So, as you all know, Velocast Productions starts it's year of "on the ground" race coverage with this weekend's Tour of Flanders. We could not be more excited and committed.

Well, yesterday Scott and I sat down for a final production meeting and we discovered we had independantly arrived at the same conclusion, someone had to stay at home base. There ensued a slightly embarrassing "You go!", "No, you go!" session but in the end I insisted I stayed. I'll explain the reasons at the end of this post.

First though why did one of us have to stay? Two reasons.

1:Account setup and tech support.

There has been the occasional hiccough when folk sign up for a subscription. It's easy to sort but with sketchy mobile internet connections whilst we were on the road we might not be able to make sure folk get what they pay for as soon as possible after they pay for it.

Add to this the fact that the subscriber's stream direct to mobile devices when we did it for the Grand Tours last year resulted in a fair number of tech support requests one of us had to be on hand to deal with those requests in a timely fashion. Again, all about folk getting what they've paid for as soon as possible after they've paid for it.

2: Safety Net.

This is a new adventure for us all and we want to make sure the systems we have in place work. If it all goes south on the remote "on the ground" content submission front? I'll be here with my big fibre connection making sure subscribers get the content they've paid for.

So, why me? Well I could say that it's usually me who does customer support etc. Simple truth though? Scott has never been to the Ronde and I have, from a fan's perspective (and we are both really just fans) it's a new experience for him. If we still feel one of us has to stay at home next race I'd far rather be at Roubaix this year. ;o)

We've got a great team on the ground. Scott's accompanied by Sean Lally, my co-host on Tech 5, and also by our good friend and media savvy charity rider Stuart Potter as Go-fer. I'll be deeply involved via IM, email, Skype and simple phone calls many, many times each day. I'll actually get to watch the race unfold on the TV and add that to the perspective we bring to the premium content. The structured shows will still be Scott and I with additional folk. It's our gig.

Most importantly though this isn't about freebie trips to races for us, it's about making sure we bring you the best content we possibly can and providing good customer service/support.

Shit just got real, we're determined to do our very best for you.

Forza!

John

p.s. Don't feel too sorry for me. I'll be at all the races, just the first one is too important for us not to have a "Plan B" for you.