Yesterday RFID Race Timing Systems was used for the first time to track over 11,000 riders in the iconic Round the Bay in Victoria. Distances ranged from 25km right up to the massive 250km trek that saw a complete circumnavigation of Port Phillip Bay starting and finishing in Melbourne. The Ultra equipped timing points tracked the riders live throughout the 14hr event and made allowances for the 15km ferry crossing across the turbulent waters between Queenscliffe and Sorrento. The event was timed by Event Timing based in Melbourne for Bicycle Victoria.
Start of the 210km round-trip to/from Melbourne
Aaron Clarke of Event Timing was very happy with the performance of Ultra, particularly the ease of use of side antennas on roads that were not closed to road traffic. The novel 30 minute ferry crossing can now be treated as a non-timed section because timing points are situated at either side of the crossing. Each riders progress was tracked live via My Race Result giving Bicycle Victoria staff an instant snapshot of how the competitors were progressing for the very first time in the events 20 year history. The Ultra system is now used in almost all the mass participation cycle events in Oceania with the Santos Tour Down Under also contracting RFID Race Timing Systems for the next 3 years. And the largest cycle event in New Zealand, the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge will be using Ultra for the first time next month. All these iconic cycle events have switched to Ultra from others timing systems for one simple fact – there is no other high performance system on the market today that comes close to Ultra for reliability and ease of use.