What are Age Adjustments?

The Age Adjustments method was initially termed Veterans Handicap Result (VHR). We are currently in the process of changing references to the terminology on the website following the agreement at the January 2023 AGM  to prefer the use of Age Adjustments over plusses in VTTA events and competitions.

If you are looking for the VHR tables: The VHR tables for both genders and all machine types are available on the website in the About/Documents section here in either PDF or Excel format. The Excel tables are formatted for input to another spreadsheet. . 

Why Introduce Age Adjustments?

Many, especially younger, vets riding time trials are perplexed by the VTTA standards system and how it determines finishing order. Although the standards system is based on solid evidence of performance decline due to ageing, the results are not presented in an easily understood manner.  Age Adjustments is an alternative way of presenting such results which is seen as more readily intelligible.

The traditional standards system reports results as a vet's ‘plus’, or the improvement in minutes and seconds over the ‘base’ time that the standards system gives for their age and gender. Age Adjustments in contrast reports a handicap, or adjusted, actual time. This gives an easily understood result which can also be readily compared to other riders. From 2023 we will be using Age Adjustments in preference to plusses in all our national championships and competitons and encouraging VTTA groups to do similarly in their events.

Age Adjustments uses the same statistical formula as the standards tables and will therefore produce results in the same finishing order and with the same gaps between riders in terms of minutes and seconds. What changes is the presentation not the formula which has been carefully determined from thousands of vets’ results.

The standards tables are therefore effectively recalculated as 'age adjustments'. These 'age adjustments' are then applied to the actual time for each rider. The Age Adjustment tables show these adjustments for all ages across all the time trialling distances and for 12 and 24 hour events.

By applying the age adjustment for the distance the rider gets an adjusted actual time (or distance in 12 or 24 hour events). To make this clear here is an example that compares the presentation of some results according to the traditional ‘plus’ with the Age Adjusted Time.

So instead of Man 1 telling his clubmates ‘I got a plus of 19:49’ (and blank stares) he can say ‘I rode the equivalent of a 46:11 ‘25’ on age adjustment' and receives appropriate plaudits !

How do Age Adjustments affect the VTTA's personal standards award system? In principle it would make them simpler to understand and calculate! All a rider would have to do is achieve a year-on-year improvement on their season's best age adjusted time at each distance.

In short, the new method help all vets understand their own and others' results as a personal best time (age adjusted) rather than a mysterious ‘plus’. We hope this will encourage participation and make more over 40s interested to join the VTTA.