Vet on Standard explained

Those familiar with time trialling, especially those of a certain age, will know how Vet on Standard works. For those new to it, here's a brief description.

Some years ago the Veterans' Time Trials Association (VTTA) devised tables of age-related times over standard distances, ie 10-miles, 25-miles, 50-miles & 100-miles. This is because we all slow down as we get older, but it's possible to have a target whatever your age. The standards for women use the same tables, but an 8 year adjustment is applied, eg a woman of 40 has the same standard time as a 48 year old man, etc., through the age range. There are even standards for tricycles, tandems and tandem trikes. Results are shown as the amount of time a rider beats his or her standard (+) or is behind the standard (-), thus allowing a comparison to be made in an event, irrespective of age. It's generally thought that it's harder for a 40 year old to significantly beat the standard than a fit, much older person. The CTT have their own scale of age-related times for specific events, but these are harder than the VTTA's. The table below shows the VTTA standards for 10 & 25 miles:

Rugby RCC Club Events

We use the above table to calculate Vet on Std results in our club events where the distance is 10 miles or 25 miles. They don't exist for other distances, although we have made our own version to calculate target distances in our annual 4-hour event. This means that we can have a Vet on Std competition in 19 of our 24 evening TTs. We also have an award each season for the best Vet on Std overall by adding together the + or - times from the best 4 10-mile TTs and the best 2 25-mile TTs.

Using the above table riders can check the times posted after each event. Although our set-up calculates the Vet on Std time automatically it could be that we've got your incorrect date of birth, or forgotten that you've had a birthday during the season. Let us know if you don't agree. If you're over 40 and not shown as a vet in our results, then let us know, it's probably because you' were a little coy about your age when filling in your membership form!