I was riding the event on Saturday with MTN (very cool, by the way) and I was not alone in finding it a bit tricky to know where the pro riders were on course. I was using team speak as well as the in game chat function, so I was utilizing quite a bit of extra comms, but often it was still a mystery if the MTN riders were ahead or behind of me. The list of ~15 rider names on the right simply doesn’t scale up when you have 600 riders on course. Things get confusing even if you are in close proximity.
On teamspeak I floated an idea that everyone liked so I’ll share it here. When there is a key rider (pro, feature guest, someone you follow, group ride lead or sweep) show some sort of visual icon for them on the course profile. It could be a different icon altogether, or just above their bubble show a second icon. Suggestions:
- A checkered flag for the lead rider
- A broom for the sweep rider
- The current pro jersey icon for pros you see on the rider list
- The current head silhouette for people you follow you see on the rider list
This would go a long way toward clearing up some confusion. You would see quickly from the other direction if a group ride was rolling with a lead/sweep formation to turn around in time and various other ways of being more confident of your location with respect to others.