Sportive Standards

derbygrimpeur

Fairly new to Sportives and see a number of events quoting Gold/Silver/Bronze standards. Anyone know how these are calculated? Is there a set convention, or is each event different?

othello

derbygrimpeur wrote:

Fairly new to Sportives and see a number of events quoting Gold/Silver/Bronze standards. Anyone know how these are calculated? Is there a set convention, or is each event different?

Really depends on the course severity. I believe average speeds are used as a good guide but a really lumpy sportive will have a bigger lenght of time for each category.

derbygrimpeur

yeah, that's why I'm wondering if there's a general way of working it out by looking at changes in elevation or something?

toontra

From my experience the "gold" standard is usually achievable by anyone with reasonable fitness. I'm no cat1 racer but I usually manage the gold category fairly comfortably.

You can guess that the organisers quite like letting participants go away with a sense of well-being

othello

toontra wrote:

From my experience the "gold" standard is usually achievable by anyone with reasonable fitness. I'm no cat1 racer but I usually manage the gold category fairly comfortably.

Really? I think you are far fitter than you make out. Or think you are.

Jon8a

I think the organisers just make an educated guess. For the Norther rock cyclone the times were difficult. 9 people out of 1000 got a gold time IIRC and about 60 got a silver.

Probably had something to do with extra miles being added on because they had closed a bridge.

derbygrimpeur

I guess it's a bit on the random side then and at the discretion of organisers.

Cheers for the replies

vs4b

for flat out in the fens the silver std required a moving average of 16mph if you allowed 30mins for stops which was my plan. Sadly i took 35mins at the stops and missed the target by 4mins! Bugger.

I think i have average fitness, i;m overweight but do a decent weekly mileage in the run up to events like this, anyone who gets gold is properly fit in my book.

Bobbinogs

I think the organisers just make it up as they go along. I have done a few and the standard varies enormously. Some will even allow feed stops to be deducted, some won't, some have gold standard as up there with the pros, some give out gold standard like it is going out of fashion.

craker

There was 1 gold and and a few silvers on the Tour Of The Black Mountains a couple of weekends ago. OK I had a couple of mechanicals (20 minutes?) & went the wrong at one point but I was an hour outside the silver time. Ho hum.

toontra

Reading the above it's obvious that the standards vary enormously! The events I've done obviously have lower standards than some others

Philip Whiteman

Unlike audaxes, there is no set standard for any aspect of sportives.

A few UK based sportive organisers have used a spreadsheet based developed for the Maratona or Marmot (I cannot quite remember which) to calculate times. I actually own a copy and use it for my own benchmarking between events.

Ron Stuart

This is an area of quite large concern as this aspect is in need of a sportive wide standardization and encouragement by organizers to implement. There is another area of inconsistency with the random methods used to calculate the amount of ascent and gradients involved in sportives as a whole. The audax organizers use the same calculation method for total climb throughout their events and I see it being something lacking amongst the sportive community.
So let’s get together unify and encourage the use of standards for ride time and integrate age standards as well, make them consistent throughout the events and find a standard method of calculating the ascent/gradients also.

musto_skiff

Why bother; these are not races just challenge rides.

If you want proper measurment of performance enter a race.

Ron Stuart

musto_skiff wrote:

Why bother; these are not races just challenge rides.

If you want proper measurment of performance enter a race.

We are responding to the thread not discussing the merits or otherwise of sportives verses racing, one wonders why someone who has such a lowly attitude to sportives is bothering to even read about its activities.
You may or may not have noticed that unfortunate as it is road racing is on the decline in this country but sportives are on the up and the original poster represents with his post some proof of that.

By the way I used to race Nigel Musto in N12's had Anthony York ( skiff crew) as my Fireball crew for a while, have come 7th in the Endeavour Trophy beating Ian Barker (Silver in Sydney Olympics), won the GP14 inland champs, been runner up in a world Champs as well as the Nationals and various area champs.

So I know a little about sport my friend
.

musto_skiff

Ron,

I know alll those names you have dropped, no need to explain who they are, perhaps I even raced you as I sailed Fireballs in the early 90s, won the nationals in 94 ... I'm don't have a lowly attitude to Sportives; I enjoy doing a few just don't really get why the timing /standards is an issue.

The last one I did clearly lots of people who had signed up for the long route took the short route on the day and as such there were loads of people listed with fast times/gold standards who clearly didn't achieve those standards/times.

BTW if you are still sailing GPs it's time to get into this century

Caer caradoc

Irrespective of the racing issue raised above, it would still be useful to have some form of standards.

Audaxers such as I, are endurance riders and it is useful to have clear benchmarks that lay out standards (such as distance, altitude, etc) and a mechanism by which points can be awarded (AAA, Brevet awards, etc). This provides each audaxer with a good idea about what sort of event they are entering. Unlike sportives, audaxers can build up credits which are acknowledged by AUK at the end of each year. So whilst audaxes are not races, they can turn competitive especially where individuals are chasing points.

Sadly, this is lacking in sportives. So whilst that are not officially races, a systematised framework agreed between the organisers would help. If sportives were not so random, I would probably enter them.

derbygrimpeur

As far as I know, there aren't many road races 100+ miles in length with 3,000m of ascent? I like long hilly rides hence why sportives are attractive. I'm not overly fussed about standards, but if they're going to be used it seems logical that there should be a system for calculating them (and also controls in place to prevent people who switch course mid-ride obtaining false standards).

Ron Stuart

musto_skiff wrote:

Ron,

I know alll those names you have dropped, no need to explain who they are, perhaps I even raced you as I sailed Fireballs in the early 90s, won the nationals in 94 ... I'm don't have a lowly attitude to Sportives; I enjoy doing a few just don't really get why the timing /standards is an issue.

The last one I did clearly lots of people who had signed up for the long route took the short route on the day and as such there were loads of people listed with fast times/gold standards who clearly didn't achieve those standards/times.

BTW if you are still sailing GPs it's time to get into this century

Take my word for it timing and standards matter to lots that do sportives, we compete against the parcours and see how long we take, it is also one of the first questions asked when talking to friends about the previous weekends event and it would be therefore be much more relevant if the events were judged more consistently. It costs quite at lot of money all up to do these sportives for some and they are often a business for some enterprises and deserve to be run in a professional manner, especially as the sportive you refer to (Dragon Ride I think) will be UCI status in the future.

Regards sailing I retired in 2001 for a variety of reasons, problems with elbows/ shoulders and moving from South Northants to Shropshire heralded my move over from two up in a sailing dinghy to two wheels.
Regards 1994 I was runner up to Estaugh at Lee-on-Solent in the GP14 world champs (138 boats) with a Jonnie Mildred crewing who went on to be an ace Fireball crew and won the Nationals as such.

Look after yourself, sailing and cycling are great sports and they have a great advantage in that they can be done in various ways and levels, the main thing isn't how you do it, it's that you do it.

I shall be cycling from home to Abersoch on the 5th of August to catch the GP14 Nationals prize giving.
8)