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The BSB MECCA Index Methodology

How we calculate every athlete grade — every pillar, weight, data source, and the edge cases. We publish this in full because a power ranking is only as credible as the maths behind it.

The short version

Each athlete is scored across multiple pillars of public-domain influence. Each pillar is z-scored within the active rider population, weighted, and combined into a composite. The composite is mapped to a percentile-based letter grade from A+ (top 1%) to F (bottom 5%).

No subjective opinion. No team allegiances. No paid placement. Same maths applied identically to every athlete.

Pillars

The v1 grade combines two pillars currently. Three more are launching with BSB MECCA Pro and the broader rollout. Weights renormalise across active pillars per athlete — missing data on one pillar doesn't penalise an athlete unfairly.

How the composite score is calculated

For each athlete with data on at least one pillar:

1. Each pillar's raw value is log-transformed (log₁₀) to handle heavy-tailed distributions
2. The log values are z-scored across the entire active rider population for that pillar
3. A composite z-score is produced by weighted sum of the athlete's pillar z-scores
4. Weights are renormalised to active pillars only — missing data does not penalise the athlete
5. All composite scores are ranked, and percentile bands map to letter grades

Grade bands (population percentile)

Refresh cadence

• Search demand: weekly
• Wikipedia interest: weekly (rolling 30-day window)
• Social reach: weekly (Phase 1b onward)
• Press tier mentions: daily (Phase 2)
• LLM Share-of-Voice: bi-weekly (Phase 2)

Grades are recalculated nightly. Athletes can move grade bands as their data shifts.

Eligibility

To appear on the public leaderboard, an athlete must have meaningful data on at least one pillar (currently: a search-volume value greater than zero). Athletes without sufficient public signal are not graded — better to be silent than guess.

Verified athletes (those who have claimed their BSB MECCA profile) display a verified badge and may have richer data sourced from authorised social accounts.

Edge cases we explicitly correct for

• Namesakes — riders sharing a name with a politician, actor, or athlete from another sport get disambiguated search volumes. List of corrections is reviewed quarterly.
• Retired athletes — historical legends (Carmichael, McGrath, Stewart) compete against current athletes. We don't apply a retirement decay because cultural relevance is the signal we're measuring, not active competition. Active-only filtered views are available with BSB MECCA Pro.
• Duplicate rider records — our database aggregates Euro and US scraping sources; some riders have duplicate slugs from name variants. Only riders with curated search-pillar data appear on the leaderboard, which removes the noise.
• Bot-inflated socials — once social pillar is live, accounts with abnormally low engagement-to-follower ratios are flagged and capped to prevent gaming.

What this is not

• It is not a "best rider" ranking. BSB MECCA Power Rankings measure on-track performance via ELO. The BSB MECCA Index measures combined on-track and off-track influence — a different question.
• It is not editorial. No journalist input, no team affiliation. Only public-domain data and transparent maths.
• It is not static. Grades update weekly. Hot riders climb. Quiet ones drop.

Got a question?

Methodology questions, corrections, or partnership enquiries: email [email protected].