Aircraft used to transmit signals was grounded twice on Saturday
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Finding the right camera angel(Image credit: Tour de Taiwan 2014 / Sonoko Tanaka)
Kirsten Wild (Hitech Products) celebrates Women's Tour de Yorkshire victory.(Image credit: Getty Images)
Danny Van Poppel (R) of Team Sky and the Netherlands wins the second stage of the 2016 Tour de Yorkshire
Despite an almost complete television blackout at the Tour de Yorkshire on Saturday, race director Gary Verity called the day a 'success story' after the staging of a women's race on the same day as stage 2 of the men's race.
Both the men's and women's races were meant to be shown on domestic television in the United Kingdom but due to technical problems with the aircraft that helps to transmit live footage, none of the women's race and only a short portion of the men's race were shown.
The aircraft in question is one used by ASO in a number of races, including the Tour de France. It was grounded on Saturday on two separate occasions. The first took place just as the women's field were leaving the neutral zone. According to race officials this was due to safety concerns with the aircraft, and a separate aircraft from France was dispatched with parts to fix the hampered aircraft that had been grounded at Leeds Bradford International airport.
The aircraft was fixed during the men's race but was grounded for a second and final time.
"We have enough footage to make sure that there’s enough for a highlights package tonight," said Verity.
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
