Tritans wrote:Thank you both. I get it now. Glad I'm not 72 !
Also.
Is this sheet graded in any way ? Fastest off last ? Is this decided by the time you submitted ?
It's graded (or seeded). The time you submitted is used.
It used to be the case that you also put the course and the winners time, so the field setter could make allowances for times done on good days on fast courses vs bad days on slow courses. It's been dumbed down a bit.
It is more complex that fastest last.
The idea is to set it in such a way that you minimise the likelihood of people passing, or when they pass, the speeds are very different, so there is minimal chance of drafting - ie you get overtaken/overtake rapidly. Flat course help to even speeds out (eliminate differences in power to weight).
Finally, it is set to reduce the amount of time that there are riders on the course.
So, people of the same speed are placed 10 minutes apart. So you are 24. People going at the same speed will be 14 and 34. So you should never see them or get tangled up with them.
Notice how there is no #1?
The fastest people are given numbers ending in 0.
topps is the fastests (he won the BBAR last year, with his 100 time set in this event). He is off at number 90. The next best is at 80 and so on down to 10. Then the next lot have numbers ending in 5.
The slowest riders have numbers ending in 9.
This means that 90 will be a lot faster than 89. So will catch him and pass him quickly.
The slowest rider in the field should be number 9.
The next slowest have numbers ending in 4.
You are 24. So 14, 89, 79, 69, 59, 49, 39, 29, 19 and 9 should be slower than you.
Sometimes 5 and 0s are treated the same though (ie gaps of 5 mins instead of 10).
But that is the basic idea.
It tends to work pretty well. You will be amazed at how lonely you ate, especially when compared with a tri.
You'll probably only get over taken by two or three people. You may catch #19. But that could be all you see all day.
There is a spreadsheet that you can download from the ctt these days. You put everyone in order, press a button, and it sets the field.
The first useful computer program I ever wrote was to set a TT field
I've not checked the rules for nearly 40 years, but I doubt they have changed much.