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Goldsprints Race
Goldsprint event at the International Cycling Film Festival, Germany, October 2012

A Goldsprint is a bicycle rollers racing and social event. Riders on stationary bikes compete against each other in front of spectators.

While roller racing has a history going back to the beginning of cycling, Goldsprints are fairly new and closely related to bicycle messenger culture. It began in Zurich, Switzerland as part of the 1999 Cycle Messenger World Championships. At which point the name and the event were founded by Adrien Weber, a passionate cyclist and owner of the TurbinenBräu brewery in Zurich, Turbinenbräu. The event was named after their beer brand "Gold-Sprint".

As opposed to traditional roller racing, where riders have to balance, Goldsprints use forkstands so that the riders don't have to balance, only pedal as fast as they can. This provides an easy way for anyone to try Goldsprints. However some Goldsprints groups are now adding traditional rollers, without forkstands, to their equipment to challenge the advanced riders. As with roller racing in general, the rollers are in turn attached to a device that measures distance and can display the progress of the riders. Goldsprints can also feature modern 2D and 3D visualizations.

Technology

There are two varieties of Goldsprints system:

Electronic

  • Used for large crowds. Digital projectors and screens can project the graphical dial as big as needed.
  • Electronically driven, with a tachometer sensor (typically a reed switch, hall effect sensor or a photo-interrupter), and visualizations digitally projected on a screen; thus eliminating the inaccuracy of human response time and stopwatches.
  • Compact and portable. Team Beer (Portland, Oregon, USA) transports their entire system (including two bikes) via a Metrofiets cargo bike.
  • Cost effective. Whether you are building a system from scratch or buying a turn key it is considerably cheaper/less time-consuming to build or buy than mechanical systems.
  • Customizable interfaces. Software can be changed and re-skined. Giving homage to Barelli rollers, most interfaces include a clock face with primary colors for the clock arms.

Mechanical

  • Can determine placing, but an electronic system (and electricity) is still required to show actual times. Able to operate without any external power (i.e. electricity), however if times are recorded by stopwatch.
  • Driven mechanically by custom belts and pulleys, and drives a physical clock face or other display which shows rider progress.
  • Tend to be large and heavy, but stable and simple and were the only systems prior to the spread of affordable microcomputers.

Event Format

While each event promoter may take their liberties. The most common format is a qualifying round and then a series of knockout rounds until the category winners are established.

Systems

Many systems have been made over the years. Some have been commercial grade, others one-offs.

  1. Barelli Quadrulet Competition Rollers were the name brand in mechanical systems.
  2. Al Kreitler commissioned a DOS application called Roller Fusion, which was sold briefly in the mid 1990s.
  3. West Coast Goldsprints Roller Racing debuted a system in 2006 and has run events in many cities in the western half of the US.
    • Since then, they have upgraded to their own custom solution, which incorporates a sophisticated tournament management engine to allow for large-scale events.
    • They have run over 50 events in the western United States in 2009 and 2010.
  4. OpenSprints, debuted in 2007 by IroSprints (Chicago), formed as a company, OpenSprints LLC.
    • Almost 1000 OpenSprints systems sold and in use in every continent except Antarctica.
    • The first and only commercially Goldsprints Roller Racing Equipment available for purchase (not lease).
    • The OpenSprints project is an Open Source (GPL) project.
    • They also sell DIY electronics kits.
    • Distribute Kreitler Goldsprints Roller Racing Stations.
  5. In 2009 Kreitler, the brand name in rollers, developed a Goldsprints Roller Racing Station.
    • Offers both traditional free-roller racing and fork-mounted GoldSprints racing
    • Sold in 2-bike pairs that can be linked together for added stability.
  6. In 2009 Ed Husar, created Goldsprints FX, which is a software alternative to OpenSprints written in Adobe AIR.
    • Supports OSX, Windows and Linux.
    • Brand-able.
  7. Rollapaluza operated over 150 events in 2010 in the UK and Europe. They have refurbished vintage systems from four different manufacturers, which were found not to be suitable to the rigours of the Rollapaluza schedule, so started manufacturing their own. They also have a schools program and run permanently in the Philippines and Germany. The original Goldsprints in Zurich used this kind of system. Four of these systems are operated by Rollapaluza in the UK. A system of this type was debuted in Portland by Rapha in mid-2008.
    • All Rollapaluza rigs are tested and calibrated to be identical meaning global performances are comparable designed and built by Rollapaluza based on 8 years experience with four different vintage rigs.
    • Super sturdy, over 10,000 riders per year
    • Rigs available on franchise program
    • two-up or four-up configuration available
    • Optional digital timing.

Goldsprints World Championships

This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (May 2013)

2010

The first Goldsprints World Championships, presented by West Coast Goldsprints, was scheduled to be held on September 23, 2010 during Interbike, with qualifiers done by local groups.

2011

TBD

Marketing Tool

Given the stationary small footprint, audience participation, and focused visual re-brandable nature of Goldsprints—it has been used as a marketing tool for the Cycling Industry as well as other industries.

Cycling Industry Sponsorships

Specialized Bicycle Components, one of the largest bike manufactures in the world, has been buying OpenSprints systems for their major events and has local reps sub-contract with local groups (see below) that own OpenSprints systems.

Rapha has worked with both Rollapaluza and OpenSprints to put on events.

The Bicycle Film Festival is known to include Goldsprints parties in each city, also the International Cycling Film Festival organized a Goldsprint event in 2012.

Other Industry Sponsorships

In 2011 Levi's used GoldSprints to premiere their Commuter line of cycling clothes at Tag and Juice in São Paulo.

Other industries, such as alcohol, have invested in GoldSprints as a promotional tool. In the summer of 2009, OpenSprints LLC was contracted by 42 BELOW vodka (owned by Bacardi) to build twenty two 42 BELOW branded turn-key kits. As part of the project OpenSprints subcontracted Kreitler to develop the first commercially available roller system for GoldSprints. 42 BELOW also hired Salt City Sprints LLC to execute and support up to 400 events in 20 cities across the United States in 12 weeks. Each city had a designated OpenSprints Technician who in turn kept the kit. The following 20 cities now have identical setups:

  • Atlanta
  • St. Louis
  • San Diego
  • Los Angeles
  • Columbus
  • Denver
  • Phoenix
  • Miami
  • Dallas
  • New Orleans
  • Boston
  • Detroit
  • Portland
  • Seattle
  • San Francisco
  • Chicago
  • Minneapolis
  • New York City
  • Washington DC
  • Austin

See also

Systems

External links

There are external links to groups across the world that organize and promote Goldsprint events.

Notability – Goldsprints in the News

References

  1. "Bike Cult Roller Racing History". Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  2. ^ "1999 Cycle Messenger World Championships". Retrieved 2010-07-21. Cite error: The named reference "CMWC1999" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. "Gold Sprint Beer – Turbinenbräu Brewery, Zurich". Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  4. "West Coast Goldsprints". Retrieved 2010-08-08.
  5. "OpenSprints". Retrieved 2010-08-08.
  6. "Goldsprints Roller Racing Station". Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  7. "GoldsprintsFX". Retrieved 2010-08-08.
  8. "Rollapaluza". Retrieved 2010-08-08.
  9. "2010 Goldsprints World Championships". Retrieved 2010-08-08.
  10. "2009 Specialized Dealer Event – CEO Mike Sinyard Riding". Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  11. "2009 Interbike Tradeshow – Globe Sprints". Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  12. "Levi's® Commuter @ Tag and Juice". Retrieved 2011-11-17.
  13. "Bicycle Retailer: Roller Racing Sizzles in Chilly Climates" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-07-21.
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