Gray Skinner is the founder and CEO of MasterBorn Software, who is responsible for creating Gran Fondo Ranking. GFR is a platform for gathering non-professional cyclists in one place so they can compare their race results and compete with people all over the world. We talked with Gray about this new initiative.

Gray, please introduce yourself!

"Aside from my day job as the CEO of MasterBorn, I am also a competitive cyclist. I moved to Chamonix, France a few years ago and after having a competitive cycling career in the United States, I immediately found the legendary Gran Fondo races in Europe intriguing. There are hundreds of thousands of people, like me, partaking in these events, every year. Being new to the area and hungry for more connection with people who shared my similar interests, I had hoped and was disappointed to find that there was no easy way to connect with the individuals I met at these events."

"As a genuine fan and participant of Gran Fondo events, I found myself curious about who the best Gran Fondo and gravel riders were in the world? What were their stats and how did I stack up against the greats? These are the stories that ought to be told. My curiosity brought me to a place where all truly great ideas tend to begin: the kitchen. And what started out as a spur-of-the-moment brainstorm between GFR co-founder, Dominik Ziarno and myself, with inspiration from Alex Dautel and Xavier Corin-Mick, quickly turned into a fully functioning product team, trainable algorithms and daily stand ups talking about the SuperHuman GFR Score."

What is a GFR score and how is it calculated?

"The heart of Gran Fondo Ranking is the GFR score, which allows us to compare each rider's performance with the “SuperHuman Standard” - the best possible time an amateur or professional cyclist could perform. Everyone is quantitatively evaluated based on this score which enables us to normalize race results. Typically it’s very hard to compare your results from year to year or even course to course because of varying elements of weather, different terrains, etc. Our algorithm takes everything into account and creates objective scores so cyclists all over the world can track their performance over time."

"Even right now, if you have participated in any race in the past two years, you can claim your profile and see your ranking. If it’s not there, email us and we will add it! I would love to see this grow into an avenue for amateur cyclists to boost their name and help them go professional - already the top cyclists have claimed their profiles and see it as a way to promote themselves and that’s really good to see.I am so proud of where my team was able to take this wild idea of mine and so quickly turn it into something that is bringing value to cyclists all over the world. Visit the site to research an upcoming race, see your competition, and then maybe connect with a friend you met on the start line."

"There are many new features still coming down the line and we are excited to share them with you and continue serving the community of cyclists both amateur and professional in the years to come."