Visma Control Room | Lease a Bike: F1-Style Technology for Vingegaard and Co. or Single-Use Gadget?

Much has been said and written recently about the advanced Visma | Lease A Bike control room, which collects critical data for racing strategies from a van of some kind. Or does it actually serve another purpose?

The data-collecting vehicle is seen by the team as a new step in technology, although the UCI wasn’t immediately happy about it. The International Cycling Union has launched an investigation into the validity of the new gadget, “based on current regulations.” The union said it wants to ensure equal access to technological tools and maintain “the primacy of man over machine.” These principles are highly valued by the UCI, which ultimately led to the UCI and ASO’s decision not to accredit the vehicle just before the start of the Tour.

For Richard Plugge, CEO of Killer Bees, this may have been a bit of a disappointment at first glance, although he said, IDLProCycling.com and other media in Italy that it wasn’t all that bad. “I think our control room is a nice innovation. And I think cycling can certainly benefit from innovation in some areas. The UCI didn’t give us a sticker to make it part of the “team” during the race, but we didn’t ask for that either. After all, it’s a control room and nothing more. So the vehicle can easily stay somewhere outside the race. For example, at the finish line, from where we can operate perfectly.”

Plugge and Visma | Rent a bike curious about UCI and ASO themes

“As a team, we are of course bound by the UCI regulations. They had several reasons for making this decision,” the former journalist continued. “I then asked them to send me the specific rules on which they based their considerations. So I’m very curious to see what they come up with and what the real reason is.”

There will be more, it seems. “At the end of the day, it remains an interesting concept,” Plugge concluded. “A lot of team leaders have already sent me messages with compliments or questions. It could be a nice addition to the future of the sport. Ultimately, we are all working on it. As Visma | Lease a Bike, we want to be a driving force for innovation, so we will definitely continue to work on it.”

“It seems like something new, but maybe not really,” the 54-year-old Dutchman concluded. “Every team is constantly on their phone during the race, in one way or another. It’s a nice extra tool to get information to the right people. It’s mainly an idea from a safety perspective. The team leaders in the race convoy have a bit more space and only have to respond to one source of information instead of many. We think you can’t be against such safety ideas.”