Vive le Velo
Podcast
Sports Podcast: Vive Le Vélo
Broadcasting the Tour de France on the Move
Disclaimer: TinkerList is the former name of what is now known as Cuez.
During the 2023 Tour de France, Vive le vélo once again followed the race across France with a daily live talk show broadcast from locations near the finish line.
We look back at our conversation with Thomas Swannet, editor-in-chief of Vive le vélo. Since its launch in 2005, the program has grown into one of Belgium’s most-watched sports shows, reaching up to one million viewers per evening. Behind the scenes, the production relied on a highly mobile setup, moving almost every day with a convoy of trucks, technical crews, and editorial staff to deliver a live show under constant time pressure.
Coordinating a Distributed Editorial Team
Producing Vive le vélo meant coordinating two teams at once: a small core team traveling along the Tour and a larger editorial team based in Brussels.
Before adopting Cuez by TinkerList, this collaboration relied on Word documents, manual handovers, and frequent phone calls, making last-minute changes difficult. During the 2023 Tour, the team worked with Cuez as their central newsroom and rundown platform, allowing both locations to collaborate in real time from a single shared structure.
“It has really been a very big step forward for us, both for the editorial team in Brussels and our small main team in France.”
A Shared Rundown for Faster Live Decisions
With Cuez, rundowns, scripts, and visual elements were connected in one place. Video inserts and short “readers” prepared in Brussels were attached directly to the rundown and immediately visible to the on-site team in France.
This allowed editors to review images earlier in the day, adjust scripts based on visuals, and respond more quickly to changes as the race unfolded.
Built for Daily Live Production Under Pressure
For Swannet, the biggest advantage of Cuez was how naturally it fit into the daily rhythm of a travelling live production. Editors could see each other’s changes instantly, communicate directly through the rundown, and tailor views to their specific roles. New team members picked up the tool quickly, without lengthy training.
After years of working with disconnected tools, Cuez helped the Vive le vélo team stay organised, flexible, and focused, even during one of the most demanding live production schedules in sports broadcasting.
