Cycling Event Calendar

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Giant Pete
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Cycling Event Calendar

Postby Giant Pete » Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:27 pm

The conflict of dates between Wellington and PMM Cycle Challenges has brought to a head something I've noticed over the last 6 months, or so.
There does not seem to be any decent on-line calendar for cycling events in Tasmania. I can't find a single place where all events are listed.
Sure, Bicycle Tasmania has a calendar, but for March 4th, they only have Wellington Challenge. Not to mention the previous weeks are absent the Pure Tasmania Challenge, Wildside and The Blue Dragon.
The bike shops seem to be very selective about what events are promoted on their counters too - obviously, there isn't a great deal of space there either.

Rather than poke a stick at the various web-sites, is there a solution?
Is there someone out there who has the ability to cobble together an on-line calendar that can be embedded into anyone's web-site? Which can also be updated by content creators of those sites?

I'm only new to the cycling arena, so I feel like I'm treading on toes here. BUT, there needs to be some accurate communication between events managers and I believe this can only happen by setting up a de facto standard.

Any ideas?

RobRollin
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby RobRollin » Tue Feb 14, 2012 7:15 am

Well I downloaded the CT, STCC and Crit calendar and made my own complete with photos :o
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agwood
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby agwood » Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:16 am

I look after the Bicycle Tasmania website. The Google Calendar system we use is available to any Tasmanian bicycle group to enter their information but it is not very user friendly at the moment ... we intend to improve that in the coming weeks. In the meantime if anyone wants to enter an item please feel free to email the details to me at secretary@biketas.org.au and I will enter it into the calendar.

Austin

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Giant Pete
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby Giant Pete » Wed Feb 15, 2012 7:40 pm

It's great that anyone can add their own events, although that can get out of hand too.
I don't know that much about Google Calendars. Is it possible to moderate? Set up user accounts?
I believe Wordpress has some great plug-ins relating to calendars too.
Also, it would be nice to have some kind of distinction between the different types of events, in terms of experience/fitness levels. I guess that would be another matter altogether :)

agwood
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby agwood » Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:58 am

Yes, it's possible to setup accounts and colour code different types of events. The moderation of entries is exercising our minds at the moment ... someone will need to spend time doing it...

BarryTas
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby BarryTas » Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:29 pm

or just buy a real calender or have a digital calendar and fill it out :)
when do we stop for coffee???

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waramatt
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby waramatt » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:04 pm

It's not just a Tasmanian problem. When I was a regular runner I would chceck http://www.coolrunning.com.au as they maintain a fantastic calendar of running events. I've struggled to find anything comparable for cycling events. Perhaps there are a lot more running than cycling events?
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mcdurdin
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby mcdurdin » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:20 pm

It seems very disjointed. Cycling Tasmania really should be putting all races and major events into their calendar but even southern races don't make it in; then there are the various clubs that each have their own calendars, and organisations like Bike Tas and all the community organisations who do their own rides. I think it really just needs someone from one of these organisations to step up and do it -- but most people, such as myself, don't have the time to spare! Perhaps we'd all rather be on our bikes?
Still young enough to win the Tour de France

gauteng
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby gauteng » Mon Feb 20, 2012 6:57 pm

I agree with Giant Pete, :D there is a massive demand in Hobart for a sporting events calander, not only for races but also rides. This could be conjoined with other popular sporting events such as running kayking etc.
The advantage to this is that we would get a higher number of participants which means greater revenue and importantly awareness. There are heaps of people these days that dont read the paper anymore and dont get to go onto all the diffrent websites.Business opportunity I think

Henry :D

BarryTas
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby BarryTas » Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:03 am

on the Trisouth web site they have a good calendar http://www.triathlonsouth.com.au/
when do we stop for coffee???

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skull
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby skull » Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:47 am

BarryTas wrote:on the Trisouth web site they have a good calendar http://www.triathlonsouth.com.au/
Also I know the web admin for the Tri South site and she said she would be more than happy to add other events on. Unfortunately the club committee's from other sports don't communicate with tri south all that well and thus stuff doesn't get added.

markpa
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby markpa » Thu Feb 23, 2012 10:25 pm

A calendar is one thing but some real communication would be even better.
Wellington Challenge used to be part of Bike Week but is now on it's own.
Then PMM / Rotary/ Amy Gillet is set for the same date, a forthnight before the longstanding century/half-century rides of Bike Week.
Criterium opening the night before Wellington Challenge etc... ?

One of the benefits of Tas. is that the community is close enough that we can usually get in touch with key people pretty easily.

Getting organised at that level would prevent/limit the conflicts and after that a calendar would flow pretty simply.

BenevolantDictatorD
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby BenevolantDictatorD » Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:12 am

Sometimes it is a good result that we have a problem :shock: Not that long ago Mt Wellington Challenge was a scratch race started by the vets. Bike week didn't exist. Amy was still riding. A crit course and velodrome were talked of in hushed tones. There was only the Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday morning shop rides to go out with a bunch. Triathlon was on different days to vets racing. There was a bit of Audax going on - and there was no mountain bike parks anywhere. And now we have a problem because there are too many events! Nice problem. Someone will fix it. All we need to do is find someone. :roll:

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Giant Pete
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby Giant Pete » Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:33 am

I'm excited that there are so many outdoor events on - not just in cycling, but a good runners programme along with triathlon, orienteering, etc.
It would be terrific if we had these kind of events spread out evenly throughout the seasons and categorised for those wishing to visit our state.

I guess I really noticed the calendar issue because I'm new to all of this and didn't have a starting point. When I do hear of an event, it's usually through this forum or Strava.

For now, I will try to collate all the events data into a calendar of my own. Hopefully set up a basic web site and get it out there, given time constraints.
If anyone has a link, or 20, to relevant events, could you please list them here?
From there, I will contact the organisers of each event for an official stamp of approval.

I might need some help too :lol:

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Giant Pete
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby Giant Pete » Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:43 am

And I really despise domain trolls.
tascycling.com.au leads to a generic page filled with search results for accommodation using "tasmania" and "cycling" and a bunch of other related advertising.

And, of course, a link to buy the domain.
Well, I'm not buying.

markpa
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby markpa » Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:49 pm

Giant Pete wrote: For now, I will try to collate all the events data into a calendar of my own. Hopefully set up a basic web site and get it out there, given time constraints.
Pete, I work in IT and while getting the basics up and running isn't usually too hard getting something that integrates well with other tools gets hard.
As mentioned above Bike Tas already have a calendar up and running and I know it is promoted through CyclingSouth as well.

It seems to already include Bike Tas, Cycling South, MTB Orienteering & Courteous Mass events. Getting events from Cycling Tas (doubtful), STCC, Hobart Wheelers plus the shop/Dome rides would make it pretty complete.

There are also other annuals like Freedom Ride, New Horizons Challenge, Tour de Norfy, ...

Getting a solution that integrates with Bike Tas would be a great idea. You'll find there are often tools/methods documented for working with Google products. Though I think Google made some changes to their public calendars.

Possibly a site that allows others to submit events to the Bike Tas Calendar, with confirmation by Bike Tas or the Event organiser.

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Giant Pete
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby Giant Pete » Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:17 pm

markpa wrote:Getting a solution that integrates with Bike Tas would be a great idea. You'll find there are often tools/methods documented for working with Google products. Though I think Google made some changes to their public calendars.

Possibly a site that allows others to submit events to the Bike Tas Calendar, with confirmation by Bike Tas or the Event organiser.
Bike Tas use Google Calendars, which seems to be adequate, although you can't store clickable links in an event (at least not that I found in their docs). At least, the calendar can be shared amongst a select group, so it could be updated by various organisations.

I can see why there isn't a complete solution out there, as it is very time consuming. However, I'm happy to stick my hand up to help out where I can.

agwood
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby agwood » Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:23 am

We have made some progress on developing a combined Tasmanian Cycling Calendar.
The system uses Google Calendars and enables group Calendars to be viewed together or separately.
Bicycle Tasmania is pleased to offer this as a free service to all Tasmanian cyclists. We would like to develop the website in collaboration with interested users .... so at this stage we are looking for your comments and a few volunteers that might want to share their event calendars. We expect that the website will develop according to the needs of its users. Tell us what you think....
https://sites.google.com/a/biketas.org. ... -calendar/

Thanks to Giant Peter and Markpa for their help and advice.

Austin
secretary@biketas.org.au

markpa
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Re: Cycling Event Calendar

Postby markpa » Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:39 pm

agwood wrote:We have made some progress on developing a combined Tasmanian Cycling Calendar.
https://sites.google.com/a/biketas.org. ... -calendar/
I think that looks great & with little effort any cycling group could both provide info. to the calendar and in away that they can use on their own sites.
It has to be better than pdfs.

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