Each Day, CSC Races to Set Up Tour de France’s IT Network

When Team CSC Tiscali’s cyclists rest at night after each stage of the race for the Tour de France’s yellow jersey, CSC, the official IT supplier of the Tour, will take part in another crucial race -- the race to set up the event’s technology infrastructure.

The Tour de France, cycling’s most prestigious race, is supported by a network of servers that gather important race data and help journalists connect to the world.

During the race, which runs from July 6 through July 28, CSC is handling both server and network administration tasks for the network, which is daunting under any circumstance. What makes it trickier, though, is that after each of the 21 stages is completed, the race needs to pick up its network and move to the next town.

As in the race itself, speed is critical

The servers and other IT equipment are stored in a number of trucks. One of the server trucks holds race data such as finish times, while another handles computers and Internet connections for journalists, who don’t follow the riders along the course, but watch them from a truck at the finish line.

As soon as the stage winner steps off the podium after the stage finish, technicians will disconnect the fiber-optic cable between the trucks, pack up the equipment, move them to the next town, and set up the network all over again in time for the cycling peloton to take off the next morning. Speed is critical, since the process can take as long as six hours.

Amaury Sports Organization (ASO), which runs the Tour de France, has technicians to handle the setup of the cable and the networks. What it lacked, though, were skills in Unix and Windows NT server and network administration. Not only will those skills be needed when the network is up, but they’re also required to troubleshoot the network at each installation.

"Everything needs to be tested before each use," says Alain Mazuy, head of CSC’s field services in southern Europe. The frequent setup, breakdown, and movement of the technology means that network and hardware components like motherboards and routers will be more prone to failure.

Steep Tour stage will be testing for technicians

One stage will be almost as tough on the technicians as it will be on the riders. The Tour’s Stage 14 takes the riders to Mont Ventoux, an alpine town perched precariously at the top of a steep summit. The town is so small, and the quarters so cramped, that only one truck can rest there. The other will have to sit 20 kilometers away.

It would obviously take too much fiber-optic cable to hook the two trucks together, so the Tour will have to tap into local phone lines. CSC is leveraging its global ties to help the Tour deal with telecommunications providers.

The race depends on the data held in the server trucks, which makes server administration more critical. The servers include all race times, including the official time of the race leader and the time splits between first and second place, as well as historical data about the race.

The server also includes official data generated by the Tour de France for journalists. So any downtime would be disastrous: "We don’t have the option to fail," Mazuy says.

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