Gridding - how it works

The purpose of gridding is primarily safety, not to promote league position. We aim to be as fair and unbiased as we can be.

Riders are NOT gridded by category. For example U12 boys/girls are ranked together even though their results are classified apart. Riders are placed based on their overall finishing position with the start wave.

If you have not moved category

We look at your previous 5 results within the last rolling year. We take the best 3 and average them. This ensures that you’re not penalised for the odd howler we all have.

If you have moved category and it’s your first race in the new category

We take your best 3 results of 5 as above in your old category and apply a fudge factor made up of a percentage degradation and a fixed number of places. Typically this means you won’t move categories and start your first race on the front row unless you're doing *really* well.

If you move category and it’s not your first race

We only consider races in your new category.

But I had a howler in my first race in the new category

Sorry - that's the way the cookie crumbles. Good results will quickly move you back up.

I came 5th in my last race but the historic result shows me as 7th

As per the above, you are gridded based on where you finished relative to your start wave, not your rider category. Eg you may be 4th Senior woman, but Caroline finished in front of you so your place (for gridding purposes) is 5th.

I've never raced in this league before

Why not?

We have collated all the results across the country for all leagues over the last year. If you don't meet any of the criteria above then we will try to match you against results in other leagues. This is based on your name and club. It's not perfect, but it's not terrible either, and we'll try and place you relative to your peers based on category.

In a normal year we would also consider your BC ranking. Sadly this is not a normal year and there is no BC ranking.

Finally, if we still can't find any results to go on, you will be given a randomised place at the rear of the grid.

But but but... I still think I've been placed wrongly

There is an email link below for queries. Please re-read the above and consider what specifically your query is. Have we not recorded your previous results correctly? Have we got someone else’s result wrong? Are you currently mostly riding in Europe and we dont have any results to go on?

Please don’t email about your son/daughter being behind people they usually beat until you have looked at *those* people’s results.