Changes for 2022-2023

The sport of cross country skiing has grown so much in recent year, changes to procedures and culture have been required to ensure expectations are met consistently at ever larger events. When putting on races of 700+ participants, planning details ahead of time and sticking to key milestones is critical. For instance, the days of having open discussions about major changes at the TCM (team captain’s meeting) is simply not tenable when you have over 100 coaches and team leaders in attendance. TCMS have become one-directional information sessions by necessity to streamline communications.

Over the years, Zone4 has been encouraging the concept of coaches digitally reviewing confirmation lists and seeding lists hours before the TCM and adhering to a strict deadline of 3PM on changes. The startlist was never published before the TCM though just in case the jury made any last minute changes. This delay between the 3PM cut off and the end of TCM was a problem for the LOC though because it required the team of bib picking volunteers to wait till after the TCM which made for late nights and tired volunteers at major events. For 2022-2023, Nordiq Canada in collaboration with the national TDs will be codifying in tech packages this key 3 PM cut-off for any changes which will allow the Jury to lock-in and publish the startlist soon after that cut off making the final startlist available in good time before the TCM. This will allow bib picking crews to finish at a reasonable time and will further solidify the concept of no-changes-at-the-TCM.

Working towards this new standard, we feel it’s important that clubs communicate these hard-set deadlines and communication expectations in their race notices. Likewise, we feel it’s critical that we document club’s responsibilities for what reports need to be published and when.

Timeline and Key Milestones

1. 1-2 months out. Create Registration and Event Page that will hold all lists, links, results, and information for the event.
2. Publish a Confirmation List that includes: FirstName, LastName, Club, Team, BibPickup, NCLicence, FISLicence, Race Categories (for each day). Group by Bib Pickup or Club
3. About 2 weeks before the event until registration closes:
   • Start data cleanup and review
   • Begin validating data with the Validation tool
   • Confirm eligibility of racers
   • Contact racers with issues
4. About 1 week before the event (or once the points list for the current period are published) :
   • Add Points information to the confirmation list and ensure the most current points are validated onto each racer.
   • Email/whatsapp all coaches with a link to the Confirmation List and instructions on what to review. Remind them of the hard 3 PM cut-off. See Sample EMail #1 below.
5. Once registration has closed:
   • Do final check of validation, cleanup and eligibility
   • Create the each race from the registration and draft the start list according to the race notice and tech package.
   • Make the Draft Start List available for each race and email links to key officials. The jury can make adjustments to time-gaps, and overall schedule that won’t affect each categories seeding order.
   • Create Seeding List Racer Reports for each race and email/whatsapp coaches to review it. Remind them again of the hard 3 PM cut-off.
6. 3 PM day before race
   • Stop accepting any further changes to the registration data.
   • In each race, click Import-All to re-sync all changes into each race file.
   • Re-assign bibs, chips, and start times to ensure all changes are captures and the new startlist has everything on it.
   • Notify the Jury for them to do final review/sign-off on the Startlist. This is the final set of eyes on it before it goes public. Once public, you cannot ud/re-do as someone out there will not be aware of changes made and you have a mess on race day.
   • Publish the Start List publicly and email/whatsapp the coaches.
   • Create the Bib Pickup List and sort bibs
   • Hold the TCM.

Sample EMail #1

Confirmation List

An initial Confirmation List should be available the moment the event registration goes live. As additional fields get populated and validated, they should be added to the Confirmation List. Fields included on this list should be limited to those that that have an impact on Start Lists and results. Personal information should avoided. The following are the recommended fields:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Club
• Team (typically just Tier 1 events)
• University (typically just National Championships)
• Province (typically just National Championships)
• Category (for every race available in the event)
• Licences (CCC, FIS, USSA, etc…)
• Points (sprint and distance)

The Confirmation List should be grouped by Bib Pickup and sorted by Last Name then First Name. Use a filter to include only racers on the list.

A coaches confirmation list should also be included for most Tier 1 and 2 events. This allows coaches to confirm they will be included on any informational emails. This should include:

• Coach First Name
• Coach Last Name
• Coach Club
• Coach Team

The coaches list should be sorted by Club and Team. Use a filter to include only coaches on the list.

Seeding List

The Seeding List is best defined as the Start List without bib numbers or start times. There will be one Seeding List published per race. It is used by coaches and athletes to confirm the correct race start order without publishing bib and start time information that is likely to change as changes are processed. The Seeding List should be published as soon as possible after the validation has been finished. It should be possible to publish all Seed Lists for an event before the start of the event.

The Seed List should include the following fields:

• License
• Points (sprint or distance)
• Seed (interval start distance races only)
• Year of Birth
• Province
• Club
• Team

Start List

The Start List acts as the schedule for the race. The racers will be ordered by their start order in an interval start race or points order in a mass start race. The Start List should include the same fields as the Seed List and will automatically add the Bib and Start Time columns. The timing software has the option to make a private Draft Start List available at the same time as the public Seed List. The URL of this Draft Start List can be sent to key officials for review while remaining hidden from the public. The final step with an approved Start List is to make it public.

Once a Start List has been publicly published after the 3 PM cut off, there is still a chance that mistakes may be found. In such a case it is up to the Jury is such a change will be allowed and if so, how can it be done so as to not affect the published startlist. In many cases the Jury will elect to not allow the change as ample opportunity has been provided to catch mistakes.

Bib Pickup List

The Bib Pickup List is used to ease distributing bibs to coaches and can be built once the Start List is published. The Bib Pickup List is based on either the Bib Pickup field for Tier 1 events or the Club field for Tier 2 or 3 events. This list is used to build packages for each coach containing the bibs for the athletes they are responsible for and should contain a copy of their list. Citizen Tier events typically distribute bibs to racers at a package pickup location based on name. The Bib Pickup list is generated using race reporting with the following fields:

• Bib
• First Name
• Last Name
• Club
• Team
• Category
• Start Time

The list should be grouped by Bib Pickup for Tier 1 events or Club for Tier 2 or 3 events and be sorted by last name then first name.