We often hear about the crazy average speeds achieved on a stage but when they are being tracked by a motorbike it's really hard to tell ahve fast they are going so as the why not display the speed of the motorbike (which is travelling at the same speed)?
On a similar note why not show the gradient as well as the camera also flattens the gradient?
As sports have more and more stats available are the TV companies missing a trick? Or is there a reason not to do it? Or does nobody care ❓

Cause it would make me feel rubbish to know just how much faster than me they are… 🙂

If you go on the live Eurosport web page it shows the average speed and current speed throughout the stage.

It's probably because a lot of people from this side of the great divide would leave a lot of pro roadies in their dust on a descent.

"It's probably because a lot of people from this side of the great divide would leave a lot of pro roadies in their dust on a descent."

Yep right? 72mph top speed at the Giro last year. I don't think that you would see alot of people overtaking. Watch a few yourtube vids of El Falcone descending. Awesome.

Yeah, these guys descend like missiles.

Probably because its not that relevant – some days a flat stage they may be going all out for the whole 200km, other days they may just take it easy for one reason or the other (until the sprint, obviously).

I don't think they add much to the enjoyment. It might be slightly interesting every now and again but not for five hours.
We know they're quick.

You'll be telling your mates how fast the boys are, and just as they sit down to watch the peleton will be doing 10MPH through some sleepy town celebrating a local riders birth of his first child or something.

It was depressing to find out they still averaged something stupid like 39.5kph on that mountain stage.

Of course, when I was in my prime last month I did the entire Tour route at 50+ kph average without stopping. Well, I lie. I stopped once to point out to Contador what he was doing wrong up some Alp 😉

They have had a few shots of the cameraman peeking over the motorbike riders shoulder at the speedo. It was bordering on 90kph!

The live section of the official website shows this information.

google the chase Cancellara made down a mountain last year to catch the peloton after puncturing to see real speed and roadie bike handling at it's best

This is kinda neat to watch during a stage:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour/

Tracks speed, position, power and so on of the HTC Columbia lot.

Go to the HTC website and you can get real time telemetry of speed and power from their riders.

Cancellara – awesome

Edric 64 – Member
google the chase Cancellara made down a mountain last year to catch the peloton after puncturing to see real speed and roadie bike handling at it's best

I remember watching that, it was truly awesome

That is a very skilful bit of bike handling, all the way as well.

I don't remember which exactly (Giro perhaps) but this is shown on at least one of the big events. They don't just show the gaps between groups but the speeds they are both travelling at so you can appreciate if the gap is closing & how quickly.

Interesting feature.

I've looked at the data on the HTC Columbia site a couple of times & they haven't been showing any heart rates. I'd like to see that data…

Woody2000, top find. I saw that video last year then it got pulled for copyright infringement, glad it's up there again. He's actually not going that fast (the time clock and distance covered gives you an idea, it's just under 40mph for a lot of it) but he's SO smooth, perfect control and you just know that if a mere mortal tried staying on his wheel they'd be over the edge in no time!

Watch the full coverage of the mountain stages, quite often the moto cameraman will point the camera down at the bike speedo, you can see it at 50mph/80kph regularly on the descents. Average speed for most stages is about 40kph/25mph although the first hour of a stage a few days ago was run at about 50kph average as they tried to get a break established. That was properly quick, you could see how hard they were trying.

I always thought the awesome crashes were the only reason anyone watched?

When I was watching it live on Eurosport the other day the camera on the motorbike went down to show the speedo a couple of times just to show how mentally fast they were going down a mountain.

that vid is awesome

Saw this live – very exciting. Cancellara was in yellow at the time – this was the decent and chaseback (Stage 7 2009). Watch him pick his way through the cars at speed and duck around the cliff face!

Fabian

Mind you yesterday when Schleck & Contador chased and caught the breakaway was pretty exciting too . . . . .

Live HTC Columbia data (including speed)

That can't be right – Michael Rogers just hit 900+ watts!

According to http://gaps.letour.fr/us.html an HTC rider just attacked the peloton so that sounds about right. The sprinters hit 1300+ on their sprints

jimmyshand – Member

It's probably because a lot of people from this side of the great divide would leave a lot of pro roadies in their dust on a descent. It's nice to dream.

This link is for a video of riders at 100kph, the camera flicks to the motorbike speedo.

Best bit is at 42 seconds though. A lingering, gentle touch. Beautiful teamwork

Try this link 2morro during the race

http://www.highroadsports.com/velostream

You'll see the speeds etc but Le Tour is more about speed!

That can't be right – Michael Rogers just hit 900+ watts!

To be fair, I can hit 900W without trouble! 1300+ which they all seem to manage on occasion, not just the sprinters, is something else!