Deloitte has built a real-time race analysis tool for African pro-cycling’s Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka, as part of an expanded sponsorship designed to enhance the team’s performance during the Tour de France.
Deloitte has designed two apps — the Deloitte Smart Map and Race Monitor — that will gather and analyze hundreds of open-source datasets to provide feedback on things such as athlete performance, competitor tactics and course conditions.
Race Monitor can track changes within a race, such as an accident or a breakaway from the peloton. The Smart Map is a mapping visualization tool that can chart race routes and highlight course features, such as changes in elevation and hairpin turns.
The information is pooled into a platform that can be accessed by the team’s sport director from anywhere in the world on a mobile device to help the team make mid-race decisions.
“The challenge, across all sports disciplines, is how to obtain and analyze live data in real-time,” Mike Manby, lead partner for performance analytics in Deloitte UK, said in a statement. “This challenge is most pronounced in competitive cycling, where teams have to contend with varying terrain and demanding environments over long distances.”
Following successful trials at the Tour de Yorkshire and the Critérium du Dauphiné, the technology will be fully implemented for Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka, Africa’s first UCI Professional Continental Cycling Team, as they ride in the Tour de France from July 1-23.
