Live tracking for cycling events: how livedot works

What is live tracking for a cycling event?

Live tracking for cycling events puts every rider on one map while the event is happening. Each rider carries a phone that sends their position, and family, friends and the organiser follow along from anywhere. It suits road races, gravel races, sportives and stage races, and much of the planning is the same as in our guide to planning a cycling tour.

livedot (livedot.me) is a live tracking platform for sports events, for cycling and running. Riders go live from Windline, its cycling app, and runners from RunFast, its running app. Followers need neither: they open a link in any browser.

There are two common kinds of tracking. Personal tools, such as Strava Beacon, send one rider's position to a few chosen safety contacts. Event tracking puts the whole field on one map, so anyone following can see who is where. livedot does the second, and each rider still decides who can see them.

What do followers see?

A follower opens the race map, the organiser's page at livedot.me, or a rider's own link. On it:

• Every rider is a live dot on the course, from the front of the race to the back of the field.
• Each rider's distance, speed and finish time update as they ride.
• A goal ghost rides beside anyone who set a goal time, so followers see "5 min behind goal" or "3 min ahead".
• Taps on the back: anyone following can send one a minute, and the rider sees the count come in.

Followers can also find a rider by name, but only riders who chose to be findable. If a rider's phone loses signal on a remote road, the page says when they were last seen. The phone keeps every position and sends them when the signal returns, so the track fills in.

Organising a road race, a gravel race or a sportive? Get it live on livedot, with every rider on one map. Get your event live →

Why does the wind matter on a live map?

Because it explains what the dots are doing. A 20 km/h (12 mph) headwind slows a rider who does 25 km/h (15.5 mph) in still air to about 15 km/h (9.3 mph) at the same effort, as our headwind numbers show. Without the wind on the map, a follower just sees someone slowing down.

On livedot, the course is coloured by the wind each rider meets, timed to when they reach each stretch: strong tailwind, tailwind, side-on or calm, headwind and strong headwind. Each rider's card has a "Wind here" reading. When a rider slows at km 80 (mile 50), followers can see that the road has turned into the wind. For runners, RunFast colours the course by the heat instead.

The forecasts come from Apple Weather, and they're the same numbers Windline shows on every ride page. For the bigger picture on riding in it, see cycling in wind.

How do riders go live on the day?

Riders use the free Windline app on their phone. Before the day, each rider joins your race in the app and fills in its Live tracking card:

• Their follow link, the same for every race, to send to family and friends.
• Who can see them: people they approve, their club's members and, only if they switch it on, anyone who searches their name.
• A goal time, if they want one, on a one-day race.

About 30 minutes before the start, Windline reminds them to go live. They tap Start live tracking, put the phone in a pocket and ride. The app takes a position about every 25 metres (82 feet) and sends them every 30 seconds. Tracking stops by itself within 150 metres (164 yards) of the finish, or three hours after their planned finish, but never while they're still moving.

On a long day, a full battery and a power bank are worth packing. Going live on a race works in Windline's Android app today, and comes to the iPhone app in its next update.

What does an organiser need to do?

Very little on the day. Tell livedot about the event with the form at livedot.me/organisers: its name, the sport, the date, how many riders you expect and your website. A person replies by email and sets up your page and your race with you, course included.

Your page lives at livedot.me/your-name. It shows what's live now, what's coming up and what's been, with cycling and running on one page if you run both. Share that one address with riders and supporters: on your website, in your emails and at the start-line briefing.

To see how it looks first, open the example organiser page, with two demo races live on its map, or follow the Coast Classic demo and its 150 simulated riders. For a small, informal ride, our guide to organising a group ride covers the rest.

Who can see a rider?

Each rider chooses, on their race's Live tracking card, and every change takes effect at once:

livedot never shows an email address or a phone number. Raw positions are deleted after 7 days. A rider's line and the names on their taps are kept for 30 days, then only a summary stays: whether they finished, their distance, their times and how many taps they got.