Rear-facing camera action will be included in television and internet coverage
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Michael Bauge wins the men's sprint ahead of his compatriot Francois Pervis during an exhibition race at the inauguration ceremony of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome(Image credit: AFP)
François Pervis (France) comes around Luca Ceci (Italy) to win his first round keirin heat.(Image credit: British Cycling)
Team GB in pursuit action(Image credit: Guy Swarbrick)
Great Britain's Team compete during the Women's team Pursuit (Image credit: AFP)
Australia dominated the men's team pursuit on day one(Image credit: Guy Swarbrick)
The UCI has announced that it will produce live on-board video footage during next week's track world championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, near Paris, giving an in-race experience during some of the sprint and endurance events.
On-board video footage has become more and more popular in the last 12 months, with the likes of French rider Jeremy Roy (FDJ) producing daily highlights during the recent Tour Down Under in Australia. Daily video content was also produced during the 2014 Tour de Suisse by IMG and Incycle and on the track during the recent rounds of the Revolution series in Britain. While a live experiment was carried out at the St. Kilda Cycling Club Shimano SuperCrit in December, road race footage is recorded during the race, edited and then shared via the internet several hours later. The UCI will produce live footage thanks to working with broadcaster Infront/HBS.
In order to ensure fairness between riders, all participants of the events will have cameras on their bikes. The digital cameras will be fixed under the bike saddles and will film the action taking place behind them. The UCI said tests have been carried out in real conditions at the French national velodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and at the UCI World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland.
“We already introduced cameras and geo-localisation at the UCI Road World Championships in Ponferrada, and have also carried out camera tests at the UCI cyclo-cross World Cup. Now we will offer the public at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and television and internet viewers throughout the world the chance to experience track racing live from the inside for the first time,” UCI President Brian Cookson said in an announcement from the UCI.
“This is important and exciting progress for the track and also for cycling as a whole, which will benefit from these technological innovations.”
The images captured by the on-board cameras will be broadcast live on the big screen in the velodrome and by the 30 broadcasters around the world who will show the world track championships. The racing can also be followed on the UCI Youtube live site in countries not covered by broadcasting rights.
The UCI released a teaser video of how the live in-race video footage will look during the track world championships.
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