Friday, January 15, 2010

StoppOmat Time trialling equipment Coll de Rates Costa Blanca Spain

Long time since my last post,
Not because ive been doing nothing, on the contrary ive been busy with a Cycling related project which have taken plenty of my time up through the last few months.

So here´s what ive been doing .
Ciclo Costa Blanca along with two other local Cycling related companys ,, has been busy with the purchase of Spain first permanently installed time trialling equiment.
The System in called StoppOmat,, its already up and running and the best thing is ITS FREE ! You can use the equipment any time you like and its free each and every time

Heres some history and blurb on the Official opening of the Stoppomat

Sunday 10th January saw the official opening
of The first permanently installed `STOPPOMAT´ time trialing equipment in Spain

Located on one of the Costa Blanca´s most well know and attractive mountains The Coll de Rates. Alt 636 mtrs
Present along with around 100 or so local riders was professional rider and current Spanish national champion
Ruben Plaza of Team Caisse d Epange

Tom Boonen and Team Quick Step currently on a training camp on the Costa Blanca stopped by to ask what was going on

Joint best rides of the day was by
Toni Molina Colet 17 yrs of Team Eleval and British rider Alistair Robinson both with a time of 17 min 16 seconds .

The Equipment has been installed due to a collaboration btn 3 local cycling related businesses
Ciclo Costa Blanca provide bespoke cycling holidays and training camps are based in the coastal resort of Denia http://www.ciclocostablanca.com/
.
The Hotel Los Caballos of Els Poblets
http://www.fitforbiking.com/ &
Maxima Bikes of Ondara
http://www.maximabikes.com/

The Equipment named Stoppomat was originally designed and built in Germany with funding /sponsorship provided by Continental (tyre manufacturers ) & Lightweight (wheels )

There are 8 stoppOmat machines operating in Germany and each year `Lightweight´ sponsor the `Lightweight uphill challenge ´ , http://www.lightweight-uphill.eu/

How does StoppOmat work http://stoppomat.de/
Equipment is installed bottom and top of the climb.
Riders take a card from the bottom machine completing their details on the cards reverse.
Inserting the card into the machine prints a start time on the card.
Once the rider reaches the top station the card is again inserted into the machine and a finish time is printed onto the card.
The card is then posted into the letter box of the top machine.
Cards are then collected weekly
and all competitors details and time are posted onto the Stoppomat site http://stoppomat.de/Python/html_navigation.py/auswertung?strecke_id=9&sprache_id=2
(link to the Coll de Rates unique rider times page )

Once the riders time has been uploaded the rider receives an email advising him of his individual time, position in category and provides him with a registration number.

The registration number is all the rider needs to write on the time card next time he uses a Stoppomat machine whether in Spain or Germany or any other country.

In addition each registered rider gets their own unique Stoppomat page listing all there times on all the climbs.

Location:

Start station is at the village of `Parcent´ East face of the Coll de Rates, Marina Alta region, Costa Blanca, Spain (inland from Denia )
Finishes top of The Coll de Rates 636 mtrs
Course distance is 6.92 km.
Starts from an altitude of 284 mtrs (Parcent )
Height gain is 365 mtrs

If you are heading over to the Costa Blanca for your 2010 spring training The equipment is free of charge to all users and should prove an incentive to test current form
















and lots more info an
StoppOmat in Spain at at http://stoppomat.com/