Follow the Yellowbricks
News Release / 14.09.2012
This year’s Adventure Racing World Championships is taking place in Southern France with over 50 teams from all over the globe, racing a course of 475km over 5 days and, thanks to innovative satellite technology from ‘Yellowbrick’, sports fans will be able to track their progress during this spectacular event.
The race includes high mountain trekking, glacier crossing, climbing and canyoning, mountain biking, kayaking and rafting in a non-stop format, and is the culmination of the Adventure Racing World Series. Each team of 4 will carry a Yellowbrick satellite tracker, so race followers can see their position on the event website, and for the safety and security of the teams.
Yellowbrick trackers were first introduced at the 2007 Adventure Racing World Championships and have since been used extensively in sailing and gliding competitions and for expeditions, to remote parts of the world.
Nick Farrell of Yellowbrick said; "We're really pleased to see Yellowbricks being used at yet another adventure racing event - over the years we have been improving our product and service, and we believe that our current generation of trackers (the Yellowbrick v3 units) are the most robust and reliable tracking units on the market. They are ideal for adventure racing as they are waterproof, reliable, easy-to-use and also light enough to be strapped to a rucksack. They use the Iridium satellite network to transmit, so they work anywhere on Earth."
"The web-based mapping we include with our service shows the course information, along with the position, course and speed of all the teams. It's easy to use, and allows the public to view and replay the race at any time. For sponsors it is absolutely brilliant, a way to get people visiting the website over and over again during the course of a race"
The race organizers for this year’s championships are Raid in France, who were keen to adopt the technology after its performance at another World Series adventure race in New Zealand. “We saw how efficient and effective they were,” said race Media Director Nancy Bauhaud, “and knew our teams would be in the high mountains, so we wanted a system giving us the certainty of good satellite coverage. Our primary concern is racer safety and with Yellowbricks we can communicate with a team n an emergency.
“For followers of the race it allows us to show what is happening day and night and we have also found Yellowbrick very responsive to our requests and suggestions. For us it was the best solution.”
The race begins at 04.00 on Saturday morning, when the live race website will be launched from www.raidinfrance.com including the Yellowbrick tracking.
Yellowbrick trackers are available for hire by events and to buy for personal use and you can find out more about them at http://www.sleepmonsters.com/partner.php.
