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RESPONSE TO RUDYARD RYDER'S PROPOSAL BY THE
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

In the December 2019 edition of The Veteran there was an interesting and thought-provoking
letter from a 'Rudyard Ryder' suggesting an alternative way of presenting results on standard.
The basic idea was not to change the standard tables (again!) but to use these existing tables to
calculate an adjusted actual time rather than the VTTA plus time. The case for doing so was the
fact that pluses can be difficult to explain, especially to new members, and do not give a readily
intelligible indication of performance. An ‘adjusted time’ it was suggested gives a result that is
easier to grasp and to compare with other riders. An important point was that the result of an
event would not be changed by this approach. Riders would finish in exactly the same order,
and with the same time gaps, on adjusted time as they would on plus. It’s just the way the
standard tables are applied and the results presented.
At its meeting in November the NEC reviewed the article and considered it worthy of further
investigation. Geoff Perry was tasked with this and presented his findings at the AGM workshop
in January. There is a copy of his presentation in the Documents section of the website. Geoff
gave some helpful insights into the proposal. He suggested the best way to understand the idea
is that it is using the standard tables to determine what time each rider would have achieved if
they were a 40 year old. In essence the adjusted time is a handicap time based on reducing a
rider’s actual time by the extra age allowance they have over a 40 year old man in the standard
tables.
The general feeling in the AGM discussion was that there was merit in the idea and that we
should seek further feedback on it, but not rush into changes. Geoff did point out that there are
some more technical points that would need to be addressed, notably how best to present the
results for women and how best to calculate the results in the season long competitions. The
performance required to gain a standard medal would not change but there could be a change in
terminology.
As mentioned earlier, the ‘adjusted time’ may be described as the result of subtracting an age
related vets-handicap allowance from the actual time. The 40 year old man is on ‘scratch’ and
has a zero Vets-Handicap, but a 50 year old man has a handicap of 2:03 for 25 miles and a 70
year old has 7:42; these are the difference in standards at 25 miles. A 40 year old woman would
have 5:35 over a 40 year old man. The increase in Vets-Handicap as one ages is the underlying
calibration of the ‘standards’ table.
The Vets-Handicap (or some other term we may decide on) can easily be calculated from the
existing standard tables. If the idea was approved, the intention would be to publish these
tables in place of the existing standard tables, both in print and on the website. For a 25m TT
the standard time was defined as 1:06:00 for a 40 year old man so all we have to do is subtract
1:06:00 from all the 25m standard tables to derive the veteran handicap tables.
The race result is determined by ‘adjusted time’ and this is simply your actual time minus the
Vets-Handicap; under the existing system the race result is determined by pluses and this is your
standard minus your actual time. Look at the tables opposite and you will see that the
arithmetic becomes much simpler.

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