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Bordeaux, France
Wind at their backs and technology on their wrists, the world's premier cyclists speed through the Bordeaux countryside in the annual Tour de France. In their quest to win the coveted yellow jersey, worn each day by the race leader, riders like Mexico's Miguel Arroyo use tiny wireless earpieces to hear instructions from their coach and ultra-light heart monitors with digital displays on their wristwatches. While training for the historic 2,000-mile race, first held in 1903, many cyclists use an elaborate series of body sensors to transmit information about their pulse and exertion rates to eager coaches monitoring their progress from laptop computers in the backseats of vans.
During the race, online cycling fans wired to the World Wide Web can now follow the 21-day race minute-by-minute from anywhere in the world. This real-time reporting is part of a growing trend in sports and adventure, especially for events that do not attract live television coverage. As one sports entrepreneur put it, "With the Internet as our stadium, we can have an audience of millions."
Videographers and mobile computing operators upload race information to more than 20 Web sites. Cycling aficionados who visit the official Tour de France site (www.letour.com*) can download maps and images of the terrain of each day's course, as well as up-to-the-minute positions of each rider. A database offers information on specific teams, plus the individual 198 riders in the race, as well as the history of the most-beloved sporting event in France.
Sports-related sites are among the most popular on the Web. Events that unfold over several days with an ever-changing locale, such as the Tour de France, are ideal for Web coverage. So are adventure events held in remote places such as the North Pole or Mt. Everest. In the multi-day race known as Eco-Challenge (www.ecochallenge.com*), teams race through jungles, down rivers, and over mountains to see who can cross the terrain the fastest, using a combination of mountaineering, hiking, horseback riding, and whitewater rafting. A site reporting on the race the year it was held in Australia pulled in an average of 150,000 hits daily.
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