Computer result service

[orbeas]

Thought I would watch the race progress on line, and especially the North Wales guys and gals, following was easy and enjoyable, till towards the end when it seems that Nick Craig did not make it to Ribblehead, did he crash or have bike problems ??? then he appears at the top of the field at Penyghent ???( still missing at Ribblehead)
Matt pritchard was on a great ride, 7th at Ingleboro, 16th at Werrnside, 16th at Penyghent and 16th at the finish.
I then follow all our riders and do the report for our website and the results keep changing, riders are shown finishing at a certain place and then hours later are moved back 10 plus places.
In Matt Pritchards case its down to 21st. a few hours later !!!
Surely if it is being done as the race progresses , and advertised as such, then one expects the results to be right ????

[keith]

Orbeas,

Don't be too critical - what the tech people attempt to do is almost impossible given the weather and the terrain. To attempt to do live results from places with no phone signal or broadband coverage is quite audacious. If you had been here with the early, appalling weather it becomes all the more improbable. We're all trying our best and generally succeeding against almost impossible odds. Don't be so negative when you don't know all the circumstances.

KEITH - Assistant Organiser and Webmaster.

[wolfmother]

Totally agree, I thought the results service was superb, especially considering the conditions and problems associated with getting a live feed from such a remote place. Well done SportIdent.

[menticknap]

Results service was great. I set up a direct link on my computer for my lovely wife so that she could watch my progress and ensure that I was "still alive"!

[lanterne rouge]

I can only echo the last three comments. I was at Cold Coates yesterday and thanks to the results service was able to tell people who had led over the summit of Ingleborough only moments before and, knowing how long the descent usually takes, about how long it would be before the first riders would appear out of the mist. Neither Nick Craig nor Sportident knows why his time at Ribblehead did not register - these things happen. (As chief commissaire who seemed to spend much of the day with Nick in my rear view mirror, I can confirm that he did pass through Ribblehead!)

To have a results service like that provided by Sportident is brilliant. Many of us remember when it you didn't know your finishing position for days after the race finished. The only grumble I have is with the lack of signal for my phone, meaning that whilst I could have followed the race from home, or north Wales, or Australia, I couldn't from anywhere on the route except Cold Coates! And that's a grumble with my network provider, not Sportident.

[Edric01]

I would like to echo the positive comment above regarding the timings I thought it worked really well.I would also like to thank all those from Sportident and the marshalls who had to hang around on damp windy mountains waiting for slow people like me and I promise to train harfer for next year

[SPORTident]

Thanks to all who were so supportive about the Timing, Results, Live Safety Monitoring services we at SPORTident provided at the event.

With regard to Nick Craig, he was the first person to arrive at the timing point at Ribblehead and it was unfortunate for those following the race, the Mountain Rescue and us producing full and detailed results that for whatever reason he didn't dip his timing card at the timing point. This is no critiscism of Nick as these things happen. However, the provision of accurate live data and results is entirely dependent on the riders stopping very briefly to dip their timing card.

We use Vodafone to send the live timing data by SMS from Ingleborough, Cold Cotes, Whernside & Pen-y-Ghent. The mobile signal is extremely flakey on all 3 summits and yet every dip make it onto the Internet within 1 minute. Ribblehead is an even more challenging location for us as there are no mobile phone signals. What is quite remarkable and extremely fortunate for the 3 Peaks Cyclo-Cross and Three Peaks Fell Race is that Ribblehead is bathed in wireless Broadband transmitted from Ribblehead Station using a superb wireless network provided in the Dales by LN Communications. Using a powerful wireless antenna, we are able to pick up the Broadband 0.7KM away from the station and transmit all the data collected at the Timing Point via an Internet connection.

The volunteer woh was manning Ribblehead timing point had no way of passing the message on that Nick had failed to dip and so we all waited with bated breath until he arrived on the summit of Pen-y-Ghent. Maybe a lesson learned for the future is that if (and only if) there is spare capacity, a Mountain Rescue person with radio could be located at the Ribblehead timing point.

To summarise, it is a near impossible task to provide a flawless service in this part of the world and just to manage expectations for the future, I would suggest that (until new technologies are available), yesterday's service will be as good as it gets. In future one should expect more issues to occur with mobile service providers that could make our service seem much less successful than it was yesterday.

[duncan b]

Will the the SI results to be uploaded onto Splitsbrowser or WinSplits for some geeky analysis?

[lanterne rouge]

and I promise to train harder for next year

No!!! How am I going to have a chance of beating you if you train harder?

[Nikki]

I was at Ribblehead helping with timing, Nick Craig did pass us first and did try to dib but for whatever reason it didn't register on computer, by then he was well away so couldn't retry. There was no way for us to put this info in.
Also can I say thanks to those riders who let us know of the couple of accidents on the decent to Ribblehead, meaning we could inform Hellers looking for riders of problems.