Our age standards are based on information provided by the Australian Time Trial Association. There was quite a bit of debate about it in the Vets discussion group, initially focussing on whether it was appropriate to use 20km times when our course was 'only 19km'. That was a bit misleading, because its usually described as 'about 19km' and most bike computers put it somewhere between 19.7 and 19.9km. Then the issue of 'flatness' got discussed. I think that the course is definitely not flat!
One thing is definite - time trials are the 'race of truth'. Some riders are sceptical about the benefit you get hidden in the bunch, but you can't kid yourself in a time trial.
Obviously, terrain and weather conditions can play a part, but here's some observations that I can draw from the event on Saturday.
My average speed (30.3km/hr) was nearly 3km/hr slower than I've been achieving in road races - and over 5km/hr slower than a couple of criteriums (that were only a whisker shorter) back in the summer season.
Only three of my fellow F-graders were quicker than their age standard - and yes, they were all older than me.
But, my time was quicker than all of them. 
In fact, the slowest actual time in F-grade was recorded by the second highest placed F-grade rider against age standard (10th overall). My time was second fastest, yet I placed fifth out of eight in my grade (37th overall), so the age standard puts a new twist on handicapping.
The 'under vs over' ratio was positive for A-grade, even for C-grade and negative for D- through G-grades.
Overall, 1 woman beat her age standard and 3 didn't. Of the men, 20 were under their age standard, one equalled it and 29 were over. Interestingly, in the summer age standard time trial (over the same course in mid-January), 3 women were under and 6 over their age standard, whereas 29 men were under and only 18 over ther age standard. Even more interestingly, of the 17 men who did both time trials, all but one had a 'better' result in the summer event - as did the only woman to do both. Maybe weather is a real factor. No, it wasn't me that was the odd one out, I was in a bus on my way back from the Jamboree.
All up, it was a good day, despite the wind and a finish that was right on top of the hill.
