Standards

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The New Method of Age Adjustments from 2023

Before 2023 we used ‘Standard Times’ for race results and Standards Claims (see Historic note below), but to make it easier to understand and compare results we now prefer to use Age Adjustments. They’re specific to age, gender, distance and machine type, and they’re a set of times to be subtracted from your actual time. (The information on this page is specific to race results, you can read about claiming Standard Awards here.)

We have sets of time adjustments for men and for women, and for each gender there are versions for solo bikes, solo trikes, tandem bikes and tandem trikes.

A couple of examples of how Age Adjustments work might help:

  • Rider A, a 45 year old man, is riding a 25. He rides an actual time of 58:55. His Age Adjustment for that distance is 55 seconds, so his Age Adjusted Time (AAT) is 58:00.
  • Rider B, a 56 year old woman, is riding the same event. Her Age Adjustment is 10:00. She rides the course in 01:07:30, so her AAT is 57:30.

The adjustments applied to each ride compare them with the time predicted for a 40 year old male.

In the past we have modified the amount of adjustment applied to actual times as more data was captured, and technology changed. The same sorts of modifications might apply to Age Adjustments in the future depending on how we see the data changing over time.

As you age and you hopefully keep racing, your Age Adjustment increases. This means that you can always compare your Age Adjusted Time to see if you’re improving against expectations.

Historic Note:
‘Standard’ times are a set of times for age, gender, distance and type of machine. If you beat your Standard time your actual time is subtracted, and you achieve a ‘Plus on Standard’. You will see these for historic competition results and they may still appear as we transition to age adjustments.