Quote Originally Posted by Dreaded Jeff View Post
New question if I may - how is 'climb' actually calculated for a race? Is it as simple as adding up the low points to the high points throughout the course, ignoring the downhills? Or is there some cunning formula? I ask because I have been using Strava to try and work it out, based on races I have done many times, and can't get all that close. Now this may be that these races have been recording the 'climb' for years and years, and now modern technology allows us to measure more accurately...but I'm not so sure on that as actual distances are pretty much bang on. What am I missing? I ask because I am looking at some potential Junior Races, I have some nice courses but want to make sure I'm recording accurately from the start. Thanks.
Hi Jeff,
Like most ROs I'm sure, in the old days I used to either count contours, or just take the top height of a climb and subtract the bottom, then add them all up.
For a more recently created race (Castle Carr) I used mapping software (Tracklogs) and got it to tell me the climb, and went round with a GPS to confirm.
But for the existing races, the climb will just stay set as what it always was. Perhaps some ROs will remeasure digitally, but I wouldn't have thought many would.

Regarding distance being more accurate - its a lot easier to measure distance on a map than count contours, so I guess that might be the reason?

So all pretty much what you surmised. There's no cunning formula!