Tour de France – The Time of Tour

The gentlemen over time at the Tour de France do not work in a castle. The box, which is built directly on the finish line of every tour stage, only has nine square meters of floor space. »Five timekeepers work here. And then the four commissioners are added to the finish. So it will be tight, ”says Pascal Rossier, head of the timekeeper of the Swiss watch manufacturer Tissot.

The most important task is to record the distances when finishing finish. “We have three people who evaluate exactly that. Three because we each installed a camera on the right and left at the finish line. This helps us if we have to determine the order with larger groups of drivers. And then we have a replacement camera if the others fail, «Rossier describes the set-up. The cameras deliver 10,000 pictures per second. “The technology has developed,” he says with a laugh. Cameras are also installed in the intermediate sprints and the mountain ratings.

Mountain as a special challenge

“We also positioned timekeepers on the three-kilometer brand,” adds Rossier. The so -called fall zone begins there for most stages. If you fall within the zone, you get the same time at the finish as the drivers who have not fallen, with which the fallen crossed the three-kilometer mark. With mass sprints, the fall zone has even been extended to five kilometers this year. Then the additional timekeepers are of course positioned there.

»In addition to the target photos, we also deliver the official times for the results. That is a rather complex matter, «says Rossier. Because especially when it comes to mountain stages, it takes half an hour or longer for the last to reach the finish. “Then it also takes before the complete result is determined.” The delay between the finish and reporting of the times to the official results protocol is only five seconds, emphasizes the Swiss. He has been working for Tissot for 30 years. The company has been an official timekeeper on the tour since 2016, i.e. now in the tenth year in this function. “We have been active on cycling since the 1980s, at World Championships and many other races,” he says.

Funkholes as an arch enemy

However, his crew is not responsible for the intervals between individual groups that are shown on television during stages. So also not for the information that is sometimes not entirely precisely. In fact, these distances are read by sensors from the accompanying motorcycles, and they are more, sometimes less away from the respective group. »The drivers’ sensors can fail. With the motorcycles you are on the safe side, «Rossier explains this procedure. The tracking sensors of the wheels are attached under the saddle. »In principle, we can see where every driver is at the current moment. However, this also harbors challenges. Because not only the sensors can fail. The transfer of the data is also sometimes difficult because the radio cover is not complete, «he describes the pitfalls of technology.

The material that is used on every stage weighs about two tons. This includes the target cameras, the sensors attached to each wheel, the transmission technology, the computers on which the data is evaluated and processed. The team must be ready an hour and a half before each start of the stage. High -performance phases are always time trials. Incidentally, the time there is not triggered by the countdown of the countdown by the commissioners on the ramp and the associated hand movements, but by the light barrier that passes the drivers. “This is about fractions of seconds,” says Rossier.

Better tracking for faster falling help

In the future, its team could also fall off additional tasks. The death of the Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer during the 2024 World Championships made the tracking problem clear in a tragic way. Furrer remained undetected in a forest for a long time after her severe fall. Such accidents could be recognized faster in the future through the continuous evaluation of the tracking positions and help could be brought to the scene of the accident earlier. Especially when the fall occurs outside the range of the television cameras and there are no accompanying cars nearby. The timekeepers are already working on a solution together with the International Cycling Association (UCI).

»We develop an application for the World Championships in Rwanda for UCI in which this data is processed. The UCI then decreases this technology and allows it, «explains Rossier. It is quite possible that it will be mandatory for the larger races after the trial run at the World Cup. How expensive this is and whether smaller racing organizers can afford it is another question. It would be tragic if there were different security standards due to the money according to the motto: where there is a lot of money in circulation, the cycling professionals are better protected, and where there is less money, protection is also poor.