The Velon umbrella group of WorldTour cycling teams has agreed a partnership with US camera manufacturer GoPro under which more on-bike footage will be provided from races, starting with the 2015 Tour de France.
Under the terms of the deal, Velon will capture both on-bike race footage and behind the scenes videos with GoPro. GoPro will partner with Velon, whose teams make up two thirds of the 17 WorldTour squads, to show the content on their digital and social media platforms. Velon will exclusively use GoPro cameras, with the deal running throughout 2015.
Velon chief executive Graham Bartlett said: “The partnership will show fans a new side of cycling, with the fantastic moments that have never been captured before. I think this is a great deal for the sport. GoPro’s YouTube channel is one of the world’s highest ranked online sports channels, in the top five for both subscribers and video views, we want this partnership to excite the fans and open the sport up to new ones from around the world.”
The GoPro partnership comes after the RCS Sport agency, organiser and commercial rights-holder of the Giro d’Italia, agreed a deal with Velon under which on-bike footage was delivered for this year’s edition of Italy’s ‘Grand Tour’ event, which took place in May. Under the deal, Velon delivered the footage for RCS Sport across eight of the Giro d’Italia’s 21 stages.
Onboard cameras were implemented at the Tour de France last year, but the GoPro agreement will see content stepped up for the 2015 edition, which commences on Saturday with the Grand Depart in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
Tour de France organiser Amaury Sports Organisation said GoPro will become an official supplier of the event, with a minimum of eight bikes equipped with a camera on a daily basis. Pictures will be edited in the evening, delivered to the broadcasters of the Tour de France and published on different teams’ websites, on the race’s official website and on Tour de France and GoPro social networks.
ASO said it will also test a live broadcast of images filmed by onboard cameras during the neutralised start of stage two of the Tour in Utrecht.