stop worrying about whatRead more . I dont really race so I am OK and any workouts are harder this way. In reality no under 12 is competing with a decent 2nd or 3rd cat (UK system) Ive ridden with enough talented youth riders that this is fact so letting young kids crush half decent amateurs on zwift would be unrealistic. And this is why reverse weight doping is a thing. I have wondered about this subject on a few occasions. However, I was able to navigate to the settings page by doing the following. Skinny guys get DQd if they match heavies on the flat for power so they can NEVER win, even in the mountains. On a flat ride I would beat every sub 60kg cat B rider too. Whats the cheaters solution? ZwiftPower - Login Please update your Zwift ID on the connection page to complete registration. Im more concerned about the guy who finished 5th with 144bpm. Completing this first step means that you've given permission to share your results and activity history with ZwiftPower, so now all of your performance and race data can be transferred across to the website. Im new to Zwift and its racing and what I like notice is how well I do compared to theRead more , This is not just about cheating. You must be a much better person than me, because thats something I will Never make peace with. The license would be needed to participate in ranked races, however if you dont have a license, other races would be available to participate in. Zwift Insider is independent of Zwift corporate (www.zwift.com), although Zwift does provide funding to help defray site costs. Most of the time, this will be what you use to figure out your race category. But it highlights a bigger problem, and that is the fundamental flaw of using watts per kilo for race categorization. yea but realistically is it worth it for them to dedicate the resources to that $$$$$$$, Well, thats good news. The only place where being heavy helps is on the decent, which are almost all short (except Ventoux and Alpe de Zwift), and as a heavy guy (85kgs) I need to recover on the decent. But youre not affecting anyone elses experience. If its a big hill, well then w/kg has us equalised. We can name and shame these few. there's a million and 1 reasons why it is not a legitimate sport. I did on one and second on the other. I think with a results based system would help as it would the sandbaggers, but it wont eliminate the weight cheats entirely, those that just want to gain a little more w/kg by losing a few virtual pounds. But I get beaten by lots of other zwifters, even on flat courses. As soon as I start pedaling Im pretty much into threshold (around 170bpm). I dont mind the low HRs but the low power and high w/kg really irk me! Race them if you want, but Rides like Tour de Zwift are not based on rider category, they are based on distance. 240W 50kg riders (4.8W/kg) beat 380W 95kg riders in B category Tempus Fugit time trials. It does the job as described. The default position is midway between "Off" and "Max," or 50 percent of the grade resistance you'd find while riding the same grade of hill in the real world. Im sure it happens, but I would guess its pretty rare certainly less of a problem than normal weight doping. My 3 race FTP is at 4.07w/kg (248w @ 61kg), but Im still in Cat B. Would love your thoughts, please comment. You can record your weight n height n have it verified by experts etc up to five minutes before an event. So I dont expect to be as competitive vs. a pure cyclist. There are two ways to do this. Riders weight will rise and fall but under normal circumstances within a range. I am 65 kg with FTP of 270 W, which equlas 4,15 w/kg. Yet the lesson is clear if you want to win, even on flat courses, have or claim a very low weight. Updating Your Privacy Settings in Zwift Companion To update your default privacy settings, sign in to the Zwift Companion (ZC) app on your iOS or Andro. More of an issue than thisRead more . Bikecalculator suggests not Go to http://bikecalculator.com/ enter an 85kg rider, riding on the drops for 16.2kms (ie an ITT) leaving all else unchanged. Conserving energy is a key part of successful bike racing. I just got upgraded to CAT A according to zwiftpower. In spectacular and shocking fashion. Email [email protected] if you want to reset everything. This is how racing is supposed to work. 0.5kg discrepancy either side is actually quite small. However, insecure Freds jumpingRead more , I am new to Zwift, but I do wonder how it is youll see a bunch of people finish at the front of a D race at 4-5 W/kg. I have tended to notice that a significant number of powerful zwifters real world Strava performances pale in comparison to their online achievements. (Same effect in a sprint, just harder to isolate). Choose a Zwift workout, but before you start riding look at the workout breakdown on the left side of the screen. IRL cycling pros are not exactly heavy weights and lean-ness is highly encouraged. Ive done multiple races where my main goal was to keep the watts as low as possible while hanging with the front group. It impacts the Group Rides and as you said the performance statistics individually. And besides, my main goal on Zwift is to not get dropped in the hills during Team Cryo-Gens more hardcore Saturday rides! I think that point based system is an improvement, but it doesnt address the weight issue. Ive been on a mission to get back to my racing weight in 2020. I agree Paul great idea. Included with this license agreement can be the approval to show height and weight. But I also did it because I knew it was great practice! I have been frustrated with the GC results in the current Tour of Watopia series. I am currently 145kg and have not experienced any bullying so far. We are new to Zwift and My son Whos 12 has used it to race to make up for his list u12 crit season. (Its not the only part, of course! Youre having fun winning (or nearly winning) C races! Noob question though, whats the etiquette around weighing with kit on or off. I do find it amazing, funny and sad that IRL at several Ironman events me, a C rider, beat many A riders in the cycling segment. Congratulations John on your retirement and Zwift is a great retirement present. People still rode at B level pace in a C group. IMHO, enforcing in-category entry for races will be a quick, easy and effective change. See how you can support Zwift Insider! I lost some weight during these few months and gained on FTP Now facing going to C and not getting any good results within the category, Eric, thanks for bringing this to light. Contribute a post, shop through us, make a donation, advertise on this site. Now head back to ZwiftPower, click 'Connect' at the top of the page, then enter your Zwift ID in the box when prompted. Bath In the many B races i have done it was more fun because i was competitive. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy I am about to hit the four year mark on Zwift. however 2 riders at the same w/kg, heavier riders have the advantage on flats & descents: https://zwiftinsider.com/wkg-tests/. Good question. Some races (many, in fact) on Zwift work exactly like that. Withings scale that automatically updates your Zwift weight, a month ago in the final post of my race category series, https://smartscalesync.com/?utm_source=tr, https://zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=5528, https://zwiftinsider.com/how-does-zwift-calculate-my-speed/, Zwift x UCI To Host Cycling Events for the Olympic Esports Series 2023, Race London ZRacing March Series Details, Notable Zwift Events for the Weekend of March 4-5. I guess I shouldnt be surprised. I use Zwift to get in shape and prepare for outside riding. Whatever your answer, some people will never like it, but there has to be a clear, credible answer for the majority to support. This is why for a while I was ranked as a C even though my w/kg was higher than 3.2 since my watts werent over 200. I rode outside last night, and Im sure I will again soon. That is pretty low compared to most people on zwiftpower. If it is.. someone must be able to point me to the rule where it says that it is forbidden..? There is enough variation in power profile to make it interesting without weight, what makes racing fun is trying to create tactics that favour yourRead more , Interesting & well reasoned article which answers a lot of things which were puzzling me. All the emphasis on physical metrics makes sense for putting together how speed is calculated but not how one can race. In fact, you can change a workout on Zwift about as fast as you can U-turn a bicycle on a real hill. I would thought with how sensitive the sensors are they could place another one somewhere on the unit that simply does the job and takes away all the manual input. I havent even used my road bike outdoors since 2012. nothing less. It's also possible to filter results and data by categories, such as different age or power ranges. Now I know it is a thing. Living at 5,900 ft. adds a performance restriction on me, I get it. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Im not too concerned about weight doping really. I now know of over 20 category D zwift users that have said theyre not going to bother with the Zwift races anymore. Hide the weight who cares let them upgrade all the way to As where you have strict reporting requirements. So I just bumped myself up to the B group and went faster overall simply because there were faster people to draft off of. His favourite races are Strade Bianche and the Volta a Portugal, and he rides a Colnago C40. Can someone answer why we need the different categories? Do some races have split out start times so you are only racing with those of similar ability? For example, if a rider has an FTP of 210 watts and weighs 75 kilograms, that means the rider's FTP is 2.8 w/kg. Its going to take a certain amount of calories for a certain person to perform a given amount of work in a given time. Your voice is important to us. Im about to end up in the same situation (last races at 3.99, 3.98 and 3.99 W/kg) and Im not really worried about being promoted to A. Note how he wins races while his max HR is around 30 beats below his maximum. My power to weight ratio would be the same, but Id get the benefits you get from being a heavier rider. With racer categories? My performance IRL then probably looks pale compared to when Im racing in Zwift, I use the same power meter on Zwift as I do outdoors and I only push it outdoors during FTP tests and during closed road events (i.e. Now head back to ZwiftPower, click 'Connect' at the top of the page, then enter your Zwift ID in the box when prompted. How come I get beat in sprints when a 60kg guy puts out 700W, when I put out over 1000W at 76kg? The categories currently used in most Zwift events are based on your FTP watts per kilo- that is, your FTP in watts, divided by your weight in kilograms. Theres a bit of a fuss on the ZP forums at the moment about this form of sandbagging where people deliberately ride within the w/kg limits but are riding well below their potential ability. Zwift posted a follow-up message on the forum, Zwift x UCI To Host Cycling Events for the Olympic Esports Series 2023, Race London ZRacing March Series Details, Notable Zwift Events for the Weekend of March 4-5. On Zwift Power categories have both a wattage requirement and a w/kg requirement. Todd_S (Todd S) March 12, 2015, 3:09am #4 I'm new to the app. In the 2 months Ive been on Zwift Ive become a stronger rider than ever, because Zwift encourages me to push myself harder than I do in real life. First, you need to sign up for an account. That's it! I am racing in the Cs finishing in the 40-50s but there are 30 + racers ahead of me posting watt/kilo of A, and strong B racers. They CANNOT win. I think theres another more interesting angle than just trying to stay down a category. But the vast majority do not. Example: have you ever purposely avoided weighing yourself (especially you who have a Withings scale that automatically updates your Zwift weight) because you know youve put on a few pounds over the weekend? It doesnt appear that people are abiding by the categories. (a is tough and im struggling at max h/r for most of the race).Ive gone from 87kgs to 80 kgs in this time and feel fitter than ever. But without any hard and fast rules, we cant say anything is illegalat least for certain races. They are not, and never were, skill classes of any kind (ie. And as well as your race results, you can check your distance ridden, total metres climbed, power peaks from one second up to 75 minutes, and more besides. I currently use the Garmin Smart Scale so I may invest in the Withings scale. Not knowing what to pick and with minutes until the my first race, I selected the C group and was thus filtered out of the Zwift Power race results when I then posted a 4.00w/kg over the 28 minute race. Is a very strong rider for his age and trains hard. Monthly weigh ins arent perfect but they are better than no weigh ins. Zwift is great just to ride around and it has lots of good training sessions which you can do. Knowing when to go hard and having the fitness to do so are also vital skills.). Lucky forRead more . Keep writing this sort of thing. (Image credit: George Marshall / Zwift) The first thing you notice when the flag drops, is Zwift racing is so much harder than your run of the mill bike race . If there are problems, Zwift already has a reporting function and everything is recorded police that properly andRead more . I am not in the least bit interested in competition cycling, so no point in doping in either direction as i would only be cheating myself. I climbed the Alpe last night for Stage 3 of the Tour of Watopia, missing my target of going under an hour by just over 12 seconds (Aargh!!). Hardly true Say you train and commit yourself to being honest to achieve better fitness,and also better results, albeit virtually..then someone finishes better than you solely because of the BS numbers they entered. I once made myself much heavier so I could compete against my 11-year-old son in a head to head Zwift climbing race. Category systems are complex beasts, of course, I agree, people can have fun with weight doping and such aslong they dont enter competitive races. I am always passed by everyone on the way up but can usually catch up on the way down (190cm/93kg). Sure, easy! Current category system simply allows very fast but heavy riders to race in categories lower than their actual abilities. My W/Kg has gone from 3.76 to 3.97 without me really improving my FTP. We mentioned categories earlier as one of the ways in which you can search through your results and statistics, but they're also a method by which you get sorted into races. Im using a quarq crank power meter on my rock and roll while I save up for direct drive. I think it would be best if there was a separate cat system for flat routes (based on watts) and for hilly routes (based on w/kg), My understanding is that Zwift still applies real world physics to this situation, and maybe the article doesnt allude to it, in that on the flat Zwift wont use w/kg to drive speed but your pure watts. Manually change your weight in Zwift by adding 10 pounds. There's a forum, too, so that users can discuss ongoing race series, find out about upcoming events and have any queries answered and problems solved. Why dont you start self-regulating then? My power is often in the top few. See https://zwiftinsider.com/how-does-zwift-calculate-my-speed/, I think if a racer doesnt want to cat up in order to keep winning in their current cat, she or he would likely just go the traditional sandbagging route (as others have suggested here). . It's harder than real racing. This can be seen by comparing Zwift physics with real life physics (calculated by websites likeRead more . What if you are super committed and gain the weight in real life just so you can stay in the category , Excellent posts on perhaps the most serious non-hardware problem in Zwift right now. light guys categorically do NOT have an advantage on the flats vs heavier guys, assuming both riding at same w/kg, heavy guy WILL be going faster on Zwift. The race I did had all categories racing together with a mass start, so the categories felt arbitrary as my place was not within my chosen category but across the whole field anyway. As a 96kg, 51 year old with an FTP of 317 and a resting HR of about 48 (and a theoretical maximum HR of 174) Im not sure why my lower HR during an event should seen as suspicious. You have lowered your weight and skewed your power graph so it is inaccurate. I am a long time racer in NorCal and cheating is cheating. Joining ZwiftPower isn't the most straightforward series of steps, but we've broken it down so you can get started as soon as possible. Someone with my FTP should be CAT B, regardless of weight. Everyone races at the same weight/height. There was a problem. Theyre only cheating themselves and it all comes out in the wash eventually. Its only a bit of fun at my level (solid B with the odd podium). Had assumed I just rode inefficiently. it's a good training tool. for example,Read more . As such, we have agreed to pause this change while we develop tools that deliver greater transparency to Zwift racing while promoting wellness. Obviously, these are generally accepted rules in the Zwift Community. Absolutely impossible. Similar to the announcement of the European Super League in soccer, Zwift failed to read the room. The 33-pound Hub is 14 pounds lighter than the 47-pound Wahoo Kickr, even though the two trainers are almost exactly the same size. Fluctuations of a few percent would be tolerated and percent change would be displayed on ZP. As others have said, your higher weight helps on flat courses. Share your thoughts below! The issues with e-racing remain the same, and largely ignored for years now. A great challenge for those looking for those training gains. IRead more , Aaron, do you know what is the wattage requirement for Cat A? Zwift essentially encourages people to be less than truthful about their weight. For the time being, height and weight will remain visible on ZwiftPower. Login Required The Zwift Engineering team is focused on improving security for ZwiftPower users. Racing the As resp. Too light and watts go down as does watts per kilo. This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. If thats not something that needs fixing then why run any races? Thats not what I recall at all, everything is a race, even if you werent aware . triathlon). I used to live next to the Alpe and later, next to the Ventoux. heavy riders have an advantage on flat courses.. https://zwiftinsider.com/wkg-tests/ plus 60-70kg is perferctly normal body weight for adult cyclists, nothing worth complaining about. Heres how it works. This covers name changes as well as weight/height changes during an event. Certainly it impacts the accuracy of race performance and results. If they keep riders from competing in categories below their ranking, it will reduce the number of sandbaggers and cruisers. As Zwift racer James Eastwood so aptly put it, The community dont want to see peoples weight they want fair racing.. Contribute a post, shop through us, make a donation, advertise on this site. Click on the Settings button and you'll find the Trainer Difficulty slider. The categorization system is, like you say, fundamentally flawed. The bottom line is that in any competition there will always be someone who wants to cheat to win.Read more . I have seen riders weighting 56 kgs and week later they are 35 kgs. I think the main problem with women and weight on zwift is regular weightdoping, magnified probably by all the wonderful social stigmas and judgment surrounding womens bodies. On Zwift I look suspicous. Daniel has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France and the spring Classics, and has interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel, Mark Cavendish, Demi Vollering, and Anna van der Breggen. are clay hart and sally flynn still married; composite chart 12th house; tupperware party points; st francis of assisi school jobs If I wanted to win I just drop my weight to 65kgs 350w/65kgs is a lot better than 350w/85kgs, of course 350w/65kg is better than 350w/85kg, its a massive increase in w/kg. Too heavy watts are up but watts per kilo goes down. We are both lighter riders and find the w/kg categorisation system frustrating (unfair even) but its what we have at the moment I think most people feel like they have a right to be competitive but this simply is not the case and ifRead more . Next up is the most finicky part of the process finding your Zwift ID in order to connect your accounts. Why not ride to your strengths? Future state can add a nominal cost to said license to support clean racing via Zwift tech updates. Totally agree with you. Ive connected my garmin scale with this app https://smartscalesync.com/?utm_source=tr I may of course be wrong, and these are all true weights, but Id be very surprised if that were the case, in the races where this matters, riders have to submit a private youtube weigh-in video <2 hrs before the race. Heavy riders not only have a huge advantage on down slopes (the steeper the more advantage); they also have an advantage on the flats; its only when it gets to above 5%+ you can start to break a heavier rider. But then you could have someone in the same age group who maxes out at 170. Zwift excessively rewards the athlete for being light and small. If people want to cheat, they will and can do so in any uncontrolled situation. Taking that info away further depersonalizes the platform, and and may be fine in group rides, but it is a step closer to racing against bots.