For a forthcoming “activities” event I am toying with the idea of some form of stationary bike racing. Simply put, the contestants are timed over a set distance, say 500 metres. Any bright ideas of how to record this. I could just have a Garmin ( with a speed sensor on the back wheel) in one hand and a stop watch in the other but I reckon that something slightly more sophisticated might be possible without too much trouble or technology. If I could display the Garmin screen on a PC screen for the rider, the timer and the spectators to see it would be great.
Any bright ideas?

Trainer road or similar onto a big screen?

Goole roller racing and rollapaluza

Got any cash? Rollapaluza?

APF

Like rollapaluza without paying for it. Thinking of general public as well as cyclists.
Trainer road? Some form of training program I guess. Don’t know of anyone with such a thing. Keep them coming> Low tech is best

Just stick a wired speedo onto the back wheel. If you want to be really fancy you could mount the rear brake lever separate so you could hold the wheel for 3,2,1 countdown.

Yeah but a bigger display. I could have a Garmin recording and plugged to a laptop it would be great.
Like the rear brake idea.

My company had a charity fund raiser last year and rented some bikes that were attached to blenders but also recorded distance over 60 seconds. Naturally, we made cocktails. Was much fun.

Get a USB Ant+ dongle and plug it into the laptop. Then that can connect to your Garmin speed sensor (and heart rate/power meters if you want).

For software, Golden Cheetah is free, it has a real-time training mode. So that will let you display speed/time etc on the laptop.