Last year we discovered several videos created by professional cyclists, thanks to a camera on their bike, often directly supplied (including the editing of the video) by Shimano. Jérémy Roy of the FDJ team, rider and engineer and interested by new technologies, was one of the first users of such an onboard camera and the French rider thus regularly asks for an authorisation to use a camera inside the race.

He also did this in the Santos Tour Down Under 2015 which just ended today and in this article you can discover or re-discover the different videos he published.

The authorisation

As explained in the introduction of this article, Jérémy Roy requested an authorisation to be able to use an onboard camera during a UCI official race.

Indeed, the UCI rules are quite strict concerning technical innovations. The article 1.3.004, which is dedicated to this topic, says: Except in mountain bike racing, no technical innovation regarding anything used, worn or carried by any rider or license holder during a competition (bicycles, equipment mounted on them, accessories, helmets, clothing, means of communication, etc.) may be used until approved by the UCI. Requests for approval shall be submitted to the UCI, accompanied by all necessary documentation.

Participation to the examination costs is to be paid by the applicant and is determined by the UCI Management Committee according to the complexity of the submitted technical innovation.

At Material Commission's instigation, the UCI executive bureau studies the admissibility of the technical innovation from a sporting point of view and answers within 6 months from the submission date. The innovation comes into force as from the acceptance date.

There is no technical innovation in the sense of the present article if the innovation entirely falls within the specifications foreseen in the regulations.

In the article one can clearly see the effort the UCI does to preserve the security of the riders but also the rigidity and the absence of flexibility which seems to exist and which might prevent cycling from becoming an innovative sport! One thing which catches our attention is the engagement in terms of delay of response, which I underlined in this article, which makes it very difficult to introduce any innovation in professional cycling!

Fortunately, the UCI decided last year that this innovation was interesting and now often allows using an onboard camera in UCI races. This is now possible, give that you've obtained an authorisation.

So, how does such an authorisation request work?
When a rider wants to use an onboard camera, he has to ask permission from:
> his team
> the organisor of the race which - in case it approves the request - has to pass on the request to the UCI

If the UCI approves the request, they inform the President of the Jury who's responsible for the race in question and the capturing can start!

Jérémy Roy's videos in the Tour Down Under 2015: crashes from up close!

Anyway, now you know all the details of the rules and of the exception which can be applied given you obtained an authorisation, you understand that Jérémy Roy was able to film the race from the inside. He did not only film all this but he apparently also found the time to edit all the images, knowing that the time difference with Australia allowed the videos to be published in the morning of each race day for his European fans!

Having worked with Jérémy on those kind of videos in the Tour Poitou-Charentes, I can tell you that Jérémy films those moments which seem to be interesting for him in the race by starting recording on his camera at the key moments of the stage. Furthermore, the FDJ rider remembers very well what happened during the recordings he realised and he can thus easily select the bits which are interesting to keep when editing the video!

Let's now watch his videos!

The People's Choice Classic: watch this speed

Before the Tour Down Under there's always a criterium, the People's Choice Classic, and right from this criterium Jérémy started filming! (he actually also filmed one of the training sessions in Australia but I'll let you discover this by yourself on YouTube)
He did so during the 29th of the 30 laps on the circuit: only 1.7 kilometers long, it was possible to show one complete lap of the circuit in just above 2 minutes, where we see the high speed of this criterium!

The first stage: watch out for the dog!

We don't say it often enough (it's never too much!): pay attention to your animals when watching a bike race (the same goes for children). Indeed, they don't see the danger and get on the road ... and that's what happens in the video of the first stage by Jérémy Roy, fortunately at low speed after the race!

The second stage: attention, feeding zone, and: hi there!

The third stage: heavy final climb!

The fourth stage: or how to go by a crash!

You already know it if you read the stage summaries, the 4th stage finish was disturbed by an important crash. As you can see in the video below, Jérémy Roy managed to go by that crash without crashing himself, knowing that he's wondering how he did that as well!

The 5th stage: short breakaway with the legend, Cadel ..

The sixth stage: yet another crash and world premiere - view ahead and back!

In the 6th stage of the Tour Down Under 2015 there was another big crash in the forelast lap and Jérémy Roy allows you to see it from up close. This time he didn't set up one but two cameras however! One up front and one on the back of the bike to show the two different points of view.
(the crash seen ahead and from the back, at normal speed and in slow motion)


(the summary of the stage where we also see Manuele Mori (Lampre-Merida)'s crash in the 17th lap)

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | Tour Down Under 2015 | Catching up with Jérémy Roy

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