Volcano 100

Specialized Bicycle Components · Costa Rica · 2022–2023

One shot, 3,000 riders, no rollback.

I led the race's registration platform and its launch: requirements, pricing, sponsorship and the communication around it. The platform sold registrations for three months, then ran gate entry and kit handoff on race day, the only day it would ever run at full scale.

Problem
Sell, check in and hand kits to 3,000+ riders from 15+ countries, in a rural area
My role
Product owner for the platform; strategy lead for the launch
What I did
Requirements, user stories, scope against a fixed date, pricing and launch phases
Outcome
13% checkout conversion, record sales, zero system errors on race day
A mountain biker in a red Specialized kit, motion-blurred at speed, with the V100 logo across the middle of the frame
Volcano 100.

The constraint that shaped everything

Race day was the only day the platform would run at full scale, and it couldn't be rehearsed live. We load-tested in sandbox environments before launch.

On the day, every handoff was tracked with QR scanning and signature capture. The platform also sold add-ons after registration, like parking.

A phone showing a Volcano 2022 parking pass with its QR code blurred, held over a registration table
A parking pass sold through the platform, checked on site. Personal data blurred.

Building it

My team and I gathered the requirements from the race directors, including the rider information a cycling event needs and generic ticketing tools don't ask for. I defined the specifications and user stories, and worked with the build team and the designers through delivery, cutting scope to protect the date.

Launching it

Sales ran in phases. A pre-sale gave past participants and sponsors' VIP customers priority registration at premium pricing, backed by a video campaign. The public sale used two price tiers tied to sponsor partnerships. Kit pickup became an event of its own, a week of distribution with a sponsor village before the race, and after the race the next edition was announced while momentum was high.

I worked on the 2022 and 2023 editions. I also prepared the 2024 race, then left Specialized in August 2024, a month before it ran.

Results

13%

checkout conversion, record sales

0 system errors across 2,500 race-day handoffs

~92%

of kits collected the same day

The rest were rider no-shows, not system failures

Every year

the platform still runs the event

No one has to babysit it