Blue Power meets Orange Power

Today marks the start of the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg for the Roompot–Oranje Peloton, who are a Dutch UCI Professional Continental men’s cycling team. In fact you could say this is a case of Blue Power meets Orange Power – as Victron Energy are delighted to have partnered with the team.

What though you may ask does Victron and professional cycling have in common? Off-grid power is the answer – providing energy systems which make living and working ‘on the road’ that much easier.

Orange

To date the team have had some notable successes with hopefully more to follow. Whether that results in an Oranjegekte (Orange craze) remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain – these riders are purely Dutch as you can tell by the colour.

Not being Dutch myself I’ve always wondered why the colour orange is so prevalent, especially when the flag of the Netherlands is red, white and blue. The answer it seems is simple: Orange is the colour of the Dutch Royal Family, which hails from the House of Orange or more specifically the House of Orange-Nassau.

It is no wonder then that the Roompot–Oranje Peloton team’s motto is 100% passie, 100% betrokken (100% passion , 100% involved). Of course orange is one of Victron Energy’s company colours too, as is blue – so let’s see how Orange Power meets Blue.

Blue

The team have various vehicles in their fleet. Some of these, such as the support trucks, are fitted with solar panels connected to Victron Energy lithium batteries via an MPPT BlueSolar Charge Controller, along with a MultiPlus inverter/charger. This ensures off-grid mains electricity day or night, providing lighting and power for bicycle servicing tools and equipment, such as air compressors to inflate tyres.

The team also have mobile changing rooms and workshops, which even include a washing machine and drier as you can see in the photo below, taken at night through the rear door of one of the ‘Smartbox campers’.

Conclusion

With Blue Power meeting Orange via these innovative Victron systems – 24/7 off-grid support is ensured for the Roompot–Oranje Peloton riders and team.

We wish the team every success for the 2016 season and hope an Orange craze (Oranjegekte) ensues!

John Rushworth