Hi Folks! After finishing a race today a message popped up which said “You’ve finished in the top N% of riders.” How is N calculated? I assume it would be my ranking in my category divided by the number of riders in that category but that does not seen to be the case. I’m new to racing and have a feeling I’m missing something obvious here. Thanks!
I know this is a dated query, but am curious on this. I got some very low number ‘top X%’ that is nowhere near being correct.
As still no answer, I’m curious about other race entrant numbers as well. Where do they come from and why are they all different?
For this event, the Stage1 Queens Hwy:
Zwift homepage Activity screen says 58 Zwifters
Companion App lists 86 participants
Zwiftpower says 56, plus 13 riders not listed (=69)
When riding, I believe in the Zwifters nearby screen, I was shown XX out of ~90+ (can’t recall exactly)
Are you in Cat D? Low %ages seem to be prevalent in cat D.
Yup…
Just curious how to correlate the numbers. I presume there’s no way to tell how many riders started a race but DNF? I guess you need to screen capture the count just prior to the race start while in the pen?
The first question raised relates to the popup at the event’s end. It said I finished in the top 17% of my category, which to be honest would have been more accurate if it said ‘bottom 17%’ 
– even with the quite differing numbers of entrants depending on which site you look at (which was 2nd part of the question).
I believe if you look at screenshots, especially early in race screenshots, of those riders towards the back of the field you can tell how many have actually started the race. I generally find those at the very back of the field are shown to have a few ( low numbers) behind them but I don’t think these other riders ever got out of the pen. I suspect some riders sign up and get themselves in the pen but actually never start but the race number includes them. I think this fact, if correct, makes people think riders are pulling out of races when in fact they have never started.
To test you need to sign up for a race, delay your start by 1 minute and see where you position is in relation to the number of entrants. I suspect you will not be in last place if you start one minute after others.
I suspect the number of non finishers is not quite as bad as some think, but I’m possibly wrong, I think most just never started - not sure how or why.
In answer to your question about top 17%. I think you will find if you look at your results screenshot and divide your finishing position by the large 400+ number top left of screen you will find this comes to 17%. (It doesn’t always but is usually within just 1 or 2 %)
I believe, without enough proof and not always spot on, that your finishing position is divided by the number of riders finishing before you irrespective of which category they are riding in.