Cycling Weekly – July 25, 2019

FEATURE

Cycling Weekly | July 25, 2019 | 39

M

mmmmwaaagh!”

screams Star

Wa r s’s resident

walk ing carpet

Chewbacca as

he loses a game

of holographic

monster-chess

to droid R 2-D2.

Watching the 1977

classic, it ’s unlikely anyone thought, “but

what would the 7ft Wookiee make of a

bike race being played out in front of him

in the same way?” At the time that seemed

impossibly futuristic.

Times change and it turns out

impossibly futuristic looks like it ’s just

around the corner — and it could be

coming to the Tour de France, with

stages played out live in miniature on

your living room coffee table. This is just

one of the innovations being worked on

by data giant NT T, which this year signed

a five-year contract as tech partner with

the Tour de France.

The Japanese company, which owns

Dimension Data, intends to have the

holographic technology in arena settings

for next year’s Tokyo Olympics. The tech

uses four cameras to track competitors’

movements and has already been used

for martial arts and figure skating. How

far off bike racing is from getting the

same treatment isn’t yet known (filming

on the open road evidently makes it

harder than something in an arena) but

in the meantime there is already plenty

of data-driven wizardry changing the

pro-racing viewing experience.

“Consumer-based holographic

technology is early in its development

and is still some way off being viable

for home use,” says Tim Wade, senior

director of technology and architecture

at NT T. “However, along with virtual

reality and augmented reality, it is a

rapidly developing field.”

OK , the holograms may be a little

way off but there’s already a host

of ways in which Tour viewers are

seeing the experience of watching the

race enhanced.

CADENCE

112 rpm

191 bpm