Logistics at the Tour de France

Last Saturday, the 103rd edition of the Tour de France began, the world's biggest cycling competition and one of the biggest sporting events in the world. In Brazil, this is still an unpopular sport, whose possible greater prominence has even escaped the sports field. Do you remember the LIVESTRONG bracelets? Fever in 2004, the yellow Nike bracelets were developed by former cyclist Lance Armstrong in support of the fight against cancer. The color of the bracelet is a reference to the yellow shirt worn by the leader of the Tour de France general classification and, therefore, widely used by Lance Armstrong, seven times consecutive champion of the competition until 2012.

Figure 1 – LIVESTRONG Bracelet

Source: http://www.livestrong.org/

In this same blog I already commented on the logistical complexities inherent to the Olympic Games and Super Bowl. Well, know that the Tour de France cycling is not far behind! For the 198 athletes, the goal is to cover, in the shortest possible time, 3.519 km in 23 days, an almost heroic feat! For the operations team, the challenge begins with the assembly of a large, mobile, open-air structure.

As the name implies, the Tour de France has its course mostly on French soil. However, this year there will also be stages of the competition in Spain, Andorra and the Swiss Alps, confirm the following video.

Video 1 – Tour de France 3 2016D route

Source: Le Tour De France

The 21 stages take place daily over three weeks (with the exception of two non-competition days during the event) and start in one city and end in another. This means for the organization daily assembly and disassembly of the structure and the transport of fragile and high value-added equipment. Costing upwards of $10.000, the bikes need to be transported from the end point of one stage to the starting point of the next each day.

Add to this itinerant character the fact that it is a sport held outside arenas and stadiums. Rain, wind, cold and heat are some of the weather issues that affect the entire event and make the work of athletes, technical commissions and the organization team difficult. To make it even more difficult, you have to deal with all the unforeseen events related to the public of more than 10 million people, who annually fill the cities to watch the passage of cyclists and advertising caravans. About 170 cars and trucks, representing 35 different brands, parade 1 hour before each stage through the streets, distributing a total of 14 million gifts to the public.

For media teams, this is some of the toughest sports coverage in the world. The competition is broadcast to 190 countries and 60 different television channels cover the event in real time. For these, the daily challenge of assembling their transmission cabin near the finish line of the stage and dismantling it in time to take it to the finish line of the next day's stage. In addition, to be able to keep up with everything that happens in the race, a lot of equipment is needed. If at the start all the cyclists start together, over the kilometers different platoons of athletes form, demanding coverage at several different points of the route. In addition to the 16 cameras attached to the athletes' bikes, 5 bikes equipped with video cameras and 2 with microphones are mainly responsible for capturing images and sound. All this material is transmitted to 3 helicopters that fly over the competition venues and which, in turn, relay it to 2 planes that are even higher in the sky. Finally, the aircraft send everything to the cabins located at the finish line of the stage. A true broadcast show!

And is all this effort worth it? Try asking the cyclist who will top the podium in Paris on July 24th or the spectator who will be watching the cyclists cross the final finish line on the Champs-Élysées.