Last season, Visma-Lease a Bike made waves by asserting a mission they dubbed the ‘management room’ – a cell knowledge centre designed to analyse stay time race motion to assist inform the staff’s tactical choices. Not even a yr later, the staff has deserted the idea.
The concept was extra of a PR stunt than innovation, and was launched in collaboration with the staff’s sponsor BetCity. The staff solely made use of “publicly obtainable data”, the Visma-Lease a Bike head of efficiency Mathieu Heijboer informed Cyclingnews final yr.
“What we actually don’t do, and actually to stress that, is we don’t seize something from the bike, as a result of it is unlawful, we play in line with the foundations,” Heijboer stated. “The solely factor we will do is use TV pictures and use every thing that is publicly obtainable.”
The mission nonetheless raised the suspicions of the UCI, who shortly launched an investigation to find out if the staff was “compliant with the regulatory framework in pressure, notably relating to the seize and transmission of knowledge”.
The management room was used through the Tour de France, and the staff stated it helped them decide if different groups have been racing aggressively or defensively.
However, on Saturday, Heijboer informed the Belgian media the staff had achieved away with the thought.
“The bus will disappear,” Heijboer stated. “During this winter interval, we evaluated the mission. One of the conclusions is that the added worth of taking a cell bus isn’t very nice. The Control Room bus will due to this fact hardly be seen subsequent yr, however the mission will stay.
“We are going to create an area in our excessive efficiency centre in Den Bosch. All the expertise is there, we now have web connection and we will talk with the staff chief vehicles.”
