a few odds and ends, and a short post as time is somewhat limited.  those who regularly imbibe from the font of knowledge and wisdom that is the racing union blog are undoubtedly aware that greenbelt has begun.  an old tradition and a really fun race.  i was reminded by both promoter and officials of my earliest attendance at this race in a t-shirt and hair net helmet.  fun times.  the racing is always a challenge, and no matter what the signage implies, it's never a picnic

officials for week 1 were janet and stefan.  friendly as always.  thye kept things roughly on schedule and resist the tendency to read us the entire rule book on the start line before letting us go.  for that alone, all racers should take a moment to say thank you.

in spite of what was said here, the situation was not all that bad.  here we several happy cyclists in line. 

races rolled out, with union boots ont he ground, and all seemed happy.

also of interest is a brand-spanking new electronic registraiton system. 

having done some reporting on this in the past, i figured it would be worth a few moments of time to check in and see how this new thing works.  the users were singularly occupied with the system and did not have time to give me a full tour, but it has the basics: run from a laptop, scanning is done with a usb bar code scanner and a network hub links a printer to the laptop. 

scanning is quick.  unlike eric's system, it was not printing standard releases.  it probably could.  i am going to go out on a limb and make a guess about how this system is set up.  i suspect that the system is bound tightly to a database, and the datbase is built from previous years of greenbelt attendance, as opposed to be being built off of the usac registration database.  i think this probably has some advantages from the developer's point of view.  route 1 has one of the better web sites i have seen, and i'm not just talking about cycling web sites.  i suspect they have designed their system around an easy dump of the data and an easy update of the web site.  i have no information here, i am only speculating. 

the main point though is that we now have multiple promoters who have, on their own initiaitive, ginned up electronic reg systems with bar code scanning and reporting capacity.  i offer congratulations to both of them, and i think people should begin actively considering the merits and pitfalls of adopting some sort of system throughout the region.  there are arguments against it, and some of them are exceedingly well reasoned.  i have heard officials worry about additional materiel in the race kit (e.g. generators, laptops, printers, scanners), handling the materials under adverse weather conditions, and backup protocols under the worst case scenario.  i have seen the systems fail, and the inevitable reversion by the promoters back to traditional paper processing.  but as the systems were tested in the field, they seemed to do better.  my guess is the landscape will look much different at the end of the season than it did before the season began.

shifting gears slightly, the velo club of baltimore is holding the inaugural hampstead cycling classic.  this race is being hosted by a community that is behind the event.  we have already seen some high profile races evaporate this year.  the environment is not one of great expansion.  i am hopeful that people will turn out to support a new event on the calendar and a community that is embracing you.  don't just go to the race.  bring the family, buy some lunch, spend sometime, show some love.  if you're low on rubles, spend the $0.39 to send a letter to the mayor thanking him for allowing you to come and race.  the flyer for this race on their website has only been posted in a proprietary format.  while supporting the event, the union formally expresses it's displeasure with the digital hegemon that vcb has embraced to communciate it's critical event data.  we offer a translation of the data into a publicly accessible format courtesy of an anonymous contributor.  though not truly open source, this should be easier for those whose interests tend more towards open source:

hampstead_flier.pdf (494.34 KB)

critical note which should be obvious but won't be unless i say it explicitly: this is not meant in any way to supercede their information.  for definitive information on the hampstead event, we suggest you visit the vcb web page and the electronic registration page for the event.

- - - posted by scott