For the 2025 season we are delighted to have a partnership with AIOCC giving over 160 AIOCC Races’ Organisers access to the VeloViewer WorldTour package. They can use the tools for early race route preparation ahead of releasing the routes to the Teams as well as adding race information and hazard waymarkers which can be shared with the Teams ahead of and while the race is underway to highlight unexpected hazards.
Having Race Organisers using the same tools as the Teams and seeing the exact same routes will hopefully improve both the logistics and safety of the race as a whole. All Race Organisation staff in the race convoy can have access to the Live app to help tasks like Race Radio and the Regulators management of the convoy.
Not all AIOCC races have yet taken up the opportunity of using the WorldTour package and there are lots of races that you will be doing that aren’t members of AIOCC. We do offer the service to non-AIOCC races as well. As this season progresses and into future seasons I am sure we will see more come onboard and the use of the features will become more widespread and standardised.
Race Organiser Waymarkers
The latest features log has been describing recent additions in functionality (starting in November 2024) in this area. Now that the 2025 season is underway it is probably the first time you will be seeing the new Race Organiser waymarkers. These are waymarkers that have been added by the Organiser (usually the Race Organiser’s safety officer or technical director) to show the main race points (e.g.climbs, sprints), hazards and other information (e.g. PPO, parking, feed/waste zones).
In the Race Hub these will appear like this:
In the top right it will say “Race Org Level: [n]” and they are greyed out meaning you can’t edit or delete them.
The “Level” allocated to each waymarker is key. The advice I have been giving to Race organiser for these levels is as follows but of course we would welcome feedback from Teams and Race Organisers on how this is working and how it can be improved.
- Level 0 – Main race markers e.g. Sprint/Bonus, KOM (HC/1/2/3/4), KOM start, Pavé/Gravel start/end.
- Level 1 – Major hazards e.g. rail crossings, dangerous tunnels/bridges, especially dangerous road furniture or turnings.
- Level 2 – Other hazards.
- Level 3 – Other information that could be useful to the Teams. This should be used for Feed Zone, Waste Zone, PPO, Team parking, Anti Doping location.
- Level 4+ – These will only be visible to the Race Organiser’s users e.g. information for marshals, logistics for signage/barriers, other information for Race Radio or Regulators (e.g. suitable road to allow passing of vehicles).
At the top of the waymarker list (in both the Race Hub and Live app) you will see an area where you can see the number of Race Organiser Waymarkers for each Level and have the option to hide them by unchecking the boxes:
In the image you can see “0 (4)” which is showing that there are 4 Level 0 waymarkers, one of which is the “KOM 2nd” shown just below the filters.
Note: These filters options are stored in your browser so if you have unchecked one or more levels, when you reload the page or open a new race route then those waymarkers will be filtered out. Make sure you look at the counts in brackets to check if there is any important information provided by the organisers that you currently aren’t seeing. This is the same in the Live app.
It is recommended that you always have Level 0 and Level 1 waymarkers shown, especially in the Live app.
When performing exports (e.g. for rider head units) it will not include waymarkers that are currently filtered out using the Level Filters.
Feed/Waste Zone Markers
Race Organiser waymarkers are locked as they can be added/altered/removed by the organiser when needed. You will most likely want to add additional information to Feed Zones like which member of staff you plan to have at that location. The recommendation is you create your own Feed waymaker at the location with the additional information, then hide the Level 3 Race Organiser waymarkers so you only see your own Feed markers.
Hazards
It is recommended to Race Organisers that hazard waymarkers being shared with teams are either set to Level 1 for “major hazards” and Level 2 for “minor hazards”. Ideally the Race Organisers are adding these in early (even before the routes are made visible top the teams) so the Teams themselves don’t need to add in their own, but that is out of VeloViewer’s control.
Whether a hazard is major or minor is quite subjective and could vary depending on the frequency of hazards on the route (i.e. how alert the riders are) and the expected racing. This will be a learning process over this season so providing constructive feedback to Race Organisers would be welcomed. I can also share information centrally if you send it to me.
When the race is underway, the Race Organiser’s Safety Officer can use the Live app to create new Level 1 waymarkers to highlight unexpected hazards like oil/dirt on the road or a lorry pulled to the side. The Race Organisers can also mark out last minute diversions with turn waymarkers showing where the route has had to be changed and where it then rejoins the original route. Keeping Level 1 waymarkers enabled in the Live app will mean you see these newly created waymarkers during the race.
There could be an opportunity for SafeR/UCI/AIOCC to provide standards around hazard information to be used by Race Organisers.