In collaboration with main sponsor and pioneer in business software, Visma and BetCity, a Dutch provider of online sportsbetting, Team Visma | Lease a Bike introduces its mobile Control Room for this Tour de France. The Control Room plays a crucial role in data collection and analysis in the pursuit of new sporting successes. The specially centralised information offers the team new and faster insights during the stages. With the rapid data collection in the Control Room, coaches in the sports director’s car can make more targeted adjustments and anticipate crucial race situations. 

Mathieu Heijboer, Head of Performance at Team Visma | Lease a Bike and project leader, is enthusiastic about the team's new initiative. “This innovation is a new step in the modernisation of cycling,” he says. “It is in the DNA of Team Visma | Lease a Bike to continually seek improvements. In this way, we aim to stay one step ahead of the competition. The Control Room is a great example of how we operate as a team. This is another great result of our collaboration with Visma. The software expertise that Visma shares with us is of enormous value.” 

“The idea for introducing a Control Room came during our season evaluation at the end of last year,” Heijboer continues. “Together with our performance and coaching staff, we are determined that the information provided in the sports director’s car was often too limited during major races. That had to change. Together with Visma, we thought about how to optimise our data feed. From now on, we will bring all information about race situations and conditions to a central place: the Control Room. From there, the bundled information will be quickly communicated to the sports director’s car in the race.” 

“In the past, a major issue during important races was the antenna connection with the sports director’s car. In many cases, not all information reached the team leaders. In developing the Control Room, it was crucial to perfect this connection. Through advanced antennas, we receive live race images with minimal delay. This improves the speed at which information reaches the team leaders, enabling them to make quick tactical decisions.” 

Race coach Maarten Wynants reflects on the crucial contribution of the Control Room in the gravel stage on day nine of the Tour. “In the live race images, it quickly became clear to us in the Control Room that Jonas Vingegaard had a mechanical problem. We could quickly pass this information to the sports director’s car, where our sports director Grischa Niermann informed the riders about the situation. This allowed Jan Tratnik to immediately give his bike to Jonas, who could continue his way without losing too much time. In a gravel stage, different groups are often formed. Thanks to the images in the Control Room, it was much easier for us to identify all the riders immediately.”