POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Individual GPS Units
On Road Routes • In
Town Routes • Security
Navigating via individual GPS units is a groundbreaking, cutting edge, state
of the art tool for following cycling routes. We strongly believe it is the
wave of the future for cycling events and we will continue to incorporate,
support, and encourage and the use of GPS technology on all of our events.
Since 2006 we have been widely incorporating GPS technology into our navigation
systems and now heavily rely on it ourselves. We use the actual GPS track
points we take in person to define all of our master routes and we use these
master GPS routes as the actual route on our road maps. In fact, the routes
printed on our paper maps are exact same as the ones loaded onto individual
GPS units since we generate our paper maps directly from our GPS mapping
software. We also use the master GPS routes to determine the specific distances
listed on our cue sheets, acquire elevation data, and generate our elevation
and gross climb profiles.
On Road Routes
We will use individual GPS units to support all on road routes, including
the route itself and also all on road service locations (rest stops, starting
and ending locations, main lodging sites, supported hotels, etc.)
Even if we do not paint the entire route, we will still paint road markings
and put orange flags up at a limited number of places on the route where
it can be tricky and confusing to follow on the GPS, such as at triple points
where the route does not proceed in only one direction and can become confusing
to follow, such as at the start/end of options and doublebacks or where the
route crosses over itself. So when you reach one of these points look on
the ground for our road markings to get more information about how to properly
proceed.
In Town Routes
Information about in town routes and services (grocery store,
swimming pool, etc.) will only be provided on paper cue sheets and maps and
will NOT be
provided for any GPS unit. This is because the paper cue sheets and maps
contain pertinent
information about the in town service locations such as phone numbers, hours
of operation, etc. that cannot be loaded into the GPS units. In addition,
the numerous overlapping routes in each stopping town can easily become very
difficult to follow on a GPS unit. However we do recommend using the GPS
unit in conjunction with the paper in town cue sheets and maps so that you
can know your exact location in each town at all times.
Security
You should prevent your individual GPS unit from being lost or stolen
by never leaving it unattended. If you are not directly using it for navigation,
it should be off your handlebars and stored securely. You should remove it
from your handlebars when you are finished with that day's ride and
never leave it on your bike in any town.
Click on one of the
links at left for more information about riding with an individual GPS unit. |