Tour de France 2022 – how tech is closing the gender gap in cycling

Michele McGuire, vice president of managed services delivery at NTT, official IT partner of Tour de France tells Femtech World about technology’s power to close cycling’s gender gap. 

Contributing factors to the gender-based financial divide in sports include disproportionate sponsorship deals, unequal representation in sports governance and gaps in media coverage of women’s competition.

In the world of cycling, however, things are changing through an approach which is harnessing the potential of technology to drive change.

“We are actually driving digital equality across women’s and men’s races, and this is happening for the very first time,” says Michele McGuire, vice president of managed services delivery at NTT, official IT partner of Tour de France.

“If you ever tried to watch women’s cycling you must have noticed that you get no information about it: you only know what you see on television.”

NTT helped to bring about a digital transformation of this year’s Tour de France Femmes  enabling, for the first time in history, the same level of media coverage and standard of technology as the men’s race. 

This year’s Tour de France Femmes saw the creation of the world’s largest connected stadium, where data helped race organisers monitor key locations, assets, crowd information, and live race data to enable more smooth race operations.

An image of the Tour de France Femmes 2022 in Paris

Data also provided a rich experience to fans at the event and around the world. This included data-driven insights and AI predictions across social media and TV and a race centre bringing together commentary and social media. 

“Thanks to technology solutions, advanced analytics and machine learning, we created a deeper experience for fans showing them how the race actually plays out,” says McGuire, who had a front row view of the tour.

“To do so, we created various ways of getting information to the fans which bring them closer to the cyclists.

“We know that not anybody can seat in front of a TV to watch the race, so we created an immersive reality for fans to use on their phones.”

NTT created an augmented reality available on the Apple and Android app stores that allowed fans to trace the races in 3D.

“Fans can angle their phones at 45 degrees and have a 3D view of the profile of the cyclists, of the route they’re on, of the tracks etc. ,” says McGuire. 

The overwhelming favourite for today @AvVleuten? almost left the race due to illness at the start of the week.
There was no trace of weakness yesterday as she powered to a solo victory and her profile suggests she could do the same on the final stage? #TDFF #TDFFdata pic.twitter.com/9o5dspUcZM

— letourdata (@letourdata) July 31, 2022

To enhance the fans’ experience, the Tour de France Femmes 2022 was accompanied by “digital human” Marianne; who takes her name from the winner of the first race in 1984, Marianne Martin. 

Fans can ask Marianne any questions about the race, about the favourites of the day and about the winners of the past races. 

NTT also brought many innovations in the field of race operations. These included IT sensors that have been placed on tracks, on race routes and race vehicles.

By placing these sensors, and by collecting the data from it, NTT was also able to create a complete view of the entire race operations.

“What this means is that we can actually see on the screen who is where and what’s happening in and around the race,” says McGuire.

“We’re doing this to lift the profile of women cyclists. We’re showing people what they’re capable of doing. This means that women are actually getting a true view of what women cycling is about.”

McGuire explains that the future goal is to attract as many women as possible to the sport: “The key part is digital equality. Creating equality and inclusivity will allow women sports to flourish.”