Video-Based Analysis and Reporting of Riding Behavior in Cyclocross Segments

Video-based trajectory analysis might be rather well discussed in sports, such as soccer or basketball, but in cycling, this is far less common. In this paper, a video processing pipeline to extract riding lines in cyclocross races is presented. The pipeline consists of a stepwise analysis process to extract riding behavior from a region (i.e., the fence) in a video camera feed. In the first step, the riders are identified by an Alphapose skeleton detector and tracked with a spatiotemporally aware pose tracker. Next, each detected pose is enriched with additional meta-information, such as rider modus (e.g., sitting on the saddle or standing on the pedals) and detected team (based on the worn jerseys). Finally, a post-processor brings all the information together and proposes ride lines with meta-information for the riders in the fence. The presented methodology can provide interesting insights, such as intra-athlete ride line clustering, anomaly detection, and detailed breakdowns of riding and running durations within the segment. Such detailed rider info can be very valuable for performance analysis, storytelling, and automatic summarization.