The Belgian national championships were decided in a bunch sprint finish (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
One of the most important jobs in bike racing is that of the International Cycling Union (UCI) race time keepers, who have the high-pressure task of accurately and quickly calculating the riders ranking after one-day races and during stage race.
The sport of cycling depends on the timing results in the mountains, time trials and bunch sprints, where the gaps crossing the finish line can come down to milliseconds.
Time keepers are responsible for setting up the finish of each race and they rely on a combination of microchip transponders and photo finish cameras to keep track of every rider during the race and when crossing the finish line. The photo finish system, however, is what time keepers abide by to calculate the official results correctly, down to one thousandths of a second.
