Dear BTG-riders,
in our today’s newsletter we want to inform you about the procedures regarding tracking:
Since the last edition www.followmychallenge.com from the Netherlands is our tracking partner.
They support your SPOT device if you own one and also offer an affordable solution for rental devices. These rental devices do not send the tracking data via satellite network but use a cellphone signal to do so. This supplies a coverage in Germany which is as good or better than satellite phone coverage. Those of you who don’t want to be tracked are still free to go without tracking although we encourage everybody to be tracked.
The registration page is already open. It has detailed instructions for registration for SPOTs and rentals. It also holds a link to paypal where you can pay for the tracking service and (if needed) rentals. Fees are as follows:
- For SPOT owners: EUR25 plus 21% tax.
- For rentals: EUR37,50 plus 21% tax. Plus EUR50 plus 21% tax deposit for the device. The deposit will be charged back to you on return of the rental device.
- In case of loss of a rental device your deposit will be held and you will be charged additional EUR150 plus 21% tax.
- Rental devices need to be sent back to followmychallenge by the renter within one week (shipping date) after finishing or scratching from the race in a trackable package. Late returns will be charged EUR25 plus 21% tax per week.
During registration you will need to provide some basic personal data upon registration so we can assign devices to names. SPOT owners will need to provide the ESN-number of their device and the URL of a SPOT shared page which must not be password protected. SPOT owners who used our tracking service before or something like trackleaders know this procedure.
For the first time we also provide tracking for riders doing an individual time trial (ITT). But there are some limitations to this service:
- Tracking is only available for riders starting their ITT between June 30 and July 14.
- No rental devices for ITT-riders. You will have to use your own SPOT.
- ITT riders will be displayed on the tracking page but will not appear in the leaderboard and result list.
- If you want to ride an ITT and be tracked, choose the option “I have a SPOT” in the registration and in the next screen option “ITT” in the selection box “Groupstart or ITT”.
Registrations for tracking will close June 15th so there is time enough for followmychallenge to send out the rental devices. We will hand them out to you at the pre-race meeting in Grenzach or at the starting venue in Basel. Rental devices come with a 15cm Mini USB charging cable. You can charge them on every USB power-supply. You need to send back the cables with your rental devices. Lost cables will be charged EUR5 plus 21% tax.
The tracking page will be open about one week before the event starts. This will allow for a test. SPOT owners have to do the test themselves. We will test a few of the rentals. We will announce this as soon as the page is open.
During the event a friend of us will be ready to accept your status messages (via our Whatsapp group, Facebook message or E-mail) in case you have to drop out of the event or finish it. This status will immediately show up on the tracking page.
Please read these terms & conditions carefully and please come back to us in case of questions. followmychallenge is our trusted and reliable tracking partner which also cooperates with quite a few other German Bikepacking events.
That’s it for the moment.
Best regards, Achim & Thomas