Josh Gray of Jtri.com told us about Lennard Zinn's report for Bicycling Magazine about the alliance between the Saeco Cycling Team and SRM to allow Tour de France watchers to monitor heart rate, power, speed, and cadence data for some of Saeco's riders. The data is available during the running of each stage at 2peak.com.

Josh wrote:

Thought a fellow athlete and gadget freak would find this as cool as I do. Apparently the saeco team is broadcasting their live biostats on the web with SRM meters. now if they could only stay ON their bikes.

Wonder what the thinking is in doing this 'cos that hardware can't be light!

He's right, of course. 2Peak.com claims that SRM has integrated their powermeter into the Cannondale Hollowgram Si crankset so that the powermeter only adds 100 grams (2/10ths of a pound). But, Operation Gadget readers know from watching The Lance Chronicles that Lance Armstrong has worked with his technology providers to eliminate extraneous weight. We reported last week that Lance uses the Ciclosport HAC 4 Plus rather than the SRM during races. I think there is a reason, beyond the fact that agreements exist between SRM and Saeco, and SRM and T-Mobile.

On the other hand, the Cannondale Six13 is too light for UCI standards. So, the Saeco team is probably looking for ways to add weight.

Another fitness gadget provider that is making Tour de France rider performance data available is Polar Electro. You can find heart rate, speed, and altitude data for several riders at http://tdf.polar.fi/tourdefrance/heartrates.html.