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IPICO Sports helps manage 8-day
mountain bike race through South Africa
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA—It takes a lot of know-how to successfully manage the world’s largest full-service mountain bike race. That’s why experts in logistics, emergency and medical care, communications and tracking were integrated into the 450-member staff of the third Absa Cape Epic Mountain Biking (MTB) event, held April 22-29, 2006, through South Africa’s Western Cape.
The world-class race is a significant logistics operation. Timing and tracking are critical—whether it’s making sure catering facilities are in place before riders arrive, providing results to the media or collecting more than 1,000 mountain bikes on a daily basis.
“IPICO’s RFID technology played a critical role in the overall success of the 2006 ABSA Cape Epic," says Kevin Vermaak, Race Director. "The integrated systems provided by IPICO and Conference Communications allowed for a complete service. We plan to expand on these type of services during future events—which will ensure the Cape Epic is regarded as the No. 1 MTB event in the world.”
Cape Epic organizers counted on IPICO Sports to identify and track 1,046 riders, their bikes and gear—as well as the staff members supporting the event. IPICO’s Dual Frequency RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags and readers combined with Conference Communications software to provide:
- Turnkey sport timekeeping using STK Elite and Lite readers
- Mountain bike identification for security and storage in between stages
- Rider bag tracking and identification
- Rider and staff identification (to monitor access to the race village and into rider and staff areas, and authorization for catering services)
Cutting-edge technology delivers more than time
IPICO Sports does a lot more than keep track of people and gear. Its IP-X™ Dual Frequency RFID platform works with information management and communication tools to design custom solutions that not only capture data, but also manage and distribute the results.
For Cape Epic, IPICO provided real-time rider information for broadcast daily in several European countries as well as South Africa, and delivered near real-time results for local and international media at the completion of various stages. Through IPICO’s STK scroller, commentators had immediate access to race numbers, team numbers, athlete/team names, split/race/accumulative times and other background on athletes and teams.
Sport timekeeping services included daily stage results, seeded start sheets and finisher lists—all grouped and classified.
IPICO’s Dual Frequency RFID technology is unique—outperforming traditional UHF tags and readers or active tag technologies.
- The magnetic coupling between readers and tags means virtually no interference problems from human bodies, fluids and even some kinds of metals.
- It offers more and better access to information in a variety of formats, like friendly interfaces via computer, display boards, text messages and more.
- It allows race organizers to measure and evaluate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) throughout and after the event.
- It’s about one third the cost of other systems.
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