Starting times

[team fl]

Question about starting times: As far as I can remember, the most popular starting times have been 20h and 21h. Recently, I see often 5 times for one day races, but no races at these times. Is there a reason for that or just random?

In April:
01.04. DdV - 19h, 22h
02.04. Classique de Plouha - 19h, 24h
04.04. Volta Limburg - 19h, 23h
05.04. RVV - 18h, 22h
06.04. Iztulia Basque thingy (stage race) - 19h, 22h
08.04. Scheldeprijs - 19h, 22h
09.04. Odzak - Bakovici - 19h, 22h
10.04. Trieste Ljublijana - 18h, 22h
11.04. Ahmstorf - Helmstedt - 19h, 23h
13.04. Helmstedt - Northeim - 19h, 22h
15.04. Ronde van Limburg - 19h, 22h
17.04. De Brabantse Pijl - 19h, 22h
18.04. Tour de Jura - 19h, 22h
20.04. Tour of the Alps (stage race) - 19h, 22h
(between 23. and 25.04. there are no races in the calendar yet, Vichy at 21.04. has only 10h as starting time)
26.04. LBL - 19h, 22h

So at least half of the month doesn't include 20h or 21h, only one of three stage races includes at one of these times.

Not judging, just wondering

[flockmastoR]

Just to add some information, from the poll (54 users), we know that 21:00 and 22:00 (both 35%) are more popular than 20:00 (22%). Didn't actually check on participation, because it has a lot of more influencing parameters as (one day race vs stage race, stage races in parallel, profile of the race, sequence of races etc.).

I do think from a calendar planning aspect, 21:00 is a bit tricky as it is a bit early for the latest edition, but it is also not really feasible to set a time afterwards (realistically only 23:00 makes sense and has 22% popularity). But for those ultra long monuments and classic races, I guess it would also be ok to set 21:00 as last edition (from my non-evening point of view).

[team fl]

Just to add some information, from the poll (54 users), we know that 21:00 and 22:00 (both 35%) are more popular than 20:00 (22%). Didn't actually check on participation, because it has a lot of more influencing parameters as (one day race vs stage race, stage races in parallel, profile of the race, sequence of races etc.).

I do think from a calendar planning aspect, 21:00 is a bit tricky as it is a bit early for the latest edition, but it is also not really feasible to set a time afterwards (realistically only 23:00 makes sense and has 22% popularity). But for those ultra long monuments and classic races, I guess it would also be ok to set 21:00 as last edition (from my non-evening point of view).

Thanks for the link to the poll-results. Was looking for it but haven't remembered that it was in the 20 years RSF/C4F poll anymore. Guess that's also the reason for the now often 8h-10h combo, while the 20h-22h combo almost doesn't extist anymore?

[Bear]

For now I prefer 21:00. Especially for longer races. Shorter races, up to approx. 90min are fine with 22:00 (for me). I dont know if there are many teams which would like to have more late races again (22 and 23). In this case I can still start at 20:00. Just 19:00 is too early because of work and this might be the case also for others (work, family, ...)

[Hansa]

I would prefer 20h, 19 and especially 18h is often to early for me and 21+ feels to late for me.

[Gipfelstuermer]

I don't understand your statistic FL. You count only the races without 20h/21h but not the ones with 20h/21h, so for me it is difficult to draw a conclusion. Also you compare apples (4 edition stage race) with bananas (5 edition one day race without parallel race), so again difficult to draw conclusions for me.

For real races, when there are 5 times, evening usually gets 18-20-22 or 19-21-23 or sometimes 18-21-23, so with 5 times, there should be no problem for 20/21. With 4 times, it's a different story. The evening (20/21) indeed loses out then being squeezed between early evening (18/19) and late evening (22/23). So as is the case with many of these problems... having more players would be great

By the way, I offered additional 20h for two monuments this month and no one said "yes please" so we ended up having 2x 21h. Should have done it anyhow, even without feedback, but sometimes it would be nice to get some help in these practical decisions.

[team fl]

I think you don't understand my intention. I haven't been complaining or judging, not building a case for or against it. I was just observing, realising that it happens more often than before. So I was wondering if that is intentional. It's just a general discussion . Any by no means do I claim do offer scientifically valid statistics in my starting post.

But then again, what have you not understood about the list?

-> more one day races in April that offer times not at 20h/21h (by the time i was posting: 15 of 22 races in the calendar)
-> majority of stage races in April that offer times not at 20/21 (2 of 3)

I don't see what's wrong with that or why that fact is not understandable. Again, not judging, just observing. Which means there is no need to justify.

I think it doesn't hurt to have such a thread in the general discussion as well, not only for particular races or month in the calendar and race organisation part. Also for you to get some help, if needed.

[Gipfelstuermer]

Thanks for the additional stats:

-> more one day races in April that offer times not at 20h/21h (by the time i was posting: 15 of 22 races in the calendar)

Would be interesting to know if 15 of 22 in April is vastly different from previous months. In the end, it's the 4 editions vs. 5 editions topic. Usually we have more than one race ongoing, especially because of 4 stage races in April, so it's simply not having enough players for 5 editions. If we can promote the game for new teams, that would be great. Or if you have other suggestions would also be nice to know.

-> majority of stage races in April that offer times not at 20/21 (2 of 3)

I think you didn't count Romandie which is planned for 20h, so that makes it 2 of 4, which seems normal/fair to me.

[team fl]

you see the "by the time i was posting" thingy, right?

and why do you keep arguing these 4 or 5 editions? if that's the reason for it, okay, but the fact is that the majority of the available races in the calendar when i posted didn't include 20h and 21h as starting times. that's all it is. not more, not less.

and i won't look up all races from march, february or whenever. If you're interested, feel free to do it yourself. I am not trying to make a point here.

[Falcor CC]

If we can promote the game for new teams, that would be great.

Where can I find marketing material again? More specifically a vertical visual would be nice. Would be happy to share that on my cycling tiktok account (38k views/post average) hoping to attract some younger cycling enthousiasts^^.

[Gipfelstuermer]

you see the "by the time i was posting" thingy, right?
and why do you keep arguing these 4 or 5 editions? if that's the reason for it, okay,

yes and yes

so in short, would love to offer even more 20h/21h, if possible without hurting other times.

[Gipfelstuermer]

Where can I find marketing material again? More specifically a vertical visual would be nice. Would be happy to share that on my cycling tiktok account (38k views/post average) hoping to attract some younger cycling enthousiasts^^.

Nice. Thanks. Good idea.

Marketing material... doesn't exist I think because the game is not a graphics-based game... we really only have the sprint view and the jerseys and compared to modern games, it's really low resolution Perhaps you can do something with the profiles of famous races. Don't know but if you are active on TikTok, you can judge best what kind of graphics could fit there.

[team fl]

Where can I find marketing material again? More specifically a vertical visual would be nice. Would be happy to share that on my cycling tiktok account (38k views/post average) hoping to attract some younger cycling enthousiasts^^.

Nice. Thanks. Good idea.

Marketing material... doesn't exist I think because the game is not a graphics-based game... we really only have the sprint view and the jerseys and compared to modern games, it's really low resolution Perhaps you can do something with the profiles of famous races. Don't know but if you are active on TikTok, you can judge best what kind of graphics could fit there.

to conlude this topic in this thread (maybe it's even a good idea to have a new thread about it in another part of the forum):

The new banners could be used, no?

[Hansa]

By the way, I offered additional 20h for two monuments this month and no one said "yes please" so we ended up having 2x 21h. Should have done it anyhow, even without feedback, but sometimes it would be nice to get some help in these practical decisions.

???
You got a lot of positive feedback for you early calender draft when you had 5 editions. You ignored the positive feedback and changed down to 4 editions anyway.

When we had the split im Flanders i advocated for a 5th edition at least for LBL at the end of april?

So i am not sure where your conclusion comes from that noone wanted an extra edition Monument?

[Gipfelstuermer]

???
You got a lot of positive feedback for you early calender draft when you had 5 editions. You ignored the positive feedback and changed down to 4 editions anyway.

When we had the split im Flanders i advocated for a 5th edition at least for LBL at the end of april?

So i am not sure where your conclusion comes from that noone wanted an extra edition Monument?

I meant after RVV, when I suggested 20 for PR and LBL. But yes, maybe I looked at the wrong numbers or listened to the wrong comments. Anyway, 20 for LBL is coming.

[Falcor CC]

Maybe better in a new topic indeed, but a first Tiktok is posted, just used my team page. For those wanting to promote it: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdH1Ur2q/ (hope that works). 300 views in the first 10mins already

[flockmastoR]

If we can promote the game for new teams, that would be great.

Where can I find marketing material again? More specifically a vertical visual would be nice. Would be happy to share that on my cycling tiktok account (38k views/post average) hoping to attract some younger cycling enthousiasts^^.

just post the general chat and the fairplay comments, everybody will like to play this lovely game then.

[Falcor CC]

Maybe better in a new topic indeed, but a first Tiktok is posted, just used my team page. For those wanting to promote it: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdH1Ur2q/ (hope that works). 300 views in the first 10mins already

Up to 26.000 views and 103 new teams that bought at least 1 rider since I posted (over 170 new teams created). Should have asked for 100k per new team :p

On a more serious note: probably a good sign to revive some marketing for the game.