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Prep for 2015 Freedom Challenge / Race to Rhodes


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Today these trackers are just too stressful.  

 

John Bowens tracker has completely vanished after he made it to Trouthaven at about midday and Mike Roys is still a way from Trouthaven with both John and Mike chasing the 26 day cut off at 6am tomorrow morning. Go guys Go!!! 

 

Awwww John withdrew ... that's probably why his tracker disappeared. After all he's been through! 

 

Mike is at Trouthaven - will he go into Stettyns tonight?

I see Dimension Data and ASO are making a big deal about tracking riders for the the Tour this year - even in remote areas nogal.....

 

I had to smile, wonder what Glenn's budget for this year's FC tracker was vs ASO's.

 

Hope they dont have teething problems and their analysis is up to scratch, or else we will have to dispatch Shebeen to assist them.

 

Hold thumbs, it could get interesting.

Mike Roy tracked at 5:50  just outside Trouthaven. Did he sleep there and decide to miss the cutoff?

 

That seemed to be the plan - Below is taken from Freedom Challenge website 2 July wrap up - I take my hat off to anyone who attempts this event - be it for 1 day, or all 26 (or more).  Well done to you all!

 

"John Bowen has been riding with Mike Roy since Tinana and the two have been under pressure to chase cut offs from an early stage - after missing their Willowmore cut off they were allowed to continue to the finish but have not managed to keep up with the required pace. In a last ditch attempt, the pair left Good Hope just after midnight this morning on their way to Trouthaven and then the finish. By mid morning they had not reached Trouthaven and it was becoming clear that there was very little chance of getting through Stettynskloof in the dark and still finishing before 6am tomorrow morning, the 26 day cut off. On realising this, John decided to withdraw at Trouthaven. At peace with his decision, he said he had learnt a lot about himself on this journey and pushed himself further than he thought possible. Mike Roy ended up in a similar situation, realising that the clock was against him. He opted to carry on to Trouthaven and spend the night there - he will go up Stettynskloof tomorrow and finish the route to Diemersfontein."

I see Dimension Data and ASO are making a big deal about tracking riders for the the Tour this year - even in remote areas nogal.....

 

I had to smile, wonder what Glenn's budget for this year's FC tracker was vs ASO's.

 

Hope they dont have teething problems and their analysis is up to scratch, or else we will have to dispatch Shebeen to assist them.

 

Hold thumbs, it could get interesting.

I'm a bit of a tracker junkie, as you may imagine.

So much so that I was actively involved when netstar got on board with FC in 2009, the system that was used till 2013. They had the best hardware solution at the time, but in my opinion their interface was never really 'finished'.

 

Whilst I enjoyed using the system this year, I did miss some features - here is my constructive criticism from someone who has watched a lot of dots in their day(and been really spoilt by the amazing trackers we having in sailing):

a)historical tracking - only seeing 'todays' route means you can only compare what's been done today and there's no way to look at differences between riders who aren't on the same schedule. - it also means you sometimes lose part of a 'nighttime ride' when it gets cleared at 2am.

b)timestamps. not having these saved me a lot of time, BUT you miss out on comparing sections done by different riders.

c)satellite view as default. this is a preference thing - i always move mine to map/terrain view and it's way easier on the data/speed too.

d)replay function. ok we've never had this locally, but it's so awesome.

e)a final criticism - it would have been lovely to have had a higher refresh rate in the tim vs andrew finish. 10minutes is just too slow, BUT you have to weigh it up against battery life, andrew was down to 20% the only way around this is with 2way comms, where the admin can up the refresh rate to 30sec remotely, when it's required.

 

BUT the system was pretty good allround, it must have got klapped on monday and didn't skip a beat. - so let's plug the guys who put it together - http://trackmybike.co.za/

 

The other thing that has changed in the last year or two, is that we now have SPOT satellite coverage.I'm not sure when it was activated but there's a new satellite now beaming down on us - which enabled BEAT to be online all the time(and Jill last year) with a delorme tracker. Cell reception is actually really good on the FC when you consider how much of the route is in the boonies, but ultimately you can see it going satellite eventually (not if, but when).

http://www.findmespot.com/images/spotcoveragemap/spot_coverage_feb6_2015.jpg

 

 

I'm not sure what system SPOT actually uses, but this is what it was until recently(ja, spot the diff -  we felt lank unloved!)

 

http://www.rigstat.com/SiteAssets/RigStat/media/data-coverage_map_lg.jpg

 

I love the Trackleaders tracker system as used on the Tourdivide. You can currently go and watch some crazies getting down and dirty at Expedition Alaska using it

http://expeditionak.com/live-tracker/

notice how it opens immediately on terrain map.

 

Where it wouldn't work on FC is that we have multiple starts. it would be amazing to have a toggle between 'real time' and 'race time' (ie. race time would have everyone starting at pmb on same map and you could compare like for like from different days)

 

ok finally, some real tracker porn. the volvo ocean race that just finished which uses the virtual eye system. I think the most futuristic sporting experience i ever had was the 33rd Americas Cup in san francisco, where it was free to broadcast on youtube, the virtual eye tracker was in sync with the video and i was whatsapping all sailing mates(normally 2am) - laptop/tablet/cellphone etc etc etc. 

http://virtualeye.tv/index.php/the-sports/virtual-eye-sailing

I'm a bit of a tracker junkie, as you may imagine.

So much so that I was actively involved when netstar got on board with FC in 2009, the system that was used till 2013. They had the best hardware solution at the time, but in my opinion their interface was never really 'finished'.

 

Whilst I enjoyed using the system this year, I did miss some features - here is my constructive criticism from someone who has watched a lot of dots in their day(and been really spoilt by the amazing trackers we having in sailing):

a)historical tracking - only seeing 'todays' route means you can only compare what's been done today and there's no way to look at differences between riders who aren't on the same schedule. - it also means you sometimes lose part of a 'nighttime ride' when it gets cleared at 2am.

b)timestamps. not having these saved me a lot of time, BUT you miss out on comparing sections done by different riders.

c)satellite view as default. this is a preference thing - i always move mine to map/terrain view and it's way easier on the data/speed too.

d)replay function. ok we've never had this locally, but it's so awesome.

e)a final criticism - it would have been lovely to have had a higher refresh rate in the tim vs andrew finish. 10minutes is just too slow, BUT you have to weigh it up against battery life, andrew was down to 20% the only way around this is with 2way comms, where the admin can up the refresh rate to 30sec remotely, when it's required.

 

BUT the system was pretty good allround, it must have got klapped on monday and didn't skip a beat. - so let's plug the guys who put it together - http://trackmybike.co.za/

 

The other thing that has changed in the last year or two, is that we now have SPOT satellite coverage.I'm not sure when it was activated but there's a new satellite now beaming down on us - which enabled BEAT to be online all the time(and Jill last year) with a delorme tracker. Cell reception is actually really good on the FC when you consider how much of the route is in the boonies, but ultimately you can see it going satellite eventually (not if, but when).

http://www.findmespot.com/images/spotcoveragemap/spot_coverage_feb6_2015.jpg

 

 

I'm not sure what system SPOT actually uses, but this is what it was until recently(ja, spot the diff -  we felt lank unloved!)

 

http://www.rigstat.com/SiteAssets/RigStat/media/data-coverage_map_lg.jpg

 

I love the Trackleaders tracker system as used on the Tourdivide. You can currently go and watch some crazies getting down and dirty at Expedition Alaska using it

http://expeditionak.com/live-tracker/

notice how it opens immediately on terrain map.

 

Where it wouldn't work on FC is that we have multiple starts. it would be amazing to have a toggle between 'real time' and 'race time' (ie. race time would have everyone starting at pmb on same map and you could compare like for like from different days)

 

ok finally, some real tracker porn. the volvo ocean race that just finished which uses the virtual eye system. I think the most futuristic sporting experience i ever had was the 33rd Americas Cup in san francisco, where it was free to broadcast on youtube, the virtual eye tracker was in sync with the video and i was whatsapping all sailing mates(normally 2am) - laptop/tablet/cellphone etc etc etc. 

http://virtualeye.tv/index.php/the-sports/virtual-eye-sailing

yoh - I am now educated, fascinating for one who still loves Slingsby as bedtime reading

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