Run a cycling race,with no list at the sign-on desk
Road race, criterium, cyclo-cross, mountain bike or time trial. Riders enter themselves per category, the numbers are ready, and after the finish the result goes in -- on order, or on the clock for a time trial. The table per category works itself out.
Three ways a race is decided
Which one applies follows from the discipline you pick. Only the criterium leaves you a real choice.
No sign-on list at the desk
The ordinary race. The classification is the order in which the riders cross the line, and that classification decides the prizes. Times are still taken, and they rank nobody, because a whole bunch shares one.
- Road race, criterium, cyclocross and mountain bike cross-country
- One place per rider, with the lowest winning
- A shared place can simply be recorded
- The whole peloton is one result, and nobody is drawn
The result goes in after the finish
In a time trial the riders set off at identical intervals, so nobody is in a bunch and nobody shares a time. There the time is the result and the fastest wins. Gravel counts the same way: a mass start that is fully timed from the gun.
- Time trial and team time trial, four to six riders to a squad
- Gravel, timed from the gun rather than from the start line
- The fastest time wins
- Did not start, did not finish and disqualified stay apart
Every category its own classification
A criterium may be ridden under either of two methods. On the line at the end of the last lap, which is a race on order round a short circuit. Or on points shared out at the intermediate sprints during the race, in which case the highest total wins.
- Points from the intermediate sprints, highest total wins
- No ceiling, because the race ends on laps or on time
- Or simply on the line at the end of the last lap
- The number of laps covered is not recorded separately yet
What a race needs
From the first entry to the result at the line, in one system.
Disciplines and entries
- Road race, time trial, mountain bike cross-country, cyclocross, gravel and track racing
- Team time trial with four to six riders, entering as a squad
- Its own entry fee, capacity and closing date per discipline
- Categories by age and gender, settled before the first entry arrives
- A waiting list as soon as a discipline fills
- Withdrawals and transfers without separate paperwork
Start list and timetable
- The whole field leaves together, so drawing the race means fixing the start list
- The start list is settled before the result can go in
- Several disciplines and categories on the same day
- Several days and several venues inside the same event
- Clashes in the timetable are flagged before you publish
Results and classification
- The right way of counting per discipline, with nothing for you to set
- Places entered for a race, times for a time trial
- A place is worth its own number, so first is one
- A result per category alongside the overall one
- A correction stays visible in the log
Two things to know. Track racing is a single discipline in the catalogue and is read as a race on order, which is right for the scratch and wrong for the pursuit, which is decided on a time. And a stage race with a general classification across several days is not something the platform adds up for you yet.
Cycling race questions
Why is there no time in the result of a road race?+
Because in a road race the time decides nothing. Everybody finishing in the same bunch is credited with the same time, so a result read on time would show a sprint out of a group of a hundred and twenty riders as a hundred and twenty riders in the same place. The order at the line is the result and that is what PlayTour records. The winning time and the gaps that sit beside the places on an official results sheet are not kept here.
Why are cyclocross and mountain biking also on order?+
The reason there is harder than it is on the road. A rider who is lapped is taken out of the race and listed in the order in which the riders were pulled out. Two riders who did not cover the same distance have no comparable time at all. What goes with that is the number of laps down: a rider two laps down and one who finished on the lead lap read identically here.
Can I put a road race and a time trial in the same event?+
Yes. Every discipline brings its own way of counting with it: a time trial and a team time trial go on the clock, a road race and a criterium go on the order at the line, and gravel is timed because a gravel race spreads out over tens of kilometres rather than arriving as a bunch. There is nothing for you to tick.
What happens to a rider with no result?+
In a race on order, did not start, did not finish and disqualified all arrive in the result as the same thing, namely as retired. That is the price of a result made of places. In the time trial, the team time trial and the gravel race the distinction is kept, because there a time and a status are recorded side by side.
I am a rider, what is here for me?+
You find the cycling races listed on PlayTour and enter the discipline and the category you ride with a free account. Paying online is coming soon; until then the organiser collects the entry fee itself.
Organising a bike race?
Tell us what you are putting on and how many riders you expect. We will go through the rules and the way results are processed and open cycling up, and you will hear from us when it is done.