Pretty certain there is a rule either in USAT or WTC prohibiting this. Different from the TdF. Cameras used there are sponsored by the race organization & not individual riders or teams.

If I remember correctly, all of the pro's voted on it and the result was a "no".

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blog

Really did the pros vote against it? And then pros complain that no one cares about them?

In that case WTC could just overrule it, and say, "our event, our rules". You will travel with a camera and GPS (they did the latter this year which was awesome). Even with a market cap that went from over $10B to less than $3B today, you figure everyone would be enlightened enough to leverage the GoPro platform and channel to maximize exposure for our sport.

So how do we get this to happen? If the pros don't want, it, maybe we just need WTC and GoPro to overrule them to bring the coverage home. If a USAT waiver is needed, certainly there is time for a rule change for the pro race only before next year? I am sure there are some engineers at GoPro who would be glad to make some custom low profile units optimized for race bikes that have minimal impact on performance (I can see one that goes in the front of a Torhans type between the aerobar bottle with zero aero impact).

I can't imagine this being entertaining to watch at all. Maybe ITU to some extent and pro cycling. But ironman? "Here you can see the ass of the guy I'm right out of the draft zone on for 4.5 hours"

If you can switch between cameras of different pros you can watch any part of the race you want. The technology is close enough to make it feasible really soon. In the mean time, you collect video for offline production.

I think their coverage is great as it is right now

My question is would the WTC incentivize the athletes for the footage they provide. Presumably the WTC would own all the rights to the the footage, as they guard this kind of property with their life, so its up to them to sweeten the deal to get the athletes to take the footage. If the WTC gets to stick cameras on all the pros bikes and then bans the athletes from directly benefiting from the processes the athletes would be stupid to go along with the plan.

I don't imagine the WTC paying the athletes for the footage. Rather the WTC must be willing to give the athletes (and more importantly the sponsors of the athletes) the rights to use the footage for adverting ect. If I was sponsoring an athlete I would tell them not to take any video unless they could use if for their (and mine) own promoting. If the WTC agreed to this however I would be sticking cameras all over them. My feeling is the old i.e. pre-sale WTC would never have allowed this as it represents the kind of loss of control of the Ironman branding that they fought tooth and nail for. Now with a more media company owning the WTC they might be more open to the idea. I think the ball is really in the WTCs court here and that the athletes don't really get much say.

Unless they crash - the coverage from a GoPro is going to be boooooring.

Look at the cams from the Tour - bunch racing and sprinting IS exciting.

Just rolling along (no matter if they're riding 5mph faster than normal beings) is extremely dull. Nobody would watch. Unless they fall off. Then they'd watch.

Dev,

Can you please wear a GoPro for your next full distance race and post the unedited video on YouTube? I'd really like to watch that.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

First of all, there is a rule against this so they'd have to grab special dispensation to those who have it on either bike.

Second, with all the aeroweenyness out there, I am sure some of these uber-bike companies don't want some mute and camera dangling off a bike that they're paying a pro to ride.

Third, this would be boring as shit. Maybe ITU racing would be exiting but a video of someone riding in the legal draft range for hours? I'd rather keep up with that Kardashians or watch paint dry. The coverage Ironman provides is pretty top notch now.

Bob

You can already do the camera switching thing. If you watch Nascar, you can pick your driver and get audio / video, plus a stats panel.

That said, there's a reason this hasn't been done before...there's absolutely no demand for it because it's boooooooring. Hell, it's difficult enough to fill up one whole hour once a year on NBC, and they get to use helicopters, interviews, shots of all 3 sports and transitions, human interest stories, opening ceremonies, and the like.

The only way to make tri suitable for TV is short course / F1 / purpose built venues, possibly with rounds of competition / eliminations. You don't see performance prop planes going from Arizona to Las Vegas and back, they go around pylons in a spectator-friendly area. You don't see snowboard events in the backcountry doing tricks; they're now in the halfpipe or on a snowcross course; again. spectator and TV friendly. See the direction we're headed here?!

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- I do all my own stunts

I totally agree that watching from a single camera would be boring. Part of following the pro race on race day is not knowing who is where and a feel for what is going on. Adding the GPS coverage of the pros was helpful this year because you could at least get a feel for who is riding with who and what they are doing. being able to switch back and forth between whomever's camera you want to watch from would make following the race more interactive. It would be exciting out of T1 and for people who are athletes and do races, it would be like a virtual reality Kona experience without having qualified. Yes, watching Kienle in the front of the pack for 2 hours coming back from Hawi would be boring, but that's when you switch cameras to someone in the middle of the field, or in the women's race and toggle between them to see what is going on. It would also offer the commentators a chance to have real time info off the course and be able to talk about what is going on based on real time info.

The aero/technical problem should be solved by the GoPro guys pretty quickly. The USAT/WTC rule thing is solvable for the pro race only. I would think that GoPro would want to better monetize their sponsorship by actually having media content created during the race with their solutions. They position themselves as a company creating individualized media content to capture active life experiences (not a company selling cameras which just happen to be a means....still trying to figure out who is making money off the media content through...seems to be facebook and youtube, not GoPro....they have to make a better way to monetize content).

weirdos that are into watersports might be into this (did you see that athlete's massive stream). (maybe this belongs on TRS or twitter, we'll see.)

What rule? There were apparently 2 age groupers in the race riding with Go Pros at the request of WTC. Here is the facebook post from Liz Kollar several weeks before Kona.

ýLiz Kollarý to IRONMAN TriClub Connect
September 21 · Tampa, FL ·

Hi Athletes heading to Kona and racing:
We are looking for two age groupers (man and women) who would be willing to let us mount a Go Pro camera on their bike. If interested please email me at Elizabeth.kollar@ironman.com

I suspect it's a moot point as the technology to upload live videos from a number of moving bikes isn't there yet. You might occasionally get decent streams but the cell coverage isn't going to be uniform and the bandwidth required to support 20 or more continuously connected video streams would be cost prohibitive.

Even better have GPRO Drones follow them on the swim bike and fun.

What is this rule that everyone is talking about?

Section 4.04 ILLEGAL EQUIPMENT

(a) Headsets or headphones are prohibited during the swim segment of the Race.

(b) Unless pre‐approved by the Head Referee, communication devices of any type, such as cell phones and two‐way radios are strictly prohibited during the swim segment of the Race; (DSQ) and

(c) Cameras, phone cameras, and video cameras are prohibited unless permission is given by IRONMAN. If such permission is given by IRONMAN, it is the athlete’s responsibility to notify the Head Referee of such permission prior to the start of the Race. Athletes seen with an unauthorized camera, phone camera, or video camera will be disqualified.

Originally from: http://www.ironman.com/...s.aspx#ixzz3sjkp7HOQ

So that isn't an issue at all. Ironman can grant anyone permission. Not sure why anyone is making a big deal about this rule, that is extremely easy to get around.

No one said it was insurmountable. The statement by me specifically was "there is a rule against it and dispensations would need to be granted."

You asked for the rule and got educated on the issue.

B

Hiding drafting?

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-- Aaron Davidson

It's definitely not even remotely close to insurmountable. If Ironman mandated and issued all pros a gopro that would by definition be their explicit approval as stated in the rules.