Event Timing

To time or not to time, that is the question.

Rideventures has been asking participants about event timing recently.  And the results have been surprising.

A survey for the upcoming Ride Clywd got 44% wanting timing, but then 56% didn't want it or weren't bothered.  Another poll on Facebook was more negative - 55% didn't want electronic timing, 17% weren't bothered (so 72% total) , and just 28% wanted it.

Timing is usually a big thing, isn't it?

Its long been that sportives are electronic timed.  You get a chip, you put it on your bike or helmet, you set off going past/over the timing point.  And when you come back you go over/past the same point and you get a time.  All the results are published online.

That's the way, isn't it?

Least it was the way things started out 15 years ago - individual times and being like a proper continental sportive was the way for an event to be.

How come less than half the participants want it now-a-days?

Garmin, Strava, apps on your phone, GPS tracking services - people can have so much information - their path, their heart-rate, their power, how they did on particular hills.  Much more info than a mere "time".  If you are into performance and knowing how you went then you'll have a device and be tracking all this info.  Won't you?

I guess, one thing that's missing from all this individual tracking is online results.  Without event timing there'd be no published list of times.  Some people see that as a good thing - they don't want their times published.

For Ride Clwyd we're heading towards what feels like a radical change - no timing.  What do you think?