Originally Posted by
kbarch
So, being Cat 5, and not particularly competitive, I never paid attention to my ranking, but I checked it out when I recently upgraded to 4. I found it interesting that while I'm in the bottom third in my state (New Jersey), I'm in the top third not just for my age (52) and age groups, but overall as well. Similarly, before I upgraded my overall ranking was twice as good as my state ranking.
Anyone else notice this kind of disparity when they looked at rankings, or has it been studied? Any ideas why this might be?
Yes. Apparently the NJ racers are faster/more active/work the system better than riders nationally. Basic stats.
FWIW, I'm in the same boat - Nationally, I'm in the top quartile of cat 4s, but in MO, I'm strictly a run of the mill (52nd percentile) racer. That tells me that as a group, MO racers are higher ranked than a random sampling of racers.
It goes without saying that I'm the fastest guy in my zip code.
As others have noted, your rankings are based on your best races, and the point system will frequently reward you higher for being middle of the pack in a 1-4 race than it will for taking a podium in a cat 4 race.
That said, the numbers do generally reflect where I am based on my results. When I'm having a good day, my most challenging rivals are other guys from St. Louis or areas with a very active scene. I do a lot better against guys who only get to race a few times a year. Go figure.
BB