Welcome back, everyone! While I see some teams have already ventured south to get some racing in (and pulled off some impressive results, TBH!), here in the Midwest we’re still a few weeks away from being able to race on non snow-covered roads. In between your trainer sessions and study breaks, let’s go over a few of the rule updates for 2020.
Points
The biggest update to collegiate rules for 2020 has to do with points, which can now be found in the new Collegiate Policy Document. The policy document was created to make rule updates able to happen a bit faster (i.e. less bureaucracy needed), but contains many of the same rules that were previously in the collegiate section of the rulebook.
Previously, there were separate points tables for each category, with yet another table for team scores. That has all been simplified into one points table across all categories. The only small exception to that is Men’s D, which only awards points to the top 20 spots. This new scoring system has been trialed in other conferences, and the feedback has been very positive.
Primes
Along with a simplification of the points table comes a simplification of the number of primes. Each race will get three primes, with points awarded to the top four places. That should be easier to remember, as well as easier than trying to squeeze six primes into a Women’s A crit.
Conference Scoring
Lastly regarding points is a change to how the conference season omniums can be scored. Previously, every race on the calendar counted towards the omnium. Now I have the choice between that or counting your best 70% (rounded up) of results towards the omnium, which will be the option that I go with. That leaves us at:
- Individual Omnium – Best 7 races, out of 9 individual events available
- Team Omnium – Best 10 races, out of 13 team events available
Mountain Bike Season
If you didn’t see it in my last set of updates, bids for the 2020 mountain season are open, and are due March 14th. Please fill out this spreadsheet as well as this bid form if you are interested in hosting a race. Return those forms to me at bryan.garfoot@mwccc.org.
Other news
Stay tuned for some more exciting news regarding your collegiate licenses, which if you haven’t renewed, now would be a terrific time to do so.
If you have any questions on anything, please let me know. Otherwise, I hope to see you all at Bloomington!