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Time Trial Handicapping

There are four events throughout the season that are nominated as handicap events:-

Sheila Edward’s 10

Hinder 25

Mike Edwards 50

2-Up Lottery 10

Handicaps are based on each member's best performance in Chippenham & District Wheelers club time trials during the current and previous season. Handicaps are manually produced by the Racing Secretary and therefore riders must pre-enter to give him time to calculate the handicap.  Ideally riders will have completed at least one club evening TT in the racing year but the handicapper will make allowances based on previous year’s performance. Handicap allowances are calculated in the week leading up to each handicap event, published on Facebook and a list available at the start.

The handicaps are calculated as follows:-

Handicap for 10 mile events

  • Each CDW member's best 10 in a CDW time trials over the current and previous season is established. This is compared to their Jack Nunn previous season handicap which is usually the baseline.
  • The fastest CDW rider gets a Zero handicap (scratch)
  • The difference between each member's time and the fastest becomes his/her handicap allowance.
  • At the end of the event handicap times are calculated by deducting the handicap allowance from the actual time.
  • If a member has completed a club 25 or 50 but has no 10 time the factors detailed in the 25 & 50 section will be used to calculate the 10 time.

Handicap for 2-Up
This is clearly a bit of a lottery.  Where 2 riders of a similar ability are paired then their normal 10 handicap time is taken and up to 45 seconds may be deducted to take account of pairs riding.  Where 2 very dissimilar riders are paired the slowest riders base line will be used and up to 60 seconds may be deducted to take account of fact that the faster rider is likely to do much more work and therefore tow the less able rider.

Handicap for 25 & 50 mile events

  • 25 and 50 handicaps are based on '10' times as we have far more data available for that distance and many riders will only have ridden 10's before their first 25 or 50. The exception to this is for those riders than have ridden the early season club 25.
  • The 10 handicap is multiplied by a factor of 2.53** and 5.3** to establish 25 and 50 handicap allowances respectively. This is then sense checked against any previous year handicap.  For example this method said the handicappers time for 25 would be 01:05:16 based on his 10's handicap and in early season he rode a 01:06:25 and a month later rode a 01:05:16.
    If a rider has ridden the early season 25 then a multiplier of 2.155 is used to set a handicap time.  Again this is compared to any 50 ridden the previous year as a sense check.
  • If a rider puts in a faster performance on a 25 or 30 then the future 10 mile handicap will be recalculated using the above factor.

** These factors take account of the tendency for slower riders to fade over longer distances. They have been established by statistical analysis of data from another clubs events over previous seasons, to find a best-fit and provide the closest level of competition.

Handicapping makes no allowance for riders changing bike types.  So if times have been set on a road bike and then the rider rides a time trial bike the results will be skewed.  In addition handicapping does not allow for course variation types, even though we know the club 25 starts faster then the club 50.

Ultimately the handicappers decision is final.

 

Handicap Awards
Individual events – There are handicap awards for each handicap event, usually for first place on handicap only.

The Jack Nunn series is a Handicap series based on times set the previous season or by using the current season’s performance for riders who did no qualify the previous year.  6 rides are needed to set a true handicap.  Where a rider has more than 6 riders their fastest and slowest riders are discarded in descending order till 6 rides are left to calculate their handicap.  If a rider does not have a handicap from the previous year then after 4 rides in the season their fastest and slowest rides are discarded and the remaining 2 rides are used to set their handicap.  If a rider does not complete 6 rides then their 2 ride handicap is carried to the next year but will be over written by the new season once they have set a new season baseline.  This allows the handicap series calculation spreadsheet to be completed with a rework as riders move into the system.

The fastest handicap time for each event is awarded 10 points reducing by 1 point for second, third, etc.  All riders are awarded one ride point for participating. The riders gaining the most points throughout the season are awarded the Jack Nunn trophy.