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1996 Low-Key Hillclimbs Basic Rules


Equipment and Conduct

For mass-start races, USCF rules for conduct and equipment for a road race apply. For individual-start races, USCF equipment rules for conduct and equipment for a time-trial apply, including a ban on "taking pace behind other riders or vehicles closer than 25 meters ahead or 2 meters to the side." In both cases, a certified helmet is required.


Basic Scoring

Jump to scoring example.

Scoring is simple!

Each rider on single-gender bikes gets for the day points equal to his/her speed as a percentage of the speed of the fastest finisher of the same sex. For example, if you win in 20:00 and Kev finishes in 40:00, you get 100 points and Kev gets 50. If Mark finishes in 25:00, he gets 80 points.

Cyclists on mixed-gender bikes (presumably at least a tandem....) have their scores equal to the percentage of the fastest rider's speed of either gender. Thus if Mark and Jill ride a tandem together, both will receive the same score, even though Mark is male and Jill is female.

Total score at the end of the series is tabulated by adding the following:

Thus, your best results are emphasized, but one is also rewarded for showing up each week. Zero points are scored for weeks which are rained out or for which one does not participate.

Your maximum possible score after one race is thus 800 points. At the end of the series, a perfect score is 3600 points.

Ride Coordinators

What about coordinators? (warning -- this sounds complicated, but is actually quite simple...) For purposes of individual, but not team, standings, a rider who helps coordinate a climb during a week and is thus unable to compete may substitute for that week the score (s)he receives during the next week of the series during which (s)he at least start the climb. If the coordinating week is the last week of the series during which the coordinator starts, the score from the first week of the series during which (s)he started will be used instead. Scores are removed from consideration for subsequent weeks coordinated when they are used for one week coordinated; thus no week's score can be used more than twice. This implies the number of weeks during which a rider receives such substitute scores as a coordinator cannot exceed the number of weeks during which the rider actually officially started.

(Whew!)

Team Scores

Team scores are tabulated by adding the top 2 scores by members of a team each week. Thus, different riders can contribute to a team's scores on different weeks, depending on the relative performance of teammates. These scores can be either male or female for the ``overall team score'', female only for the ``female only'' team score, or male only for the ``male only'' team score. The net score for a team is calculated in a fashion similar to that used to calculate the net scores for individuals. The maximum team score is thus 1600 after one event and 7200 after eight or nine.

Teams

Teams made up as declared by riders. These can be official USCF teams, touring clubs, or just informal groups formed just for this series. Riders switching teams in the middle of the series score for the newly joined team only for weeks following the switch, scores from weeks prior granted to other teams remain with those teams.

There are also single-sex team rankings. A team's women's score is the sum of the top two scores registed by individual women on the team in the given week. Likewise, a team's men's score is the sum of the top two scores registered by individual men on the team in the week. Overall rankings are maintained in these categories, as well, using the same formula that is applied to the team-overall score.

Want an Example?

Jump to the scoring example.

Questions?

Questions? Objections? Fire off an email to the Low-Key Hillclimb Series Committee.


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