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Organising a Triathlon using CloudTimer

When organising a triathlon (or duathlon, or run-bike-run etc.), using CloudTimer is a very good option. Manual timing however, as provided when using CloudTimer is never a substitute for chip-timing. This article provides some guidelines when you can use CloudTimer and how it should be used. The main thing to realise is that timing a race is stressful and can be complicated. The app itself provides a solution as easy as it gets, but experience has shown us that in each race there are issues to be solved during or shortly after the race.

The warm-up phase of organising a triathlon:

In a recent cross duathlon, we gathered valuable information about some of the key success factors of organising a triathlon using CloudTimer.
It has been said before, but it all starts with a good preparation. Preparation starts when organising the race and making the program.

  • Consider wave starts instead of mass starts
  • Make sure the different (distance and age) groups do not arrive and leave the parc-fermé at the same time, causing a crowded parc fermé and difficulties when taking split times.
  • Consider single lap events, as it is not easy to take lap times manually in general, and CloudTimer does not provide the option to take lap times at this moment. Avoid having the discussion after the race if the winner has done enough laps.
  • Do not choose numbers above 1000, as each digit has to be entered manually, lower numbers increase the speed of entering and reduces the risk of mistakes.
  • Make sure your team of volunteers is well prepared.
  • Choose a large font for the bib numbers, to make sure they are easy to read from a distance.
  • Make sure you start list is up-to date and have someone available make adjustments to the start list. (the no shows will also be started automatically as there is no individual detection at the start)

    organising a triathlon using CloudTimer start bike

    Using CloudTimer at start bike

During the race

During the race, it is important to have all timing and judging members to stick to their jobs, and to have someone responsible for special timing issues, such as jury inquiries or solving mistakes made by volunteers. A chief- timing-coordinator is perfect name for someone like that. Never let the race director take that job, as he/she will be too busy with all kind of other issues during the race.

  • Make sure all volunteers are trained and experienced (train with test events before the race).
  • Use wave starts rather than a mass start.
  • When timing a high density race, make sure to have all timers assisted by someone dictating the numbers to enter.
  • If possible make sure to have the transition zone divided into multiple sections to take the split times. (see picture: take split times at green lines, not at the red lines)
  • Make sure all bib numbers are worn at a well visible place, or make sure to take a viewpoint where it is easy to see the bibs from a distance. (for example not just after a corner or at long distance)

    transition zone cloudtimer

    Transition Zone Cloudtimer

Cool down

After the race, as everybody wants to go  home, there still might be some things to correct. It is best to have the results checked as soon as possible after the race, so if there is still work to do on the results, do not get involved in cleaning the race venue, make sure the results are fine and online before the participants start complaining about strange results on the website.

  • Check if there are people still shown as “active” and have no split times. They probably are no-shows (DNS)
  • Check if there are still people shown as  “active” with one or more splits but no finish, They most probably abandoned the race. (DNF)
  • Check the top finishers of each category  together with the jury / judges, before the award ceremony or before printing results.
  • Results can closed (in the backend web interface) and made official when everything is done.

    Cross Duathlon finish

    Cross Duathlon finish

Example results: https://results.cloudtimer.nl/bearsports-cross-duathlon.html

More about Triathlon timing: Read this article

Trail Running the Grizzly 100

Last saturday a group of 116 runners started for 100k of trail running in the south of the Netherlands. The Bear Sports Grizzly 100 is a new milestone for the CloudTimer sports timing app, as it’s the first official running event run on our platform!

Trail Running Grizzly100-cover_cloudtimer

In long trail running events like this, CloudTimer proved its value through:

  1. It’s easy to use for volunteers
  2. Live insights in race progress for the organisation
  3. Live result for supporters at home to follow the progress of their favourite athletes during the day.
Bear Sports Grizzly 100

Trail running the Bearsports Grizzly 100

The race setup

The race had 5 check points along the trail. At each checkpoint the athletes were timed by a volunteer using CloudTimer. To train the volunteers before the race, the organiser had provided the online tutorials and created a test race to time some “virtual pre-runners”. Each volunteer knew what to do before the race with about 20 minutes of self-study. This gave the organiser great confidence before the start of the race.

In the race office all results were monitored during the race and actions were taken when people did not reach a checkpoint in time.

Apart from being one of the first official running events to be timed with CloudTimer, the organiser was certain he could operate CloudTimer after just one demo session. This really shows one of our main goals: We want CloudTimer to be very easy to use, in order to stay affordable for many small events. Semi-professional or amateur events in small sports, should really benefit from using CloudTimer.

The results page was updated and redesigned especially for this event, showing all split times and a sort option.

Check the results in this link: https://results.cloudtimer.nl/bear-trail.html

Introducing the KeyPad view

During the last months we have been designing, coding and field testing our brand new KeyPad view. This timing view allows for much quicker time recordings when participants are finishing close together or in groups. Therefore it’s ideal for mass events. The first feedbacks from the field are positive and we are now working on some final optimisations before releasing this new Android version to the Google Play Store.

The new KeyPad view was already tested during two triathlon events in the Netherlands and Slovakia. We hope that it will help you as well in your running, cycling, triathlon or whatever mass event you are organising!

The KeyPad view is composed of 3 sections:

  1. The KeyPad
  2. The timing button
  3. The results table

The KeyPad and timing button are permanently available. The results table is constantly changing based on user actions. As a user you can directly enter a bib and record a time, first enter a series of bibs, or first record a serie of times. Also there are some nifty features to duplicate a recorded time, or assign the latest recorded timestamp. Learn more in our KeyPad tutorial!

Triathlon Velky Biel

Last weekend a great Triathlon event was held near Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. In Velký Biel the CloudTimer sports timing app was used to do the timekeeping for about 80 participants. We have worked closely together with the organisation to test our new Keypad view and we are now finalising this new feature before the new release in the Google Play Store. Enjoy the racing in the nice video below.

School Triathlon – CloudTimer does the job!

CloudTimer live results during a school triathlon

CloudTimer live results during a school triathlon

There is a huge potential for the use of CloudTimer during school sport events. Last week we had the opportunity to do a school triathlon event for a high school in our hometown. Next to being a great opportunity to show and test the possibilities of CloudTimer in a school event, it was also our first triathlon race.

The gymnastics teachers were really excited about the live results and split times provided with so little effort! They really see the potential of the CloudTimer platform to both stimulate the sports experience during the lessons and to involve the students in organising small events at school.Read More

Bye bye roaming

From June 15th, the rules for international use of mobile data changed significantly in the EU. The European Commission ended roaming charges in their road to a digital single market. This is very exciting news for many of us traveling across borders within Europe! For CloudTimer users it’s excellent news as well since from now on you can use our sports timing app for training and racing abroad without being scared for the telephone bill once you reach home!
So, go out there into the mountains, rivers, trails and have a great race!

Alge Timy Bluetooth integration at Holland Cup 2

The integration of the Alge Timy (over bluetooth) with the CloudTimer platform was introduced in May during Holland Cup 2 in Waalre (Netherlands). This major timing innovation connects the chronometer of one of the major timing equipment manufacturers (Alge Timing) to the CloudTimer platform. It’s again a huge step forward in making race timing another step easier.

BlueBox

The CloudTimer BlueBox is a minicomputer which can be connected to the Alge multiport of a Timy chronometer. This little box receives the data from the Timy and sends it over bluetooth to the CloudTimer app and directly into the CloudTimer platform. It can be seen in action in the below video:

The integration worked really well during this first field test. There was only one case in which the bluetooth connection to the app failed and a finish was missed. We are now implementing an (automatic) reconnect and recover mechanism to cover for these situations.

Alge Timing and Tag Heuer

While the first version of the BlueBox is compatible with the Alge Timy, we will also make a version for the Tag Heuer Chronometer CP5xx. This should cover most of your needs and meanwhile we will look at if there are more hardware which we should integrate.

Open Source

Maybe even the best thing about this integration is that we will make the schematics and software of the BlueBox available for FREE!! We want to make timing easy and enabling to do it with ‘every day devices’. Even if the Bluno Nano on which the BlueBox is based is not an ‘every day device’ for a regular consumer. It definitely is for a hobby developer.

Just write us a message if you want to get started with the BlueBox!

CloudTimer for Android available in store now

We are super happy to finally say that CloudTimer for Android is now available in the Google Play store. We came a long way. We didn’t just want to push the app in Store when it wasn’t ready to do so. Now it’s not only suitable for all the canoe slalom users, but pretty much for any other timed sport with individual or group starts.

At the moment the app is available in the Google Play Store as a Beta version so that all of you can test it. In the next few days we will be rolling it out to a full release version based on the feedback and bugs we receive.

The new app also play’s nice with the new dashboard which both work on a new database (not yet the iOS version). So your old competition aren’t available (yet) in this environment. We will be transferring the most important competitions for you though!

So just jump over to the Play Store, have a go with the new app and let us know your experience!

Wintercup Canoeslalom 2017

The latest CloudTimer race was all about fast results. At the Theiner Canoe Slalom Wintercup, 37 paddlers did a four-run training race. Just one year ago, the first race of this Dutch winter race series was the first official event where CloudTimer was used. In one year the confidence in the CloudTimer platform has grown enormously. Now CloudTimer is recognised as a platform which provides accurate and fast results. This a short story for those who love numbers and sport statistics, like we do at CloudTimer!Read More

Timing using photo beam

By Gerrit van Dalfsen (Tijdteam.nl) Canoe/ kayak races have individual starts and finishes. Typical run times between start and finish are 80 to 180 seconds. The runtimes of top-athletes are less than 1 second apart. Photo beam are commonly used in canoe slalom, but are they good enough for accurate timing?

The International Canoe Federation (ICF) requires for canoe/kayak slalom races a timing accuracy of better than 1/100 sec. Runtimes should be presented with an precision of 1/100 sec.

Using photo beam in canoe slalom

Using photo beam in canoe slalom

The timing accuracy for runtimes, when using manual pushbuttons at start and finish can approach 0.3 sec. When a photo beam is used to record start and finishes, the runtime accuracy can be improved, but there are pitfalls.

Photo beam

Photobeams consist of a photocell transmitter and a photocell receiver. The photocell transmitter sends constantly a lightbeam to the photocell receiver. As long as the photocell receiver receives the lightbeam, the receiver does not give a signal. When the receiver does not receive a lightbeam it gives a signal. Not receiving a lightbeam may be due to a misalignment of the transmitter and receiver, or because a kayaker is interrupting the lightbeam. The receiver signal at an interruption of the lightbeam is used to trigger a timerclock to set a timestamp.

Photobeams to be used for timing canoe/ kayak slalom races must meet specific requirements. To span the width of a slalom course, the beams must be more than 10 meters wide. In some cases a beam width or more than 40 meters is required. Photocell transmitters and receivers are to be placed on the side walls of a slalom course, which are in many cases river banks with plants. You need some dedicated tripots to place the photocells in the river bank, and then have the possibility to align the photocells and put them on the right height above the water .

The photocells are out in the open, and must be watertight. When positioning the photocell it does happen that the photocell drops into the water. The photocell should stand that. Further, when insects flies though the photo beams, or when it rains, the photo beams should not fire from those minor interruptions.

In the electronics shop you can buy a wide variety of photo beams. But most of these photo beams do not match the requirements stated above. Even photo beams sold by timing equipment companies do not match these requirements.

That is why the Gennepermolen timing team (Netherlands) developed a set of photo beams that do match these requirements.

Photo beam accuracy

Photo beams are expected to meet the accuracy requirements of the ICF. Theoretically that is the case. But practically there are issues. It has been observed that it can be the paddle, the arm of the trunk of the paddler that interrupts the photo beam and triggers the timestamp. On rough water it can even be the bow of the kayak that interrupts the photo beam.

Accuracy of Photofinish camera in slalom

Accuracy of Photofinish camera in slalom

Measurements with a timing camera shows that interrupting the photo beam with the paddle or with the trunk, can make a timing difference of up to 0.2 sec. So two paddlers which have theoretically the same runtime, can get results, when measured with photo beams, that differ up to 0.2 sec. As a consequence the runtime accuracy of slalom races when measured with photo beams is not better than 0.2 sec.

This inaccuracy of the photo beam measuring method is ignored at international competitions and is accepted as being part of the game. As the ICF rules require the runtimes being shown with a precision of 1/100 sec, the rankings based on this precision for runtimes that are less then 0.2 sec apart can be sheer lottery.