Age Handicap

If you're like many riders that participate in the Time Trials at Lowe's Motor Speedway, you watch some of those fast times from the younger riders and wonder how you might compare if you were their age. Or maybe you wonder how you'd compare with the "average" Time Trialist in your age category. Although there is no hard and fast answer, if we take a page from the British Cycling Organization, we can gain some insight. Because of the extensive TT club system, the Brits use handicapping extensively to help level the field and provide greater competition between clubs and individuals. With the structure of the CCTTA and the TT series at Lowe's Motor Speedway, it's impractical to establish handicaps for each racer. However, the Brits have also established a less precise handicap system that they refer to as Age Based Handicapping. When investigating this handicapping system, it appears to have some merit for our general purpose. The Age Based Handicap provides a basis for determining the effect of age on the time for the average Time Trialist to complete a 10 mile Time Trial.

The following chart lists the average times for a ten mile Time Trial broken down by age. For the purpose of comparison, we have also listed the Average Rider's Handicap for riders over 40 years of age and the time increments between the various ages. With this data, you can determine how you compare to the "average" Time Trialist in any age group. The data also enables one to determine how you stack-up, to some degree, with riders that are older or younger than you. Although this information is very interesting, we suspect it will be the subject of much debate. These Age Handicaps should only be used as a gross estimate and is presented solely for your edification. We hope this information will provide some level of comparison. At this time, the CCTTA has no plans of using Age Handicap for the individual races.