When the peloton rolls through the mountain passes of the Giro d’Italia or sprints toward the finish line on the Champs-Élysées, the attention of millions is fixed on the riders. But behind every podium finish stands an invisible infrastructure of people, logistics, and technology, all of it held together by one quiet but critical thread: connectivity.
For Wesley de Veer, ICT Lead at Team Visma | Lease a Bike, this is the practical reality he manages every day of the racing season. We sat down with him to pull back the curtain on how a professional cycling team of more than 220 people keeps its operations running
Want to learn more about how iBASIS supports mobile connectivity for high-demand, always-on operations? Contact us or explore our IoT Connectivity solutions for 400 race days per season, race after race, country after country.
A Team on Wheels
Team Visma | Lease a Bike is a travelling organisation of approximately 220 people: around 60 riders alongside mechanics, soigneurs, performance chefs, coaches, and support staff. To move this operation across Europe for races in 20 countries, the team deploys a fleet of over 100 vehicles (cars, buses, trucks, and campers) with almost everyone carrying an iBASIS SIM card and a mobile router.
De Veer manages around 80 iBASIS SIM cards, all connected to a shared data pool and distributed with routers as needed. The setup is deliberately simple and resilient: every card draws from the same pool, and replacements go out from stock whenever needed.
The demand for data usage during high peak season for the whole team is 5,5 times high than during off season: Comparing off season 2025 (January to February and October to December) to high season (March to September), the team used only 1.14 million MB during off season vs. 6.34 million MB during high season. This surge in demand during high seasons is another challenge that a mobile connectivity partner has to address.
Finally, de Veer mentioned one more aspect that is still relevant in 2026: “A lot of places we travel to still have terrible hotel Wi-Fi, or no internet at all,” says de Veer. “Even in 2026, there are regions where that is simply not provided. Everything is in the cloud now — if you have no internet, you can’t do your job.”
The Mechanics, the Chefs, and the Soigneurs
The heaviest users of iBASIS connectivity are not the riders, but the people working behind the scenes.
Mechanics rely on cloud-based documentation for everything from individual bike specifications to tyre pressure tables. A sudden weather change or an unexpected gravel sector can require a completely different setup; the reference data lives in Office 365, accessible only with a connection. Mechanics who stay behind at the hotel during a stage to prepare for the next day often work out of truck bays and car parks well beyond the reach of any hotel Wi-Fi.
Performance chefs are responsible for fuelling every rider individually. They work continuously inside the Food Coach app, a cloud-based platform where they build and adjust personalised meal plans throughout a multi-week race. The food truck is always parked near the hotel. Hotel Wi-Fi almost never reaches it.
“If they don’t have internet, they call me immediately,” de Veer says. “Because they simply cannot do their job.”
Soigneurs coordinate bottle preparation and rider logistics, checking daily plans on SharePoint that change based on weather, stage length, and race demands. The data they rely on — how many bottles, which mix, which rider gets what — is straightforward to access when connectivity works, and impossible to retrieve when it doesn’t.
iBASIS and Visma: A Partnership That Goes Beyond Data
Five years into the partnership, one moment stands out for de Veer as defining the relationship. When the United Kingdom left the EU’s data roaming framework, the team lost access to British race broadcasts while racing there, a real operational problem as TV signals in team cars give way to internet streams.
iBASIS engineered a bespoke solution: routing all SIM card traffic through a data centre in Amsterdam or Paris, so the team’s internet connection is always treated as originating within Europe.
“That’s one of my biggest wins in five years,” de Veer says. “Having a partner that can build its own network — not just a company that sells you data.”
Looking Ahead – A Growing Partnership
De Veer’s ambitions for the future are shaped by what he sees in Formula One: real-time data from every component, feeding decisions in the car. In cycling, UCI still prohibits some live data connectivity, but teams and fans ask for more insights.
“Riders point out that spectators at home can see more data than the team cars can. That’s a valid argument. I hope the sport moves toward more digitalisation and more real-time insights. When it does, connectivity becomes even more central to everything we do.”
Until then, the work happens in the margins: in truck bays and food trucks and hotel car parks across Europe, where a mobile router and a reliable signal make the difference between a team that is ready and one that is not.
iBASIS is proud to be the connectivity partner keeping Team Visma | Lease a Bike operational across every corner of the European racing calendar — quietly, reliably, and wherever the race takes them next.