The 2016 Amgen Tour of California, which is the largest and most prestigious annual cycling race in the U.S., kicked off on May 15 and is set to cover roughly 800 miles throughout California before wrapping up in Sacramento on May 22. The Amgen Tour is an eight-stage competition, and the stages for the 2016 race include South Pasadena to Santa Clarita (May 16), Thousand Oaks to Santa Barbara County (May 17), and Lodi to South Lake Tahoe (May 19), among others. Eighteen teams are participating in the male half of the 2016 Tour, and although each team consists of some of the most respectable cyclists in the world, one of this year’s teams is not quite like the others.
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That outlier squad is Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka, which is sponsored by Dimension Data, an international ICT solutions and services provider. Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka has the established goal of raising money to provide bicycles to people throughout the world via Qhubeka, which is an extension of World Bicycle Relief, “a global non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing education, health, and economic opportunities by providing simple, sustainable transportation.” But what makes Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka so special in the 2016 Amgen Tour — besides the team’s obvious contributions to charity — is that, via a Dimension Data tracking solution, members of Team Dimension Data will have their power, speed, heart rate, and more tracked while cycling. This data will be analyzed and shared, providing unprecedented insight into the activities of Team Dimension Data’s representatives all throughout the Amgen Tour.
We had a great day at the @AmgenTOC with @MarkCavendish and @NathanPeterHaas on the podium: https://t.co/ngPFmZ2hPT pic.twitter.com/Scbvrqhz5z
— Team Dimension Data (@TeamDiData) May 19, 2016
Dimension Data’s distribution of information and statistics during the Amgen Tour is the first chapter in a partnership between Dimension Data and Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), which owns cycling’s most prized competition: the Tour de France. The intent of the partnership between Dimension Data and ASO, which is an Official Technology Partner agreement, is to “revolutionize the viewing experience of billions of cycling fans across the globe.” And since the partnership is for five years, what Dimension Data is doing during the Amgen Tour is not a one-time thing, and enhanced viewing will indubitably be a staple of the Tour de France as much as it is for the Amgen Tour.
In an era witnessing sports analysis at its perennial peak, it was only a matter of time before cycling, with all of its global popularity, took a big step into the tech world and found a way to commercialize its own analysis. The partnership between Dimension Data and ASO is hoping to make that happen, and the Amgen Tour could be showcasing what the future of cycling will be like.