CrossMgr Saves the Day with Autocorrect

Post date: Sep 11, 2013 5:14:31 PM

It is difficult to describe the feeling of being at a 'Cross race watching a pack of 20 riders approaching the line without chip timing.

Even with the fastest number caller, you already know you are not going to get more than 10 of those numbers, especially if they are 3 digits long.

With other scoring systems, this is a big problem. The missed riders will show with a missing lap. The system then thinks they are "down a lap" and puts them in last place. After the race, everyone will be coming up to you and complaining that the results are wrong, the podium is waiting, and another race starts in 5 minutes. Now you have to dig through all the lap times, find the ones that are wrong, and manually make up times to fix the results. What a disaster!

Not so with CrossMgr. CrossMgr's autocorrect is based on the observation that the same riders are not missed every lap. CrossMgr constantly studies the profile of each rider's observed lap times. Once it has a number of observations, it "reasonably" inserts a missing lap time exactly where it should go. Of course, there can still be problems if a rider's number is always unreadable (more on that later).

Autocorrection works extremely well. It is common for autocorrect to fix races where more than half the riders were missed each of the first few laps. As more data is collected, the results fall into place. The system "just works".

The next problem is duplicate numbers. Sometimes 17 gets called as 11, or 8 as 3. Mistakes happen.

With other scoring systems, this is another big problem. The system thinks the rider "lapped the field", and puts him/her in first place. Yikes! Now no one believes that any of the results are correct!

Again, CrossMgr saves the day. CrossMgr does statistical analysis to determine that the duplicate entry could not be a valid lap time and automatically filters it out. Of course, the rider with that number now has a missing lap, but of course, CrossMgr has already corrected that problem (see above).

All autocorrected entries are highlighted in the Results and Chart view. The Chart is a great way to view of the race to see if there are any issues with the times. By right-clicking on the lap, you make corrections right then and there.

You can turn autocorrect on and off by race - or by rider - at any time.

In the Chart view you can review and adjust all data problems in a minute or two.

Autocorrect works great with chip timing too. Missed tag reads are automatically corrected by CrossMgr. Pit laps in a criterium are also corrected. Duplicate reads can happen when a rider comes to the finish line and stands in range of the antenna. Also, not a problem.

Don't take chances - use CrossMgr!

As far as unreadable numbers, pick another rider that was with the unreadable number. Duplicate him/her. Adjust the finish time. Problem solved.