The ride weather app Jumbo-Visma uses every day at the Tour de France
David Green created Epic Ride Weather years ago for his commute. Today, Jumbo-Visma uses it for races.
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Wind speed and direction is vital information in pro racing, and especially so for the critical stage 20 time trial of the Tour de France on Saturday. When race leader Primož Roglič is out on the course, at what points will there be a headwind, or a crosswind, and at what velocity? And how will that compare to conditions when others are out on course earlier in the day? Team Jumbo-Visma has an app for that.
Epic Ride Weather, created by developer David Green in 2016, is now an official supplier to the Dutch squad, providing route-based detailed data on wind and temperature, using Dark Sky data.
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Epic Ride Weather works by importing courses or segments from a variety of sources like Strava, Ride with GPS, Garmin, Komoot, and VeloViewer. Once you have your source(s) paired, you just select the route or segment you want to see, select your start time and estimated average speed, and the app delivers hyper-detailed weather info, detailing what the temperature, wind direction, and wind speed will be at each point along the course. For courses, you can also see the elevation profile underneath the 2D wind direction map. The stronger the wind, the larger the wind arrow icon.
For WorldTour-level racing, Team Jumbo-Visma coach Grischa Niermann said the app is a trusted resource.
“Of course I use ERW every day in the Tour de France,” Niermann said. “In the night I send the weather forecast of the upcoming stage to the riders and I also always have it in the pre-race meeting in the bus.”
For the stage 20 time trial, I favorited the segment on Strava, and plugged in Roglič’s rough start time and guessed at an average speed of 21mph. Here’s what the winds are predicted to look like then.
Green built the app in 2016 to have fun — and plan better — on his long bike commutes on North America’s west coast.
Green said that a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Jumbo-Visma prevents him from discussing their relationship in detail.
“That said, they’ve had input over the years and several improvements have been made to the app based on their direct feedback,” he said.
You can download Epic Ride Weather in the Apple App Store and in the Google Play Store.
