22 February 2009

7-Day Timing Challenge

Stephen Cox had described his latest brainchild, The Lion Foundation Wellington to Auckland 7-Day Cycle Challenge as "beautiful, challenging and do-able."

"Fast, furious and aggressive" may be closer to the description that the 195 registered cyclists would attribute to the 700kms in 7 Days race.

There's nothing quite like starting how you mean to continue, and that's just the philosophy that kicked off the Challenge on Sunday morning. Starting at 9am from Trentham Race Course in chilly, clear conditions the cyclists were soon launching into a severe climb from Te Marua to the top of the Rimutakas in what was to be an exhausting representation of the 13 stages.

Stephen Cox timed the Challenge with his newly purchased WheelTime system from Times-7 Sport. "It was brilliant" enthuses Cox. "WheelTime effortlessly captured all the riders whilst the stage tour functionality and reporting in Sportscore is outstanding."

Just to extend the theme of challenge and pushing the limits, Stephen and his son Nathan, took delivery of the system only weeks prior to the event.

"We had a few scary moments, but the team from Times-7 Sport provided great training and back-up. We trialed the system at a couple of smaller events prior to the 7-Day Challenge. Everything went so smoothly that the usual headaches and long nights involved in timing an event of this complexity were absent" remarks Stephen.

The race concluded with deceptively tough climbs from Glen Murray to Pukekohe. "Tired and happy it is over" was the comment from men's winner, Matt Gorter. Matt was also the winner of the Times-7 Sport King of the Mountain jersey.

The leading woman rider Rachel Larmer summed up the feelings of her fellow riders when she described Stephen Cox as "obviously a hill merchant."

Despite the hills and the diverse weather, there was universal praise from the "survivors" with riders seemingly unanimous in their determination to return next year for what Stephen is already promising will be a bigger and better race.

Contact:

Theresa Cabot, Sales and Marketing Manager

theresa.cabot@times-7.com

+64 6 878 5310

About Times-7 Sport
Times-7 Sport provides sports timing solutions using the most advanced sports information technologies available in the world. Times-7 Sport is the Australian distributor of IPICO Sports and Times-7 sports timing products, including Sportscore, a state of- the-art event management software solution. Our systems make event timing easy, providing accurate and reliable results every time.