{"id":530931,"date":"2026-03-10T11:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/530931\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T11:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:36:15","slug":"meet-the-worldtour-cycling-team-who-want-to-use-ai-to-drive-their-race-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/530931\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the WorldTour cycling team who want to use AI to drive their race tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou know, I\u2019m used to getting laughed at by people. I always laugh last,\u201d says Richard Plugge, general manager of Team Visma-Lease a Bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen it many times that a few years later, or even a few months later, people are adapting the same things we do. I\u2019ll give you one example: we don\u2019t shake hands anymore in the Tour de France. We fist bump. When we started that, people were saying: \u2018Haha, they\u2019re crazy. But now everyone is doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see in two years who is laughing, and who is not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partnerships are commonplace in cycling, a sport which relies on these deals to keep itself alive. But Visma\u2019s latest agreement, with French company Mistral AI, has sparked a storm of interest, intrigue, and, in some places, derision.<\/p>\n

According to the team\u2019s press release, the partnership would see Mistral AI, named after the unpredictable winds off France\u2019s Mediterranean coast, \u201capplying its world-class AI expertise to enhance performance, optimize decision-making, and drive competitive advantage\u201d.<\/p>\n

But with Team Visma-Lease a Bike being one of cycling\u2019s \u2018super-teams\u2019 who won two Grand Tours last year \u2014 and who boast star riders including Jonas Vingegaard, Wout Van Aert, and American climbers Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss \u2014 Plugge makes no apologies for attempting innovation.<\/p>\n

Patrick Lefevere over AI-partner Visma | Lease a Bike: “Het bullshit-alarm gaat af”:https:\/\/t.co\/WxWmoMjRGQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Raymond Kerckhoffs (@raykerckhoffs) February 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Jokes flew on social media when Visma had a nightmare day at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 28 \u2014 but were notably quiet when the team\u2019s young British sprinter Matthew Brennan won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne one day later.<\/p>\n

\u201cCycling teams are not hundred million pound businesses with huge teams of analysts,\u201d explained Patrick Broe, Visma\u2019s head of strategy, on his Lanterne Rouge podcast<\/a>. \u201cIf you can use (AI) for a performance advantage, it\u2019s something teams have to go for \u2014 (for) training, race strategy, pacing, nutrition.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery file from every rider has second-by-second data \u2014 temperature, altitude, power, heart rate, speed, ventilation \u2014 and so the amount of data points on each rider is giant. To leverage that properly, you need AI tools and machine learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this end, AI use is not totally new in cycling. Equipment manufacturers have used generative AI to develop concepts for a number of years, while several of Visma\u2019s competitors have their own deals. Tadej Pogacar\u2019s UAE Team Emirates, for example, receive data from Emirati firm G42, while Lidl-Trek work with American company ServiceNow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Visma-Lease a Bike general manager Richard Plugge is confident he will have the last laugh\u00a0 (Kurt Desplenter \/ Belga Mag \/ Belga \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Plugge also raises the example of the \u201cControl Room\u201d, developed with title-sponsors Visma, a software firm, which centralised live race data by using AI software, as an example of its previous use within the team. The Control Room was eventually banned by Tour de France organisers ASO, citing technical regulations.<\/p>\n

Visma\u2019s new partnership with Mistral, however, appears to be the most extensive within the peloton. The team has developed a reputation for finding young talent \u2014 20-year-old Brennan is the latest example \u2014 with Plugge desperate to defend that advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are known as the Moneyball team,\u201d says Plugge. \u201cWe started looking at scouting from this perspective around eight years ago \u2014 that\u2019s how we found Jonas (Vingegaard) \u2014 but in the meantime, the progress and innovation in the world have grown so fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo one of the first things we\u2019re working on is updating our scouting. We think Mistral can play a big role for us in finding the successor of Wout or Jonas.\u201d<\/p>\n

How?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re asking a non-technical guy,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWell, of course they need pure power, but there are also other aspects that make a really good rider. I want to know, before I hire a talent, what the probability is of them becoming that really good rider.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe closer we get to a 100 per cent score, the better for me, because if there\u2019s a misalignment there, we\u2019ve paid a lot of money. Even one euro is a lot of money if it\u2019s a failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Can AI technology help Visma find the next Vingegaard or Van Aert? (Jasper Jacobs\/Belga Mag\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most eyebrow-raising element of the partnership is its potential to influence race tactics. As well as the riders\u2019 own numbers, Mistral\u2019s technology is also able to analyse the pictures of race footage \u2014 helping to quantify the turbulent interior of the peloton in a way that challenges the human eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we might look at a race like Omloop,\u201d explains Plugge, which had taken place four days earlier. \u201cOf course we\u2019d always do an evaluation, but because there are so many data points, and also bias from me, or a sporting director, or a rider, it\u2019s hard to tell what really happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut from a data perspective, you can often have a better evaluation of a race. So you can make better choices if you can objectify those opinions that we might have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examples include establishing whether to join a certain breakaway break, when to attempt to form echelons and split the peloton in crosswinds, or optimising the perfect timing for an attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could attack 80km before the finish line, be on the screen and ahead of the game for the next 10km, and even if you don\u2019t win, everybody will say: \u2018Oh, you did a great race.\u2019 But was it really worth it?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot we cannot see because it\u2019s happening in the peloton, but we have the data of all the riders, how much they\u2019re pushing in certain sections. Maybe they\u2019ve lost a lot of energy doing that, and although watts per kilo are of course important, how you use them is also important. Using the images and our power data, we can work out the efficiency of that attack, and answer whether they should have done something differently in the future or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other sports, AI has already played a role in off-pitch factors \u2014 but has generally stopped short of genuinely influencing live decision-making. That may change in cycling, where currently, teams have limits on how they are allowed to use the live data they generate, but which does not specifically preclude teams\u2019 abilities to make in-the-moment strategic decisions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Visma\u2019s record of unearthing talent looks like it has continued with the rise of Matthew Brennan (David Pintens \/ Belga Mag \/ Belga \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

At the moment, Visma use Mistral\u2019s output as evidence to help the ultimate decision-maker, rather than the decision-maker in and of itself \u2014 but Plugge is open that this structure may change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a tipping point moment, probably,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are building this, and at some point, it may become a decision-making tool rather than an evaluation tool. It\u2019s a method and a way of thinking \u2014 and it could be that there will be a moment we base our decisions on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

How have riders reacted to this? That they might question its output seems obvious. There has always been a sense that they are the only people who can truly know what happens in the bunch \u2014 but Mistral\u2019s technology claims to challenge that assertion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey only get the result, let\u2019s put it that way,\u201d says Plugge. \u201cBut today they trust everything. Whatever (head of racing) Grischa (Niermann) says in the race, where he is better informed, and hopefully will have facts as well as opinions, will be from a point where he is better placed to give instructions. That\u2019s better for riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it is undeniable that the AI boom comes with two competing emotions. Excitement is natural, yet for most, it sits alongside trepidation. Not for Plugge, who raises the film Moneyball, about the Oakland A\u2019s\u2019 embrace of analytics, as an example of how resistance will always be present before adaptation. He laughs at the suggestion that Broe is Visma\u2019s version of Jonah Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to look towards the next step in innovation,\u201d he says. \u201cPatrick started our Moneyball system, but this is building on that, not just in scouting but performance and nutrition. People might see threats \u2014 that\u2019s obvious in every innovation. But I\u2019m looking at the positives, how we can use it better, how we can use it in the best possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n