Alert chat
Two-way messaging between a rider who has raised an Alert and the event organiser, audit-trailed.
Alert chat is the messaging channel between a rider who has triggered an Alert and the event organiser. On Aster, Alert is triggered by the rider tapping a big button, which starts a 60-second cancellable countdown (so a pocket-tap or a recovered crash never raises a false alarm), or automatically via crash detection, which opens the same countdown. The organiser dashboard lights up with the rider's last position, and chat opens for both sides. Every message in the channel is audit-trailed to the event's records. Resolves into one of four states: false_alarm, responding, resolved, or escalated to emergency services.
Bikepacking
Multi-day, often self-supported cycling over remote terrain with all gear carried on the bike.
Bikepacking is the long-distance, often self-supported branch of cycling that combines cycling, camping, and ultra-endurance racing. Riders carry all their kit on the bike (frame bag, seat pack, handlebar roll) and cover routes from a few hundred to several thousand kilometres. Events like Tour Divide (4,400 km Banff to Mexico), Trans Am (6,800 km Astoria to Yorktown), and the Atlas Mountain Race (1,300 km across Morocco) are the marquee bikepacking races, and smaller weekend bikepacking events run year-round across the UK, EU, and US.
Cutoff time
The deadline by which a rider must reach a point on the course or be removed from the leaderboard.
A cutoff time is the wall-clock deadline an organiser sets for an event. Riders who have not reached a specific checkpoint (or the finish) by that time are marked DNF ("did not finish") or auto-finished, depending on the event's rules. Aster's cutoff worker processes these automatically every 60 seconds so the organiser does not have to manually walk down the leaderboard. Critical for long events where slower riders extending the timing window indefinitely is not practical.
DNF
Did Not Finish, a rider who started but did not complete the event.
DNF stands for "Did Not Finish", the status given to a rider who started an event but did not complete it. Riders DNF for mechanicals, injury, weather, missing a cutoff, or just deciding the day is not worth pushing through. On Aster, DNF is set by the rider themselves (Abandon button, 4-digit-confirmed), by the cutoff worker (if the rider misses an organiser-set cutoff), or manually by the organiser. The DNF status keeps the leaderboard honest and the rider's ride record accurate.
Dot watching
Following live GPS dots on a map during ultra-endurance bike races. A spectator subculture turned mainstream.
Dot watching is the colloquial term for following live GPS dots representing riders on a map during ultra-endurance bike races. The practice originated around the bikepacking community's coverage of Trackleaders-tracked events (Tour Divide, Trans Am, Atlas Mountain Race, the Iditarod Trail Invitational) and has grown into the mainstream of endurance cycling spectatorship. The "dots" are live positions of riders, moving across a route map, sometimes pausing for sleep or mechanicals, sometimes racing each other for the line. Dot watchers will refresh tracker pages all day during a marquee event, follow specific riders, and aggregate discussion on Slack, Discord, and now Reddit.
Finish-line geofence
A circular zone on the map that auto-detects when a rider crosses the finish line.
A finish-line geofence is a virtual circle (a latitude and longitude point plus a radius, typically 25 to 100 metres) that the organiser drops on the map at the finish line. When a rider's GPS ping lands inside that circle, the platform auto-marks them as finished, with no chip mat and no manual confirmation. Aster's geofence triggers a finish timestamp, freezes the rider's position on the leaderboard, and broadcasts a "race_finished" event to the rider's watchers. Removes the entire chip-on-the-line logistics layer for organisers who do not need millisecond-precision timing.
Gravel racing
Off-road cycling racing on unpaved surfaces (gravel, dirt, fire road) with road-bike-derived equipment.
Gravel racing is the off-road branch of cycling racing that runs on unpaved surfaces, gravel roads, fire roads, jeep tracks, occasional singletrack, using drop-bar bikes derived from road frames but with wider tyres and more clearance. The sport boomed in the late-2010s and early-2020s with US events like Unbound Gravel (Kansas, 200 miles, oversubscribed lottery), SBT GRVL (Steamboat Springs), and Big Sugar (Bentonville), plus European races like The Traka (Girona), Dirty Reiver (Northumberland), and the UCI Gravel World Series. Distinct from cyclocross (shorter, more technical, multi-lap) and mountain biking (more singletrack, suspension).
Just Ride
Standalone tracking for any activity not tied to an event, solo training, group spins, recces.
Just Ride is Aster's mode for tracking any ride or run that is not part of an event you have entered. Solo training, a spin with mates, recce, gravel commute, anything. Same GPS tracking, same watch-link sharing as race events, no event entry needed. Free for athletes, always. Each Just Ride generates a unique share link the athlete can send to anyone, with no app install needed for the watcher and no cap on how many people follow it, where Strava Beacon caps live location at three contacts and Garmin LiveTrack goes to a hand-picked contact list. Crash detection runs in the background and can raise an Alert automatically.
Leaderboard gap
The live distance or time difference between a rider and the rider ahead.
A leaderboard gap is the live distance or time separation between two riders on the same event. Aster shows route-distance gaps ("Rider B is 2.3 km behind Rider A") rather than last-checkpoint splits, because the latter goes stale the moment a rider passes a checkpoint and only updates on the next one. The route-distance approach uses the current GPS pings of both riders, snapped to the route polyline, to compute the gap right now. Critical for the mid-race storytelling moments, "the gap is closing" and "the leader is pulling away", that make races worth watching live.
Off-route detection
Auto-detection when a rider deviates from the planned course beyond a configurable threshold.
Off-route detection compares a rider's GPS position against the event's planned route polyline. When the rider drifts beyond a configurable distance (Aster default: 100 metres) from the route, the platform raises an off-route alert. Usually a navigation mistake at a junction or a deliberate detour for a feed station, occasionally a rider is genuinely lost. Aster surfaces the alert in the organiser dashboard and (configurably) to the rider's phone. The threshold is per-event so a singletrack mountain bike course with looser GPS lock does not false-positive against a road race where 100m off-route is meaningful.
Point-to-point adventure
A self-supported ride from A to B with no prescribed route, riders pick their own line.
Point-to-point adventure (Aster's display label for the underlying "Grand Départ" event type) is a ride format where the organiser sets a start, a finish, and optionally a few checkpoints, but no prescribed route between them. Riders pick their own line, navigate independently, and arrive in their own time. The format covers ultra-endurance bikepacking ("from this car park to that pub, 800 km, see you in a few days") down to weekend club outings. Distinct from races (mass-start, GPX-defined) and time trials (GPX-defined, rolling start).
Tracker page
The public page where watchers follow a race live.
A tracker page is the public-facing surface where watchers follow a race or ride live. On Aster, each event has its own tracker page showing the route map, live rider positions, a live leaderboard with route-distance gaps, push notifications when riders start, pass checkpoints or finish, and a story feed for race recaps and updates. No app install required, it opens in any browser, mobile or desktop. Just Ride mode generates a shareable tracker page per activity.
Watch link
A shareable URL that lets anyone follow a rider live without installing an app.
A watch link is a unique URL Aster generates for a Just Ride or event entry that the rider can share with anyone, family, friends, club members, sponsors, anyone, and have them follow the rider live in their browser. No app install for the watcher, no account creation, and no cap on the number of people watching, where Strava Beacon caps live location at three contacts and Garmin LiveTrack emails a hand-picked contact list. Watch links are revocable by the rider and expire when the ride ends (live) but persist as the ride's public archive.