The Tour de France ended last month, and it was a win for a technology company with Raleigh ties.
Dimension Data, a global information technology company with its American headquarters in the City of Oaks, outfitted each bike with tracking chips to give fans a deeper understanding of the race.
For the first time ever, fans could follow live readings from individual riders on the official Tour de France app and website.
“The 3.5 billion people who watched some part of the race now have the ability to track an individual rider, their favorite rider, through the race,” said Mark Slaga, Dimension Data Americas CEO.
The tiny devices relay data from the bike to their support vehicles and through aircraft back to what Slaga calls “out big data truck.
Broadcasters covering the race also got access to the data.
Dimension and its 300 Raleigh-area employees has a five-year contract with the Tour, and Slaga says the company hopes to gather more information in the years to come. Other dimension offices also work with the Tour.
“The heart rate, the power output. You can dive into a specific rider and follow them, down to the biometrics, for the whole race,” he said.
Dimension Data says more than 660,000 race fans accessed its data.