Tour De France To Continue Keeping Time With Tissot
June 28, 2021
Tissot has renewed its partnership with the Tour de France, La Vuelta and the great cycling classics organised by A.S.O.
Official Timekeeper of the world’s most prestigious cycling races and a long-standing partner of the UCI for 25 years, Tissot has once again confirmed its passion for the sport by renewing its partnership with the Tour de France, La Vuelta and the great classics organised by Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.). Performance, team spirit and surpassing oneself are the strong values that the Swiss watch brand shares with cycling enthusiasts by offering indispensable and extremely precise solutions for timing, scoring, ranking and statistics, to suit the requirements of organisers, athletes and fans.
In the Tour de France, which this year is taking place from 26 June to 18 July, victory is sometimes decided by a fraction of a second, or a tenth of a centimetre of a wheel on the finish line. Tissot has been developing, mastering and improving the technical tools to calculate the time difference between victory and defeat since 1938, when the brand first became involved in sports timekeeping. It is now one of the key players. When a sprint finish cannot be analysed with the naked eye, the Swiss watch brand plays the role of judge with increasingly sophisticated technological tools.
To guarantee a reliable result for organisers, competitors, spectators and television viewers of the most prestigious cycling races, high-speed cameras capable of taking 10,000 images per second are trained on the finish lines of each stage. Thanks to multiple devices capable of producing the “photo finish”, Tissot can provide all the detailed information related to timing, scoring, ranking and statistics in a matter of seconds.
This requires outstanding organisation and total dedication. During the Tour de France, the world’s premier cycling race, no less than eight Tissot timekeepers – assisted by almost a dozen additional technicians during the time trials – are on the ground during the 21 stages of the competition. On average, they carry out just over 4,200 photo finish judgements for an estimated 2,600 hours of work, including 280 hours of preparation! Without them, there would be no results and no rankings. They are in the shadows, but thanks to them, the world’s most prestigious cycling race retains its reputation. Tissot’s involvement is driven by a passion for cycling.
Official Timekeeper for the Tour de France from 1988 to 1991 and again in 2016, the Swiss brand is also the Official Watch of “La Grande Boucle” (or “The Big Loop”, as the Tour de France is also known). A major partner of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) for 25 years, Official Timekeeper for La Vuelta since 2016, Tissot is without doubt the watch-making king of this sport. In 2020, the Swiss watch brand also welcomed Slovenian cycling champion Primož Roglič to its team of sports ambassadors.
The renewal of the partnership contract between Tissot and Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.) is a sign of the brand’s determination to build lasting links with the biggest names in cycling. “Tissot is pleased to announce the extension of its partnership with A.S.O. as Official Timekeeper of the Tour de France and La Vuelta as well as legendary classic races such as Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Flèche Wallonne,” says Sylvain Dolla, CEO of Tissot. “We have teamed up with A.S.O. for many years, providing extremely precise timing solutions.”
Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France: “I am delighted that we are extending our partnership with the legendary watchmaker from Le Locle. Cycling events are often decided by a few seconds, sometimes even a few thousandths in some finishes. Tissot and A.S.O. share the same vision of cycling and excellence that the Tour de France should represent to highlight the efforts of great champions.”
