I have a national USCF (United States Cycling Federation) ranking! All you need to do to get one, actually, is to ride in a USCF race and finish it, so it’s not like it’s a big deal, but I was pleased to realize that someone is keeping track of my performances and that I’m not dead last in my category. Many race organizers report their results to the USCF, which then uses a complicated formula to give all finishers a certain number of points (this is based on your place in the finish, the number of riders in a race, your age group and probably other things too) and then you get ranked along with other riders in your category. So my ranking isn’t based on how I compete against all other women, but against all other category 4 women (beginners).
And you’d like to know what my national ranking is? I’m 132 out of 225 in road races and 145 out of 195 in criteriums. Woo-hoo! This is based on only three races, actually; I guess they only count races where you ride with your gender and category, and most of my races last year were with men. The USCF website has my results in these three races (results which I’d pretty much forgotten about): 22nd and 33rd in the road races and 13th in the criterium.
The website gives even more information though; here are the various ways they break it down for road races (I’m giving away my age here!):
| 1 | Rank in your zip code |
| 6 | Rank in your state |
| 4 | Rank in your riding age (33) |
| 22 | Rank in 5 year age range (30-34) |
| 55 | Rank in 10 year age range (30-39) |
| 132 | Overall rank |
And here are the stats for criteriums:
| 1 | Rank in your zip code |
| 5 | Rank in your state |
| 4 | Rank in your riding age (33) |
| 25 | Rank in 5 year age range (30-34) |
| 58 | Rank in 10 year age range (30-39) |
| 145 | Overall Rank |
#1 in my zip code! — and probably the only one. What these stats conveniently leave out is how many people I’m competing against in each of these categories. Oh, this makes me laugh. So, okay — I have lots of room for improvement. But that’s a good thing, because it won’t be so impossibly hard to move up in the overall rankings this year. And maybe I’ll manage to stay #1 in my zip code.
Of Books and Bicycles 
Congratulations! I know people always say it doesn’t matter how you rank or if you win or whatever, but that you enjoy what you’re doing, and while I am sure you enjoy what you’re doing (or you wouldn’t bother), doesn’t it give you a good feeling to know–it’s sort of like encouragement. It gives you an idea of where you are at and what how you can improve. Now will you race more in your “category” this year?
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I do like knowing where I stand, Danielle, and since I’m so new at racing, it doesn’t bother me at all that my stats are … less than stellar. (If I really, really cared about them I wouldn’t post about it, but as I only care a little, I find it amusing to post them on my blog.) I hope to do more races this year, but I’m not sure about racing in my own category, largely because there aren’t a lot of races for just my category — there aren’t many women riders and so the women’s categories tend to get lumped together in races, which makes them very, very difficult. A lot of races will have a “women’s open” race, which means I, as a category 4 woman, might be racing against category 1 women who are super strong and fast. That’s very hard, and so I ride with the beginning men because they keep a slower pace. We’ll see, though. I hope to ride in more races overall this year, and hopefully more of them will be women’s races.
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Must be all that cycling in frigid weather. Hope you don’t mind if I go around telling everyone I happen to be friends with a #1-ranking cyclist.
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That’s pretty neat that you can get you ranking like that. Even if it isn’t important to you, it must be nice to know how you are doing by comparison. And #1 in your zip code is pretty cool, and your state ranking is not to0 shabby either!
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I don’t mind at all Emily 🙂
Stefanie, It is nice to know how I’m doing — it’s nice that my efforts get recognized in some way, that I have a public existence because of my cycling. It’s kind of fun.
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You’re practically a cycling maven!! Congrats! This is exciting!!!
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Your stats sound great and I hope to see you improve each year… It looks as though my son will miss the half-Ironman at Disney in May. His squadron will now make its third tour to Iraq with this latest buildup. Take care…
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Yay! 1* anywhere is really great, Dorothy! Your stats look very impressive to me. Even if I were the only rider in the state, out of honesty, I’d need to be ranked 50th or so.
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Thank you Heather! Edd — improvement is definitely the goal. I’m sorry about your son. I hope he stays well. Litlove — thanks!
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