The sixth edition of Botswana’s ultimate mountain bike race, termed Dimension Data route 73 has been billed for the 12th August courtesy of Cycle4Life Cycling Club. This time around, the race promises bigger and better innovation and challenges.
Route 73 is Botswana’s version of Tour de France whose technical sponsor is NTT which they fall under, and this edition they dare to dish the best for spectators and riders as well.
Managing Director of dimension data Botswana and Zambia, Onnayang Marumo notes that as a technical organisation they believe that they can use technology to make a difference.
“All the analytics and technical data that comes through when doing commentary enables the technology behind it, hence this year we launch what is called a connected race. We would be providing visibility and data analytics to our dimension data route 73 and transform and enhance the experience of the spectators because they have been left behind,” she says.
Marumo also adds that “Unfortunately to enjoy the race in previous years, spectators had to be at the event. This time around spectators will be able to immense in the race from wherever they are while the spectators who will be at the event will not have to run like headless chickens to know who the winners are but rather they will be able to follow the race wherever they will be as well”.
Media houses will be provided with content for commentary not only with times, but which areas prove to be difficult, which areas are favourable and areas which riders seem to be accelerating and decelerating as well.
“For the main event, we will have a tracker who will be able to give us were riders are, longitudes and latitudes and speed. Through this we will take this information to our data centre and analyse it and present it in multiple platforms across social media,” she adds.
Cycle4Life Cycling Club Route73 race coordinator Geoffery Ponchi says even though the MTB is a challenge on its own, they are planning a few surprises for riders during the race and they will only know of them while tracking on the day of the event.
“The sponsorship still stands at P350 000.00 and likewise the race attracts cyclists from the SADC region. Knowing the difficulties of the race, we will award P5000.00 to the first Motswana to cross the finish line from both male and female sides. This comes as an encouragement package to do better and develop local cyclists,” he says.
