Since the month of March, the sport World has been shaken by the pandemic that is still currently hurting most countries today. Most organizers had no choice but to cancel their event for this year and reschedule them for 2021. This is when the world of mountain biking, with the contribution of Zone4 Timing, came up with imaginative ways to have events this summer.
With border closures, social distancing, and non essential travel restrictions, Zone4 Timing technology really came up to make it possible for events to offer the best experience to their participants and fans in different parts of the World.
The Zone4 Timing system is Web based which means that a Zone4 employee doesn’t need to be on site to support timing the event. This is a huge game changer in todays reality. Most of the events this summer such as Downhill Southeast and Big Mountain Enduro (coming up in August) are timing the events themselves and receiving help from the Zone4 office in Canmore.
“The timing system allows me to see the live data coming in from the event site on my computer screen here in Canmore. It makes it easy to support the event remotely. With great communication with a volunteer timer on site, we can make sure together that everything runs smoothly during race day” says Zone4 timer Etienne who is supporting several events remotely this summer.
“Logan Mulally learned to use the system with our help documents and Youtube videos. We have a ritual on race day, he is texting me once a timing point is ready and tested so I can confirm that I can see the times coming in live from Canmore. This way it makes him confident and comfortable feeling like he is well supported by us” also mentioned Etienne.
Another amazing opportunity came to us this summer when we received a phone call from the legendary Crankworx organizer from Whistler BC. They asked us to time all the Enduro events of their Summer Racing Series. It is a first time for them to organize such events and it has been a blast! For those events, Crankworx found a very unique way to respect the national COVID regulations. Our timer and software developer Kyle was assigned the job and he has done amazingly with them. 2 events already happened and one more Enduro to come Tuesday at Sun Peaks Resort. Follow all the Enduro events at http://www.zone4.ca and on the Crankworx website https://www.crankworx.com/.
We are very thankful and happy to have some events to time this summer! It shows us that even in difficult times, races can happen safely.
Thank you everyone for the support and hopping to get more live results out there shortly!
Zone4 Team
Zone4 Blog 