Excellent - I'm sure it will be a lovely ride!
I dotwatched a couple of years ago, when I couldn't ride (as we'd had a baby just a few weeks before).
I really enjoyed it. I love maps and working out routes, and was familiar with some of the roads used, which helped. Also, having done the race before, I understood it from a rider's point of view.
I got a mix of people: I was lucky to be given one of the race leaders, I had a couple who were mid-pack, a straggler, a pair and one poor guy whose tracker didn't work so I had no idea where he was until he packed in.
For me, it was the next best thing to riding. I really got into following it, especially the battle at the front between James Hayden, Bjorn Lenhard and Jonas Goy. I learned things that have since been very useful when I have been racing and planning my route that I wouldn't have learned just from doing the ride.
My lead rider was scrupulous in adhering to the rules, but one of my dots made about 6 infringements on illegal roads. I spent most of my time on my lead rider. Partly because it was more important to the race but also because some of the others used a similar route so I didn't need to check it in detail.
The hard bits are in the mountains where there are often several routes parallel to each other. And countries without streetview are harder - Germany, Austria, Bosnia, etc - as it is useful to be able to look at the junctions for road signs.
It took me maybe an hour and a half per day for the first week, then less time as my riders finished or scratched. I then helped out on a few special analysis projects.
You really need two monitors (or one big one that you can split) so that you can look at maps at the same time as trackleaders / freeroute or whatever the dot is in.
Massive thanks to everyone who is helping - at controls, dotwatching or otherwise. If anyone wants any more info or advice on dotwatching, let me know: I wrote a short guide after I did it that I can share.
