This year’s Tour de France has seen an innovation that really brings fans to the heart of the action. The ultimate way to see the race from the riders point-of-view, to really appreciate the speed and danger they face.

The teams and tour have partnered with GoPro to produce awesome video of this year’s Tour. Footage from team cars, mechanics, bikes, and more is available viewers on a daily basis.

All 22 teams participating in the Tour will use GoPro cameras during the race, with at least eight teams actively providing footage each stage. Viewers can go to Velon’s website and social media pages to see the videos. GoPro will also show some of the shots on their YouTube channel

It’s already been used to great effect to show one of Etixx QuickStep’s riders going out at the start of a stage on Day 1. Flying out of the start gate and round the corners at break-neck speed.

It also showed it’s worth from a different angle. Yesterday saw a huge crash between a large number of competitors, leading to the race being halted due to race’s entire medical team and ambulances being called to the scene.

This GoPro footage shows one of the Orica-GreenEdge team mechanic’s racing to tend to one of their riders and shows the extent of the carnage.

We’re seeing especially GoPro being used in a number of sports to help engage fans in a deeper way. There have been Ref Cams, in car video and GoPro has been used by extreme sports for a number of years. Video is proving to be the ultimate way to engage with fans, now the technology is allowing it to be utilised as costs tumble and the camera’s get smaller and easier to use.