I started looking at the ranking system abit and still don’t understand it fully, but the system that the USAC is using is better than what they’ve been using in the past. The key to the system working correctly is that each race that each rider competes in needs to be entered into the system in a timely fashion. Because if this doesn’t happen, then “an ripple effect” occurs and it can spread throughout the ranking system. I don’t quite understand if when a previous event is entered into the system after a lapse, if the program takes those results into consideration and then maybe every other ranking number in the system could theoretically be affected.
I sent the email below to Andrea Smith at USAC on Sunday night and she replied back to me almost immediately. That is service. She checked into my question and sent the following response back to me this evening.
I think it might take a little bit of time, but maybe if we all try to contribute here a little bit, this system might become relevant and usable.
Hi Steve-
I did some checking into this and it turns out your are spot on regarding the cause of the issue. Many UCI races are only turning in UCI #s for the elite categories and are omitting USAC license info. Our events and IT departments are aware of the issue and have been working on a programming solution to hopefully auto-correct the mix-up (correlating UCI #s to USAC #s). This will of course likely cause a bit of a ripple effect as the missing results are validated, effecting riders’ ranking and therefore the weight of other races. When this takes place we do plan on sending a communication explaining this and we also have another reminder planned to distribute to race directors again emphasizing the importance of submitting results as correctly as possible.
I hope this helps answer your question and welcome your thoughts as we work to nail down a system that provides the best possible ranking for our members.
See you in Madison?
-Andrea
—–Original Message—–
From: Steve Tilford [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 7:56 PM
To: Smith, Andrea
Subject: Ranking System
Andrea-I’ve been looking at the ranking system that USAC is going to use to line up riders, other than UCI categories, at Cyclocross Nationals. I posted something on my website, but still have a few questions. I sent an email to Tom Mahoney, but it looks like he is going to be out of the office maybe until ‘cross Nationals in January.
I was wondering why the Elite races at the Gateway Cup in St. Louis and the USGP races in Madison didn’t receive any ranking points. I was thinking it might be because the races submitted the UCI license numbers and not the USAC, so the points weren’t calculated. I looked at the recent UCI races on the East coast and saw that the Elite races received USAC ranking points. Anyway, whatever the reason, I was thinking that this would affect any race that any rider of these races competed in, at any other cyclocross event, since their points would not be correct to tabulate the points for the events held after the St. Louis and Madison races.
Is this wrong logic? And is someone at USAC going to cross reference the UCI numbers to the USAC numbers and award points for these two races held last week?
Thanks.
Steve Tilford
USAC License #35598
Nicely done, Steve. That took some true observation and analytics.