Those watching the Cyclocross World Championships at the weekend will not have failed to notice the spectacular images following Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert from the air as they negotiated the forest section of the Hoogerheide course.
Cyclocross coverage is reliant on a series of fixed cameras set along courses. However, the drone footage in use on Sunday was more than a novelty. The drones eliminated a blind spot on the course and brought viewers closer than ever to the riders, providing a new perspective as the two lifelong rivals did battle over the rainbow jersey.
The man operating the machinery was Jan Crommelinck, a Belgian ex-motocross racer who made a switch from a hobby of flying model aeroplanes to the world of drones after suffering a heart attack.
Crommelinck started with motocross races, then shot cyclocross during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he also counts Formula 1 teams Ferrari and Red Bull among his clients.
“I’ve been doing it for 12 years now as my main career. For me, it’s like riding a bike,” Crommelinck told Sporza (opens in new tab) after the Worlds. “It was a great experience. My phone was full of messages after – fortunately most of them positive.”
The drone he uses is custom-made to be ultralight for speed and agility. The battery is so small it only lasts four minutes. The camera is a dismembered Blackmagic pocket camera.
Crommelinck’s first encounter with a UCI race came one year ago when he wowed the commentators with a skillful flight behind Lucinda Brand at the Superprestige Gavere.
“The UCI stopped us because they thought it was a normal drone,” Crommelinck recalled to Cyclingnews. The brilliant flowing shot following Brand might have the tipping point for the UCI allowing drones. “Now they give us the opportunity to do it. But they had only one rule – to stay about three to five metres from the riders. That was the only rule I had to respect.”
Things became somewhat more complicated in filming the two World Championships rivals doing battle, with the riders, a packed audience of 38,000, and the dangers of the forest section to think about.
He and his spotter Tim Verbruggen had to stay away from the crowds, keep a set distance from the riders, and also stay in sight of the 1.5kg drone at all times while it was in the air.
“There are strict regulations,” Crommelinck said. “You can’t fly above the public. In Hoogerheide, it was possible to close a part of the track for the public. So it was possible for me to fly…
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