The Visma | Lease a Bike control room: F1-style tech for Vingegaard and co, or a single-purpose gadget?

Lately, there has been quite a bit said and written about the advanced control room of Visma | Lease A Bike, which gathers the most relevant data for race strategies from a sort of van. Or does it actually serve a different purpose?

The vehicle that collects the data is seen by the team as a new step in technology, although the UCI was not immediately pleased. The international cycling union launched an investigation into the validity of the new gadget, "based on the current regulations." The union stated that it wants to ensure equal access to technological tools and maintain "the primacy of the human over the machine." These principles are highly valued by the UCI, which ultimately led to the UCI and the ASO deciding not to accredit the vehicle just before the start of the Tour.

For Richard Plugge, CEO of the killer bees formation, this might have been a bit of a disappointment at first glance, although he told IDLProCycling.com and other media in Italy that it wasn't all that bad. "I think our control room is a cool innovation. And in my opinion, cycling can certainly use innovation in some areas. The UCI did not give us a sticker to make it part of 'the team' during the race, but we hadn't asked for that either. After all, it is a control room and nothing else. The vehicle can, therefore, stay somewhere outside the race just fine. At the finish line, for example, from where we can operate perfectly well."

Plugge and Visma | Lease a Bike curious about UCI and ASO's motives

"As a team, we are of course obliged to comply with the UCI's regulations. They had a few reasons for the decision," continued the former journalist. "I then asked them to send me the specific rules on which these considerations were based. So, I am very curious about what they will come up with and what the real reason behind it is."

To be continued, it seems. "At the end of the day, it remains an interesting concept," concluded Plugge. "Many team leaders have already sent me messages, with compliments or questions. It might be a nice addition for the future of the sport. Ultimately, we are all working on that. As Visma | Lease a Bike, we want to be a driving force behind innovation, so we will certainly continue to work on such things."

"It seems like something new, but perhaps it isn't entirely," concluded the 54-year-old Dutchman. "Every team is constantly on the phone during a race, in one way or another. This is a nice extra tool to provide the relevant people with information. It is mainly an idea from a safety perspective. The team leaders in the race convoy get a bit more space and only have to respond to one source of information, instead of multiple. We think you can't be against such safety ideas."