2009 Tour de France – Video Content

Fans on the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard climb in Italy

2009 seemed to be the tipping point in online video coverage of the Tour de France. Looking at the following link shows the vast number of outlets for live (over 30 live video feeds) and archived video featuring everything and anything Tour related.  http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france

VeloNews TV raised the bar for the 2009 edition and produced a daily show highlighting each stage.  VeloCenter, which was hatched in February at the Tour of California, had grown from a small team on location to a two pronged approach with field production at the race and a desk show, editing and publishing being handled in Denver, CO.  Futuristic Films provided an additional location camera crew and handled all of the post production in their Denver studio.  The workflow hinged on being able to deliver video assets via FTP from France to Denver in a timely manner.

Post race production and editing

The first week was all about learning and perfecting the workflow while managing the constant logistical mess that is the Tour.  Our motto became “nothing is guaranteed until your head hits the pillow”.  By the second week everything was coming together and VeloCenter blossomed with its tight format of race highlights, rider interviews, analysis and in show features.  Here is an examples of a show feature that was produced by the team on location during the race:

One of the most impressive accomplishments was John Wilcockson’s award for covering 40 Tours de France.  The 2009 event was actually his 41st Tour, but organizers presented him his 40-year award this year before the start of stage 10 in Limoges:

By the end of the race the video team had produced 24 episodes of VeloCenter.  The following episode from stage 17 represents the capability and effort of everyone involved in the project: