Standards for rating routes and events

[Stephen Povey]

Hi Hubbers,

 

So I've been thinking about ways to rate/rank my rides and I wondered if anyone has any suggestions on how to go about it.

 

So far I have the following data which I think is important:

1) Distance

2) Elevation

3) % single track

4) # of obstacles with warnings

 

So the first two are easy from your GPS device so a ratio of the two gives a good indicator (meters climbed per km on average).  The next two are a bit more subjective.

 

Any thoughts?

[RocknRolla]

https://www.imba.com/resources/maps/trail-difficulty-ratings

 

[Stephen Povey]

Thanks for the link ... Is useful for setting routes and obsticale difficulty but is still pretty subjective in my opinion. Perhaps it's just the mathematician in me looking for a data driven answer

[Skubarra]

Thanks for the link ... Is useful for setting routes and obsticale difficulty but is still pretty subjective in my opinion. Perhaps it's just the mathematician in me looking for a data driven answer

 

I think your attempting the impossible here... But according to what criteria do you want to rank your rides? Difficulty?

 

Weather conditions also big factor

[GlockG4]

I saw on SASeeding there is race weight. The Monster had a race weight of 80% and the lionman 90%, so I don't know how that works.

[Shebeen]

I organise adventure races (ok, well I'm lapsing now), and people hold so much weight to distance. It's even more inaccurate in AR as terrain can vary hugely, but we do need to estimate times when it comes to logistics planning. Sure we do scout the routes beforehand, but not always as we end up using them and there's lots of stopping and exploring when scouting.

 

I say - not all kilometers are created equal.

 

But, I would say that you have an equation

difficulty = Distance*a + cumulative altitude gain*b + trail condition*c

 

you can decide what weightins to use for a, b,c. trail condition could be a sliding one as well (low for good weather, higher for hectic storms/mud)