10 November 2008

WheelTime Weathers the Storm

The Tour of Southland again lived up to its reputation as providing the most intriguing challenges of any cycle race in New Zealand. This year the weather gods threw everything at the cyclists with many seasons occurring each day.

The weather was said to be the worst encountered in the history of the Tour. Snow, wind, hail and sleet led the headlines with a dust storm, uncomfortably high temperatures and blue skies rounding out the meteorological extravaganza. It has always been said that the UCI category 2.2 Tour sorts out the men from the boys and this year has been no exception.

But the hardy competitors still expect their efforts to be captured accurately regardless of the weather. Although having undergone exhaustive environmental testing the weather conditions provided the ultimate challenge to Times-7 Sport's WheelTime electronic timing system. A challenge passed with flying colours.

"In over 10 years of event timing, I have never witnessed the hodgepodge of cool ferocity and hot calm thrown at competitors in a single event," says Murray Andersen, Event Timing Manager. "Not only did WheelTime survive more than four seasons in one day, nearly every day, but its performance in all these conditions was faultless."

Of particular note was the accurate placing in a sprint finish with less than half a tyre width separating first and second place at the end of Stage Three. "We know sprint finishes are one of the toughest tasks for an electronic timing system," states Michael Lynch, General Manager Times-7 Sport, "but we have spent a lot of time perfecting the system to provide this level of accuracy."

Also of note was the recording and collation of results in the event management software Sportscore. "Cumulative points for individuals, teams, King of the Mountain and Sprint classifications are incredibly simple," says Mr Andersen. "At the push of a button prize-giving results were presented to the organizers before the race was even finished."

"Times-7 Sport did an incredible job timing the event in such challenging conditions," says Bruce Ross, Race Manager. "I am sure they can't wait to see what awaits them next year."

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.