Call for bids for spring virtual events

[Kolie Moore]

Hi everyone,

With cancellation of in person racing this spring, we'll be doing virtual events! So if your club would like to host one or more, respond to this email and we'll get to organizing a calendar. Here are the options we've discussed so far, and it'll be up to your school to decide what platform to use.

Zwift races. Pros: lots of people have an account, can work with just a speed/cadence sensor, no power meter required. Cons: $15/month fee.

RGT races. Pros: can upload any course you want so we can actually race any course, participation is free as a guest (not for race host). Cons: requires power meter or smart trainer.

Strava. Pros: flexibility of competition (most elevation, miles, hours, KOMs, etc), can ride outside, only computer required. Cons: data acquisition (though a strava group can compile some metrics), most teams can't travel out of state, so everyone is competing on different terrain, separate segments, etc.

We decided that the "most ECCC" platforms for virtual races are Strava and Zwift, considering that a lot of people don't have power meters, and we do want to keep cost of entry low. However, if you'd like to try an RGT race, that's okay. A virtual calendar will be a learning experience for us too, and potentially in the coming years we can do events in January and February before road season gets underway. Of course, if anyone has other event ideas, those are encouraged can be part of the calendar too.

ALSO! We will be hosting equipment test days followed by some test races in February for everyone who wants someone to help troubleshoot their equipment and computer setup. And when we set up the event calendar for spring, we can help guide everyone through the event setup procedures for the different platforms. So if you'd like to host an event, but aren't sure about what to host, put in a bid and we'll work it out.

Thanks!

-Kolie