Georgie made a great point in the latest WheelTalk about video analysis and in-time data analytics (EDIT) at 18 minutes regarding the potential use for the teams in competition, referring to use in other sports. This post is responding to the discussion in the Pod and is not about data for fans.
I think that key difference for cycling is that it is a moving circus across 100ks where you often don’t have phone signal, never mind having the connection for doing real-time analytics.
But it would be good to be proved wrong!
The other question that I would ask is, what performance interventions would you make if you had the real-time data?
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I don’t think that rider data anayltics is very important. I don’t need to know how many watts they are pushing or what their heart rate is, I can see how fast Pogi is going up a climb.
What is really needed is better telemetry data. And not just more reliable time gaps between the groups but even who is in a what group. It’s almost imposible to tune in near the end of the race and understand the state of play.
And the camera feeds! How many camera motos and helicopters do we have for a race? Someone is attacking? Let’s cut to some slow-mo B roll of chains slapping on accross the cobblestones. I should be able to toggle between camera feeds in a race feed app myself. At least, why don’t they ever do a split screen?
My actual biggest peeve about pro-cycling is when they give two minutes of screen time to someone finishing solo. Is there a great battle happening behind? Maybe, we’ll never know, it’s not like we can switch to another camera feed.
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In your example, Power & speed can be helpful to alert the broadcaster that something is happening behind.
You can set some ranges (which are non-stationary) and if there is an increase/decrease within the range of the measured targets you can assume that either attacks or a crash is happening.
I don’t think it adds more value beyond that, simply showing the data of one rider (if they’re in a solo break/bridging) is a nice to have but not needed for commercial value.
The data would be valuable for scouts and teams though. Power data being tracked for riders could provide immense value for riders (if they’re good). For example, showing good power at the end of a particularly hilly/windy spring classic would be value for a rider’s value, or showing strong power on the 5th stage of a hilly stage race as well. If you put those power numbers in context to a racers finishing time that shows the durability and consistency (thus the value) of a rider. But it also depends on the type of rider and what division of racing they belong in.