Advice for running a Hill Climb TT and take part as well

pprendeville

I did the boards HC out in Howth in 2011 and twas great craic, would love to do one late in the summer again this year. I had just started cycling and thought I was great, I soon found out wasn't and still amn't.

I'd like to do one here in Beijing up a climb called Miaofengshan which is about 20km long and I think it's used in the Tour of Beijing. Would be a good opportunity for me to get to know a few Chinese cyclists as I've been adding a few on Strava recently but not sure how to actually try make friends with them. Culture is different here that way and I still can't figure it out so the bike might be my best entry point.

Anyway my main question revolves around how to time such an event. From memory, one of the lads who organised that HC in 2011 sent Ryaner, I think, off first at say 7:30pm. He timed himself to the top and it had been arranged that the next rider would follow 1 minute after him so when rider 2 arrived at the top Ryaner noted the 2nd riders arrival time on a piece of paper. So for example rider 2 started the climb at 7:31 and arrived at the summit at say 7:38, a total of 7min to ascend to the summit.

This method works fine for a short climb but the climb I want to do takes about 50min to ride and for rider number 1, waiting around at the top might not be to their liking (unless I do it myself). Are there any other options? I know people could time themselves and all that but it's nice to have 2 designated people doing the timekeeping as it gives it more of a competitive air. I guess the ideal solution is to find 2 designated timekeepers who relay times to each other?

thebouldwhacker

You want them to climb for 50 minutes so then they will be your friends? Very different culture indeed.
Not much help I'm afraid but I guess have a pre decided start times and numbers so you already know when people start. Number one starts at 9:00 number two starts at 9:10 etc and then note the chronological time as people summit, times are easy to calculate then, still need two people though.

couerdelion

Way that we do it is that if we have one timekeeper and the course is long enough he starts everyone then drives to the end and records the finish line. That's the easiest way but not always possible if it's a short course or there's a lot of people.

Usually we have two timekeepers - they both start their stopwatches at the same time whilst stood next to each other. The finish line timer then drives off to the finish. The starter then starts the riders at the designated intervals and makes a note of the stopwatch time each rider started at. The finisher makes a note of the finish times and then we subtract the start time from the finish time to calculate the time difference. Saves having to rely on watches being synchronised and allows for people setting of a few seconds late due to traffic etc. If you could get someone to do the finish line you could go last and do the start times.

Carpenter

Have a chat with this gang http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75094845
It worked perfect .

Inquitus

pprendeville wrote: »

snip

2 dedicated timers or if everyone has a Garmin just let people time it themselves, and verify with Strava later when everyone gets home and uploads, unlikely its going to be settled by the small inaccuracies of manually starting and stopping your Garmin as its 20km odd.

pprendeville

thebouldwhacker wrote: »

You want them to climb for 50 minutes so then they will be your friends? Very different culture indeed.
Not much help I'm afraid but I guess have a pre decided start times and numbers so you already know when people start. Number one starts at 9:00 number two starts at 9:10 etc and then note the chronological time as people summit, times are easy to calculate then, still need two people though.

I'll bring cake. That will prevent them from wanting to kill me after 20km of torture.

pprendeville

Inquitus wrote: »

2 dedicated timers or if everyone has a Garmin just let people time it themselves, and verify with Strava later when everyone gets home and uploads, unlikely its going to be settled by the small inaccuracies of manually starting and stopping your Garmin as its 20km odd.

Not many use/know of Strava here. But ya, it shouldn't be hard to do.

De Bhál

pprendeville wrote: »

Not many use/know of Strava here. But ya, it shouldn't be hard to do.

Aha, that's why you're doing so well on Strava over there. :pac: