Versus 2010 Tour Tracker
As the 2010 Tour de France spins up and the speculations, predictions and intrigue start to weave their tangled webs, many of us are trying to figure out the best way to absorb this years Tour.
Do we set our PVR each day – consciously blocking out internet race coverage and forewarning coworkers to keep details to themselves? Do we desperately scour to keep up on coverage through RSS readers and Twitter? Do we suddenly come down with an illness that only allows us to come to work in the afternoon?
Thankfully, Versus is ensuring that these difficult decisions aren’t necessary with their 2010 Tour Tracker.
Last year I detailed what you could expect in the 2009 Versus Tour Tracker and it appears as though the fine crew has been hard at work behind the scenes to offer, not only better coverage, but some sincerely cool ‘add-ons’ to your experience.
There are essentially three aspect to this years Tour Tracker, the tracker itself, the mobile counterpart, and the MapMyRide interactivity.
The 2010 Versus Tour Tracker
I know last years Tour tracker was pretty damn solid, and I expect no-less from this year:
- Live streaming video of the tour in high definition from any online or mobile device anytime
- Pause, rewind, and fast forward to guarantee you don’t miss any epic moments
- Follow every stride of the race with real-time GPS tracking, minute-to-minute updates on overall standings and rider positions
- Customize and personalize your viewing by setting alerts for your favorite players and using the new timeline feature to jump instantly to key moments in the race
The Tour Tracker iPhone App
I’m excited to see how the iPhone app shapes up, since that will be key for me staying up-to-date while I’m in meetings… I haven’t downloaded it yet (I don’t know if it’s ready for public consumption), but it looks like it’s going to have some pretty fun features as well:
- Access to highlight videos, detailed race results and standings as well as full course profiles
- Real-time Twitter updates to stay informed about what’s happening in the race even when you can’t watch
- Access live streaming video on 3G or WiFi—without commercial interruption and the ability to access the full stage immediately following its conclusion via the on-demand feature (with a one-time upgrade of $14.99)
- Real-time GPS tracking showing riders are on the course, including time gaps and breakaways, as well as minute-by-minute updates for each stage (for the video coverage)
- Customized alerts for breaking news, updates on their favorite riders and for notifications before the start and conclusion of the race
2010 Le Tour Challenge
The one extra bit of icing on the cake for this years Tour Tracker is coming out of a partnership with MapMyRide that let’s you pit your measly spaghetti legs against the rippling quadriceps of your favorite Tour riders:
- Ride your bike on any given day of the tour and track your distance, time and pace either manually, using the MapMyRide app, or using a GPS device
- Submit your data to mapmyride.com and the site will convert your information into “virtual time” to see how you would have compared to that day’s stage of the tour
- Win prizes by automatically being entered into daily drawings—the more days you ride and submit your data, the more chances you have to win!
The nice thing is that the MapMyRide functionality and prize entry is all free! You’ve always known you were slow, but now it’s time to find out just how hard these guys would drop you in a ride ;-)
There will be “virtual” competitions for custom designed jerseys, a handful of Cannondale bikes, “thousands of dollars” in additional prizes, and a trip to Paris for the final stage. So it’ll be fun regardless, and you’ll have a chance to actually pick up some pretty wicked stuff.
If you’re lucky enough to live in the US and subscribe to Versus, then you’ll be treated to great coverage 14 hours a day, but for those of us in Canada, we’ll have to rely on a piggyback of the Versus Tour de France coverage, and if memory serves the Canadian coverage was broadcast live (ie. very first thing in the morning) with highlights in the evenings, and if you’re anything like me there are two problems with that scenario:
- I have a job and work during the day
- I need to know what’s going on as it happened… Watching it after the fact is simply not acceptable ;-)
I’ll probably still watch the highlights in the evenings (there is something to be said for seeing it on the ‘big screen’ after all), but I think the Versus Tour Tracker will definitely find it’s way into my daily routine… I’m just lucky enough that I have a job where I’ve got my computer on me most of the time and should be able to stream things in the background.
Right now you can get access for the entire Tour for $29.95 (which is actually $5 cheaper than last year), but the option to buy individual stages is gone, which actually surprises me a bit. It could be that they opted out of this since most viewers were only buying the mountain stages, but if it were up to me (and it should be) I would offer four different pricing packages:
- The full meal deal
- Per stage
- A ‘climbers’ package (ie. all the mountain stages)
- A ‘sprinters’ package (ie. all the flat stages)
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starting to get stoked, and I’m not even a ‘real’ roadie!
Also – Just in case you aren’t sure who you’re backing in this year’s tour I found a handy-dandy flowchart to help you make your decision, so now you have no excuses ;-)
20 Comments
Sheldon Smart on June 24th, 2010
For a guy like me who wants to catch every minute of Le Tour, this is fantastic!
Sheldon Smart on June 25th, 2010
Looking into this a little more I tend to agree with you Ken. The idea of packages would be a nice offer, ie: sprinters, climbers etc… Maybe for 2011.
Alex P on June 25th, 2010
Thanks for the review Ken, we gave you a shout out on our official fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Official-Tour-de-France-iPhone-Application/111289192252746
Cheers..
Alex.
Ken Hurd on June 25th, 2010
Wicked, thanks Alex!!
For those with iPhones, you can download the app here:
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/official-versus-tour-france/id374021679?mt=8
I downloaded it moments ago, and even on my 3G it seems pretty snappy. The ‘example’ videos look great – I can only imagine what they look like on the iPhone 4!
Lookin’ forward to having the race in my pocket!
Sheldon Smart on June 28th, 2010
RE: Tour de France flow chart ‘do you like bad victory salutes?’ = Contador. HAHAH!
Sound on July 5th, 2010
Just curious if any one knows if all the stages on the tour tracker will lack the background noise (fans, cars, etc..)
Ken Hurd on July 5th, 2010
@Sound – I’ve heard some similar comments from other users.
Though I’m not affiliated with the Tracker itself they did release this statement today:
- – - – - – - -
Dear Tour Tracker user,
First of all apologies for the problems over the last few days with the Tour Tracker service. We know that many of you have experienced problems and have contacted us through our support email or posted your feedback online. We’ve responded to many of you, but while we’ve worked on fixing these problems we know many of you have not yet received a response.
Due to the problems with the Autobahn plugin, after today’s stage we removed the video player and replaced it with one that does not require Autobahn. Initial reaction is that this has fixed the streaming problems. This was also why the On Demand video of todays stage was delayed.
Another issue (particularly for the prologue) has been the start time of the coverage. We start the coverage when the International TV broadcast starts, some days this includes the start, some days it does not – it depends on when the host broadcaster in France decides to start the broadcast. The feed goes up on the Tracker at the same time as anyone in the world gets a TV feed.
The daily schedule of broadcast times is now published on the FAQ page: http://tracker.versus.com/faq
The other issue that many of you have commented on is the audio feed and the lack of background noise. We’re frustrated with this as well. We’re working hard on a resolution to this with the host broadcaster in France to correct the problem.
We’re cycling fans too and understand that the problems over the past few days have been extremely frustrating, we appreciate your understanding and hope you will enjoy the rest of the tour without any further streaming problems with the service.
Regards,
The Tour Tracker Team.
Ken Hurd on July 5th, 2010
Sorry for the lengthy comment, hopefully things are being resolved.
Sound on July 5th, 2010
Thanks for the info! It’s nice to know they are at least working on it…
Dana on July 6th, 2010
thanks,
i just signed up. good promotion. You guys should be getting some promotional funding from versus for all the subscriptions you’ve brought in.
Ken Hurd on July 6th, 2010
Nice! You’ll have to let us know what you think. I’ve been hearing mixed experiences.
I’ve been pretty happy with it, but coming off the last years Tour Tracker, I had suspected that it wasn’t going to be verbatim Versus coverage.
vfxken on July 6th, 2010
The tracker issues from the first few days seem to have been resolved. I had freezing and choppy video previously, but this morning the Versus tracker streamed flawlessly. What a relief–and great to see the tour live without the commercials. Worth the $30!
Ken Hurd on July 6th, 2010
Thanks @vfxken!
I’ve been reading similar comments on Twitter as well – Though I really never seemed to have any problems, I’m glad things are getting sorted out for everybody else!
Sheldon on July 7th, 2010
It’s funny. I know for sure two others that signed up after reading Ken’s article. Feedback has been largly positive! I imagine this will only improve over time as well.
Ken Hurd on July 7th, 2010
Yup, the one real nice pat on the back I’ll give Versus/Participant Sports is that throughout the small hiccups they’ve been very transparent and honest about what’s going on and their efforts to rectify things. And in cases where users have been entirely unhappy (I haven’t run across many), they’ve honored a refund for those customers.
Though it would obviously be nice to hit the ground running, this is an excellent example of the way these types of hiccups should be handled.
marco_damian on July 8th, 2010
Hey Guys, Not so sure my experience has been as good as yours. I’ve been having issues with the tour coverage for 4 days now. Choppy video, with low resolution has been the norm for me. I’m using a very fast connection (had it tested by a Comcast tech yesterday) and a new iMac as well.
My customer service experience has been awful to boot. Try calling or emailing participant sports. Calls go immediately to voicemail and are not returned. Emails are answered by an auto-reply that offers no help at all. I spoke at length to an operator at Versus today and they are getting bombarded with calls from irate customers (not entirely fair to the operators because this has been contracted out to Participant Sports). If you are getting good service then count yourselves lucky!
Ken Hurd on July 8th, 2010
@marco_damian That sucks man – I sure hope they can rectify things before they hit the mountains. I wonder if it’s a traffic/bandwidth thing… Perhaps that’s why some people have no problems while others (like yourself) don’t fair so well. It’s also disappointing to hear that the support has been less than stellar :-(
Hopefully things work out! Thanks for letting us know the other side of the coin. Let us know if things get better too!
Dana on July 9th, 2010
I’ve heard complaints from other Mac users, but on my macbook the video is good quality and works well with Safari. It’s worked well for me.
The only problem i’ve had is when my internet cut out with 7km to go today. argg!!!! But that’s a problem with Shaw, and I got reset my modem and got it back up in time to see the sprint.
Le Tour de France – Retrospect | Bikeridr on July 27th, 2010
[...] an aside, I was able to enjoy all but the weekend stages of the Tour courtesy of Versus on the 2010 Versus Tour Tracker. I did receive some emails indicating frustration with the application, but for the most part the [...]
K8 on June 24th, 2010
Can’t wait!