Race Ranger Sensor Tech Coming to Age Group Racing

It’s been a hot minute since we last checked in on Race Ranger, and last week they made an announcement that I think is pretty notable.  For those not familiar, Race Ranger is essentially a sensor system that’s used in triathlon to reduce drafting. In endurance triathlon races (think iron-distance), drafting is illegal, and if caught by an official, will result in various time penalties. Whereas in shorter-distance triathlons (mainly ITU Olympic Distance, such as at the Olympics), drafting is a part of the race strategy.

With this announcement, the Race Ranger system is going to be leveraged/available for age group athletes at the upcoming Challenge Wanaka Race on February 15th, 2025. Challenge Wanaka is actually a pretty well known race in triathlon circles. The location is awesome, and many northern hemisphere athletes will use it as a season opener of sorts. It tends to attract big names.

Quick Overview:

The Race Ranger system uses two pods, that that affixes to the rear of your bike and the front fork, which includes a crapton of sensors and connectivity in it. Those pods then can detect the exact distance between your bike and the bike in front of you. The entire thing acts somewhat like a mesh network, and has many applications beyond just drafting (just as athlete tracking, potential crash detection, etc…). But today, it’s used for assisting athletes and officials figure out the draft zone.

The system has been used in countless professional-level events over the past few years, and is generally quite liked by the pro scene, as it brings clarity to the draft zone. The ‘draft zone’ is essentially the distance you have to stay behind the rider in front of you. This varies based on the race/organization, but is usually 10 to 20 meters.

I wrote up a big post on how it works a bit over a year ago, based on spending some hands-on time with the system out on the roads near me.

There’s essentially two big reasons athletes thus far tend to like it:

A) Most people suck at knowing exactly how far 10 meters is, both athletes and officials included. You as an athlete may have ruler-like precision, but of the official on the moto next to you needs their eyes checked, you could still get a penalty. By having the light system, everyone involved is clear on the current distance

B) It reduces cheating. All the evidence thus far from pros is that they are largely racing to the lights. Meaning, they’re looking at the lights and staying as close to that edge as possible. Thus, some of the ‘probably more like 8 meters right now’ drafting that was going on, isn’t as prevalent anymore.

At the moment however, the system isn’t automatically flagging penalties for athletes. That still requires an official be present and see it with their eyes. The system is capable of doing so, but nobody at this point wants to cross that policy line. Though, it does sound like the reporting is still happening, in terms of being able to know which athletes seem to be pushing the boundaries more frequently than others. That knowledge can be given to officials to more closely monitor those athletes.

In any case, at this juncture, with plenty of pro races having already happened, none of this is really debatable anymore. We’re past the point where a few years ago people had lots of doubt about the technology, or how athletes (at least pro level athletes) would like it. Everyone seems to like it.

Age Group Introduction:

Except, up until now, ‘everyone’ hasn’t meant age group athletes.

That changes though with this announcement. The Race Ranger system will be available for athletes racing in the half-distance triathlon, which is Swim 1.9km, Bike 90km, Run 21.1km. The Challenge event has a gazillion other races as part of their festival, but it’s only the half-distance that gets it. Which makes sense, I’m not sure we need 5-year old kids with draft sensors on their bikes. Except Billie, don’t trust him.

In the case of Challenge Wanaka, Race Ranger says they’re bringing 300 units to the event (Race Ranger happens to be based on New Zealand as well). So they said to expect that they can equip about 295 bikes or so, accounting for a few spare units.

Of course, there’s going to be a bit of a learning curve for everyone involved, from the athlete to the organizers, to Race Ranger. When it comes to understanding the system/lights, Race Ranger has a little sticker you can put on your stem or top-tube, which reminds you what the light colors mean. Frankly, after just one or two people pass you though, it’s pretty easy to remember.

As with the pro side, there isn’t any automatic penalties being used here. From the conversations I’ve had, this is being looked at more like a large-scale trial than anything else. Understanding how to continue to scale it up. After all, while 300 people is impressive, than’s an entirely different beast than a 2,000 or 3,000 person race. Both in terms of pre-race logistics (affixing to bike seatposts/etc), as well as mid-race technology (ensuring that on a crowded course, the lights remain useful).

In talking to James Elvery, the founder of Race Ranger, he noted:

“It’ll just be running the same as it does for the pros, but we are working on modifications to make it more relevant to age group use down the line. We don’t want to cause a whole lot of chaos in those big 3,000 athlete fields. So at that point it’ll likely be a drafting tool for the competitive age groupers, and more of a live tracker / crashed athlete detector / post race data file gatherer for the rest. The lights might only come on for the competitive ones, no matter who they are following, but the whole field would get the other benefits.”

The second half of that snippet about is basically alluding to ways to make the device more palatable for bigger race organizers, from a cost justification standpoint. Obviously, Race Ranger is a service that race directors pay for, and in turn, those costs are baked into the overall cost/expense of an event. No different than numerous other race expenses.

There’s been some discussion that ‘regular’ athletes don’t want to subsidize the cost of the system for drafting. And while I understand that, I’d argue regular athletes already do that today. After all, they pay for the cost of race officials/motos/timing systems/etc… All of which are there to prevent cheating. In 2025, a timing system is hardly just a finish line and chip. It’s numerous timing mats spread throughout the course, sometimes for race tracking purposes, but frankly, often to catch people trying to cut the course.

Assuming I don’t care about purposeful cheaters opinions (and really, I don’t), I think most athletes do want a fair race. And that’s especially true the more forward in the rankings you get. Triathletes in particular spend incredible amounts of money on not just equipment, but traveling to races to qualify for other events. Likewise, they spend even more amounts of time training, to get faster, to in turn work their way up the podium. Illegal drafting takes away from that. It’s as simple as that.

But back to the point James was making, there’s a lot of other benefits of the system that can increase the overall race experience (in the same way race organizers pay other vendors to increase the experience). Live tracking being a big one. Most ‘live tracking’ today in races is simply athletes crossing timing mats every 5-20KM. That can be a lot of time in between for spectators/family. Likewise, the system could do crash detection, especially useful in triathlon where races span vast distances that might not have anyone nearby for some time.

I don’t think it’s a matter of ‘if’ race ranger will become standard issue in endurance triathlon races, but just a quick of ‘when’. The cost piece will slowly take care of itself. Costs decrease with scale, especially for a small company like Race Ranger, and the more races that the company can enlist, the more it can spread out the underwritten cost of the devices.

In any case, I think this is cool stuff, and I’m eager to hear how it goes down in Wanaka (both the good and the bad). As always with expanding new tech, it’s less about if there are stumbles, but rather how things are fixed and addressed for the future.

With that – thanks for reading!

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