all plays out.

I guess none of the Shimano sponsored Velon teams has a deal with Shimano to use their cameras. Everyone is now going to be using GoPro.

I guess none of the Shimano sponsored Velon teams has a deal with Shimano to use their cameras. Everyone is now going to be using GoPro.

Tucker points just about anything that flies. I bet he'd like his own onboard camera. I'd like to see that footage.

Tucker points just about anything that flies. I bet he’d like his own onboard camera. I’d like to see that footage.