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Online Coverage:
Team ROC Gear/4LPH4 1337 claims to be the most technologically advanced team out there. As such, we're gonna do our best to provide some of the best live media coverage for a day race around. We'll likely be focusing on chosen teams throughout the race for one reason or another (think Eco-Challenge, but to a smaller scale). As you know, we want to flex our tech muscles and really provide some good coverage of the Atomic Adventure Race presented by Fuji Bikes.
Some of the things we're planning on having:
- A 27-foot Reality Bikes mobile headquarters equipped with cellular broadband and 2 stationary headquarters with WIFI, upon which the rest of the media coverage will be connected to the at-home audience.
- 2-3 official photographers on the course for the entirety of the race, equipped with waterproof'ed cameras and means to upload photos from the field.
- 3 official videographers on the course at various points, equipped with standard camcorders, a helmet camera, and a night vision camcorder. These guys will on certain legs of the course be shadowing select "Featured Teams".
- 10+ mobile devices in the field blogging, so textual coverage from MANY places.
- Covering "Featured Teams" in-depth from check-in to post race, with live interviews and video footage.
- Full online course profile, with a voice-over explanation of the course in a Google Earth flythrough in YouTube HD, elevation profiles (per leg), full course map scans, so the at-home audience will understand what the competitors are going through when their progress is monitored via RDBoard.com.
We really want you guys to be able to come home to your friends/family and have them bombard you with questions about your race--ask you "why did it take so long to find CP23?" and "what caused the mechanical that you were fixing at TA2?". We want them to know what you just accomplished because they followed along with you. So here's the info to provide to your friends/family on tracking your progress during the race:
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There are two websites to be familiar with for the Atomic Adventure Race presented by Fuji Bikes:
1. The Race Website:
http://www.AtomicAR.com
This is where all the interesting tidbits about the race before it happens will be posted. To get familiar with the teams in the race, visit the Featured Teams page here:
http://www.AtomicAR.com/index.php/featured-teams
2. The Live Race Coverage website:
http://www.RDBoard.com
After the race begins, a link will appear both on the race website and the RDBoard.com home page to the Atomic AR RDBoard.
Rank on the RDBoard Leaderboard will be displayed on the Leaderboard top to bottom. The team who gets all of the checkpoints in the least amount of time with the full team intact wins. Teams that miss/skip checkpoints will be assessed time penalties. Because this is a stage race, teams will be ranked according to their total time. After the ROC Gear Stage (Stage 1), teams will be assessed a penalty proportional to the amount of time behind the lead team. All teams will restart together at the beginning of the Reality Bikes Stage (Stage 2). So a 2nd place team after the ROC Gear Stage who is 10 minutes behind the 1st place team will have time added to their total time, since they restart all together at midnight (Saturday, 15th Night/Sunday 16th Morning).
Here are some of the menu items:
* Events shows various events covered by RDBoard, including the Atomic Adventure Race.
* Leaderboard is the live tabular view of the race and each team's progress. The right-side "Leaderboard Updates" panel is an automatically-reloading panel that polls to see if there have been any updates to the leaderboard and what the effect was on team ranking. The bottom "Live Chat" panel allows for viewers to interact with Race Management during the race by posting live comments. There are 3 tabs to the Leaderboard:
1. Leaderboard - shows data about the teams and their progress throughout the course. Details about the Teams and their status/stats, the Control Points and their locations and viewpoints from their locations, and time of arrival times/departure times/penalties associated with teams' visits to checkpoints. Click around to expand the panels.
2. Course Description - An overview of the course. It will have all the maps that teams will be plotting and following. Thus, you'll see the cheat sheet, race-director view of the course.
3. Legend - An explanation of icons used throughout the software.
* Course Map shows a more Control Point-centric view of the race. The right-side "View CP Details" panel that offers a summary view of the Control Points and allows one to see a more detailed view of a Control Point by clicking in it. The bottom "Live Chat" panel functions the same as with the Leaderboard menu item above. There are 3 tabs to the Course Menu:
1. Course Map - A Google Maps implementation showing all control points, the teams that have reached them, and the teams that haven't. Allows for terrain, street, satellite, Google earth, and even a Mytopo.com topographical view of the course.
2. Course Description - Same as above, here as well for convenience.
3. Legend - Same as above, here as well for convenience.
* Updates is an aggregation point for all of the race updates. There are 6 tabs in race updates:
1. All Feeds - This shows all the below, sorted by date. It also includes blogs from the race website.
2. Blogs - This shows textual updates to the race.
3. Photos - This shows photographs uploaded from the field.
4. Videos - This shows videos uploaded from the field.
5. Audio - This will show audio blogs, interviews, and audio from-team-to-fan/family shout-outs.
6. Leaderboard - This is similar to the right-side "Leaderboard Updates" panel in the Leaderboard view above, but it shows a longer history.
* Competitor Map has a view of where all the teams are from.
If for any reason, the RDBoard website is down or functioning improperly, folks interested may fall back to the following RSS feed to provide race coverage:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/AtomicAdventureRaceFeedMix
Most browsers will display it as a webpage, but if they do not applications like Google Reader will. Go ahead and try the feed out now to make sure you are good to go.
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This race is part of both the USARA National Adventure Racing Series and the Checkpoint Tracker Adventure Racing Series (http://www.checkpointtracker.com), whose goal is to determine the best AR team in the US. For up to 30 hours, racers will be mountain biking, trekking, paddling, orienteering, ascending, rappelling, and running their way through the course. We would really appreciate your following along with us online!
Spectators, Friends, and Family at the Event:
For those of you who have others wishing to view the race in person, we have driving directions for how to follow the event in portions or in its entirity. The course this year is very condusive to spectators. If the spectators are at the start of the race, have them get printed out instructions from Jack.
If they are looking to watch the race after the start, have them call Jack:
678-234-8069
Remember that he may or may not have cellular coverage during certain sections of the race and/or be tending to other matters of the race, and so they should be patient in attempting to do so. Upon joining race headquarters, we should have printed instructions for them to follow the rest of the race. We may also post these in the Course Overview Section on RDBoard.com.
Two of the best places to join up with the race would be the finishes of each stage. Depending on many factors, teams will be finishing the ROC Gear Stage between 18:00 and 23:00 Saturday. We expect the bulk to start arriving around 20:00. We expect the finishers of the Reality Bikes Stage (and the race), to begin arriving around 10:00 on Sunday, with the bulk arriving around 12:00.
Again, these locations can be gathered by getting the spectator instructions from Jack.
Bike Shuttling:
For background, please refer to the following post on the Race Forum:
http://trailblazerar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=45216
For the bike shuttle, we'll not be shuttling stuff that is not "part" of the bike. Map carriers or bento boxes that are attached to the bike (by metal clamps, for instance) are okay. Bottles, bike computers, lights, saddlebags and their contents are acceptable. Most everything else is NOT (this includes helmet--you'll need it anyway, bike shoes, and gloves, among others). Don't get creative with this one, folks, because the shuttle crew will eat your duct-taped hammer gels without thinking twice. You should be carrying everything away from the TA[s] where you drop your bikes that isn't "part" of your bike. And though you will be tempted to make the argument to your teammates, you are not part of your bike, either. :)
Checkpoint Tracker Series:
For background, see the following:
http://blog.checkpointtracker.com/2010/01/20/new-requirement-for-earning-points-and-being-ranked/
If you are interested in the series and receivings points for your placing at the Atomic Adventure Race, please ensure you complete you team and squad profiles on the website, else you will not receive credit for your performance!
Here are the squads are incomplete on CPT:
Applied Vitals
GLR/ExstaEnergy.com
Sport Factory
Team SOG
Zombies
Also, many teams don't have squads on CPT. Get it done; last chance.
Remember, the points leader in the Coed Elite Division at the end of May will be awarded complimentary entries...including airfare...to the Ultimate XC for 3 racers. The Atomic Adventure Race presented by Fuji Bikes is one of the opportunities for leading teams to sure up their position and capture this mid-year prize! The Ultimate XC is an innovative 3 day stage race set for June 25th at the world reknowned Mont Tremblant Ski Resort in Quebec Canada. Competitors will be Kayaking 62km on Day 1, Running 58km on Day 2 and Mountain Biking 80km on Day 3. It is the largest off-road stage race in North America with over 1,100 racers attending.
Check-In Location:
The check-in location is here-ish:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=34.559001,-84.248138&hl=en&geocode=&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=18&sll=34.559061,-84.24811&sspn=0.002624,0.005681&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=18
Unlike last year, this is NOT in the Amicalola Lodge. We are at the bottom this time. Entering the gate of the park, keep straight. It will be in the only covered pavilion (I believe it is on the right). There will be big banners outside for the race.
If you are not staying there, please feel free to visit Amicalola Lodge at the top of the falls for one of the best views of North Georgia around. It is also a decent place for map preparations and dinner.
That's it! See you at check-in. Any questions/comments you have, please feel free to post them to the race forum or reserve them for the pre-race meeting, as answers may or may not come.
THE ATOMIC ADVENTURE RACE IS THIS WEEKEND!!! ARE YOUR READY TO GET NUKED?
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Racer Updates 
