Why try to force IRL parameters that can not be enforced. We would like to thank the community for your passion and feedback. Or theyll ride races 1-2 categories below their actual W/kg so they can still win and feel like that theyre legends. Note how he wins races while his max HR is around 30 beats below his maximum. Zwif: your ultimate guide What you see a lot are riders who are (claiming) to be really light with decent but not exceptional watts. Take one of our four FTP tests to determine your FTP. I think a once-weekly weigh-in is acceptable. Well Eric, my weight is plummeting, and Ill probably be taking a break from Zwift over the summer, so Im sure the upgrade is coming very soon!!! IRead more , Aaron, do you know what is the wattage requirement for Cat A? Great drafting skills!, Heres the thing: I probably am a fairly efficient racer, when I want to be. 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. Yes thats completely unacceptable, you should never be at a disadvantage at any time in your life, just as your mother raised you. This would include preventing people from entering the wrong (too low) category, and multiple month suspensions (race events would not appear in that persons Zwift application event list, no ability to enter) for using a height or weight that cannot be verified, or miscalibration of a smart trainer. And besides, my main goal on Zwift is to not get dropped in the hills during Team Cryo-Gens more hardcore Saturday rides! Well, imagine youre a strong C racer. Same reason there are categories and age group races outdoors! Choose a Zwift workout, but before you start riding look at the workout breakdown on the left side of the screen. This afternoon, Zwift posted a follow-up message on the forum. I may try and snag a couple of cat C golds before taking the break, but definitely wont be reverse weight doping to do so the upgrade to B will be a bigger prize than any gold medal. If you need to cheat to get the results you want then why even bother. In the future, well continue to bring potential product ideas and changes to members of the Zwift Racing Community, with the hope that youll embrace this as a collaborative effort to help shape the experience. The algorithms very much help heavier riders in descents, which gets forgotten when all we discuss is climbing. why because of weight, not power. I started zwifting about 2 1/2 months ago.I did the ftp test and put in the correct weight.Ive no idea how precise my trainer is tho.what i do know is,Ive managed to go from cat c to a. Because narcissistic people want to get validation from somewhere/someone that theyre special/different and if they cant get it legitimately theyll lie, cheat, and steal to do so. Absolutely impossible. 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 am a long time racer in NorCal and cheating is cheating. Obviously, these are generally accepted rules in the Zwift Community. Im the opposite. As soon as I start pedaling Im pretty much into threshold (around 170bpm). yes, but you are missing my point. 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. Kudos to Zwift for listening to their customers and admitting they made a mistake. Ive connected my garmin scale with this app https://smartscalesync.com/?utm_source=tr Using your Mac or PC, you can do it online on the Zwift website. A strict w/kg classification isnt perfect. As there is no official A+ CAT there is nothing to worry about, but if there were, I would be right between A and A+. I completely missed these as I reinvented the wheel, trying to stir up the hornets nest on the Zwift forums the other day. I once made myself much heavier so I could compete against my 11-year-old son in a head to head Zwift climbing race. And this is why reverse weight doping is a thing. The book Fast After 50 is a good read on how masters athletes can train more effectively. There is no disqualification for going over your w/kg limit. Yes, we need to be categorized by our race ranking, not power. Zwift Insider is independent of Zwift corporate (www.zwift.com), although Zwift does provide funding to help defray site costs. I did this because I had a particular effort level planned for my workout that day, and didnt want to exceed it. EZ and self regulating. Some races (many, in fact) on Zwift work exactly like that. Someone sandbagging will get promoted out of category and will not be allowed to reg for lower categories. However, I was able to navigate to the settings page by doing the following. Most of the time, this will be what you use to figure out your race category. Chip on the shoulder there or what? If you set your weight high enough that you fail to do well you will drop in the categories. Not too many people actually want to see other peoples height or weight except to be able to verify race results are reasonable. I have been light and I have been heavy. I was just naturally heavy and it put me at the top of the C class in w/kg. Contribute a post, shop through us, make a donation, advertise on this site. Everyone else in the race is riding flat out (your own HR was 174bpm) but these guys are just cruising along watching their watts and are then able toRead more , Not sure its that simple I am a heavy category C racer, and (funnily enough) finished 5th in both my recent Crit City races with average HR of 153 and 150. We really like the sound of this: In the future, well continue to bring potential product ideas and changes to members of the Zwift Racing Community, with the hope that youll embrace this as a collaborative effort to help shape the experience. In IRL there is a double draft. (and dont do organized rides for fairness) so I dont have resistance changes and sometimes zwift reports extraordinary power readings for a ride. Context, Tim, context! This calculates that this heavy rider would take 23:14 to do the distance a justRead more , Everyone has a sweet spot for weight. ZwiftPower - Login Please update your Zwift ID on the connection page to complete registration. Yet the lesson is clear if you want to win, even on flat courses, have or claim a very low weight. Once you have a number for your FTP in watts, divide it by your weight in kilograms. Im glad you wrote about this. Maybe they should display and categorise HR as a %age? Bath Keep it on. It's possible to check just about any kind of Zwift result using ZwiftPower, with the website sortable by leagues, race series and segments. Though our intent is to protect potentially vulnerable users by removing labels that can trigger unhealthy behaviours, we also hear the concerns of the racing community. 240W 50kg riders (4.8W/kg) beat 380W 95kg riders in B category Tempus Fugit time trials. 0.5kg discrepancy either side is actually quite small. I guess I could play the same game and pretend to be 65kgs (350/65 = an impressive 5.38w/kg), This is where Zwifts scaling of CdA on height and weight gets out of whack with reality. But youre training and racing and getting stronger, and eventually your FTP improves to 260 watts, which is 3.25 w/kg. Click on the Settings button and you'll find the Trainer Difficulty slider. There was a problem. However, I do understand Kens point. Once I hit 185 its either sit up and catch my breath of fall of the bike. what does help identify and stop cheats is formalizing race series and having them use an organization like Zada (whether effective now or not, this is the correct path). Tough to recover after attacks in a race when youre always near maxing out. Problem solved! Seeing someone race cat A/B on Zwift and then be at the back of the age group pack in a local tri/ bike race canRead more , I understand what you are saying, but the average racer who can legitimately churn out x watts/ kilo for minutes on end will be doing more with that than just being a zwift warrior (if they are getting onto the road to really ride and not just commute), and, traffic lights or not, their real-world rides will at least give resemblance to their zwift output, even if only for certain segments at a time. Next up is the most finicky part of the process finding your Zwift ID in order to connect your accounts. If there are problems, Zwift already has a reporting function and everything is recorded police that properly andRead more . Why you can trust Cyclingnews 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. Their hr should also correspond, which they often dont. Zwift Insider makes a small commission on purchases made from these links, so please shop through them to support our efforts. MyRead more . stop worrying about whatRead more . bottom line for me, its a virtual training world, a virtual hammer isnt the same as a real hammer. Last week I jumped into my first race and it was at the last minute on a whim because I was getting tired of my training ride. And flags height and weight changes if they go up or down alot. would that be cheating then ? Or theyll ignore leaders instructions and ride off the front of a group (flyers). I love reading it. I use Zwift to get in shape and prepare for outside riding. I just got upgraded to CAT A according to zwiftpower. Im quite heavy, at about 85kgs, but also 183cms tall (and 52 years old). Everyone races at the same weight/height. Youre having fun winning (or nearly winning) C races! Hopefully ZHQ will take a harder look the changes that have been proposed over the past year or so. Hi Using HRM is difficult as well as you max HRM changes with age mine is 159 flat out but I am over 60. 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. thanks for the help with the graphs. I have heard women admit on social rides that their zwift weight is their goal weightRead more . People still rode at B level pace in a C group. Hes had to up his weight as he is only 35kg ( upped time 45kg) he but puts out 220watt so his ftp is 5.5-6w/kg in a race. there's a million and 1 reasons why it is not a legitimate sport. With racer categories? I ride B category races & never podium but have been puzzled as I always seem to have a higher w/kg than most of the other riders in the race. A good portion of that weight difference is in the Hub's 10.3 . 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 . ), You say at the end..you do you, it doesnt affect anyone. If they keep riders from competing in categories below their ranking, it will reduce the number of sandbaggers and cruisers. Yes us heavier riders have the downhill advantage definitely. Cheapest Zwift setup: Everything to help you onto Zwift for the first time Put simply, ZwiftPower is a community-driven website that complements the Zwift app. Keep answering that question and youll keep most people on side. Im 170cm and currently 61kg with an ideal triathlon racing weight of 59kg. Similar to the announcement of the European Super League in soccer, Zwift failed to read the room. I recently won a C race, but it didnt feel like winning as I knew there were 2 categories faster. The key phrase there is have the same W/kg its very easy to boost your W/kg simply tell Zwift you are lighter than you really are. This covers name changes as well as weight/height changes during an event. Mate youre a legend. The first way is to head into your profile. You should do much better at your actual weight in that case. There is no progression from lower to higher categories through placement. If people want to cheat, they will and can do so in any uncontrolled situation. Level 50. It must be very hard to do with many, many lines of code to implement otherwise it wouldve been done by now, In reality these changes would not (will not) impact cheating. As such, we have agreed to pause this change while we develop tools that deliver greater transparency to Zwift racing while promoting wellness. It's a bit more complicated than most website sign-ups, but now you'll be all ready to get started. I argue that he is intentionally misrepresenting his weight so he can place higher in B instead of getting shelled in A (like I do). It all has to do with the way Zwifts racing categories work. Yes, there are plenty of variabies, but power is power. Weight doping is a key challenge for cycling esports to overcome, and its one reason why many big races (e.g., those with prize money) require riders to show up and weigh in on-location in a supervised environment. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy So its not Zwift putting you at a disadvantage but the situation itself, just as you would be in the real world in that situation. Good heavens man, the sentence before You do you says If its not done during a competitive Zwift event, I dont see it as a problem. Obviously weight doping in races is cheating and not acceptable. My 3.9w/kg (a new PR!) Im a heavy rider at 102kgs and 193cm tall I once reverse doped my weight at the top of the radio tower to try and achieve the 100km/HR badge It had the opposite effect in that I was actually slower than when descending at my actual weight lol I dont race other than against myself so Ive never weight doped as such My observations recently however have created an awareness of how many stick insects ride bikes on zwift . Too heavy watts are up but watts per kilo goes down. Not true, at least not absolutely. I have been frustrated with the GC results in the current Tour of Watopia series. It would be easy to deny it was intentional. See how you can support Zwift Insider! My best race results as a Zwift B are on flatter routes, and I find my watts per kilo are consistently lower than most of the riders around me. I think the Zwift algorithm is quite relevant because it implies a good workout in any race for any kind of rider (and thats what we are looking for). So I just bumped myself up to the B group and went faster overall simply because there were faster people to draft off of. Even at my age I still plan to compete in MTB races when the world gets back to racing. Current category system simply allows very fast but heavy riders to race in categories lower than their actual abilities. However, I have a lighter and faster son that smokes me head to head. 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. , Myself being a lighter rider who fluctuates some 2kg during a week I tend to always use my upper weight giving me a lower Wkg. I hopeRead more . Todd_S (Todd S) March 12, 2015, 3:09am #4 I'm new to the app. Frankly I struggle to believe these are real. Hide the weight who cares let them upgrade all the way to As where you have strict reporting requirements. 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. 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. 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!!). It is obviously a stupid thing ( weight doping) and why a rider would do this is beyond me but pride and quasi Strava bragging or Zwift Power bragging is a thing. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. Honest and goal driven. Im curious to see this summer if I can do the numbers outdoors as I push out on Zwift but I cant even think of a road to use for 30 mins without stop signs, pot holes, lots of traffic, etc. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. Had assumed I just rode inefficiently. It points to the need for a results-based categorization system, which I discussed a month ago in the final post of my race category series. Food for thought. This is pretty timely for me as my FTP is 283 and my weight is currently 71.2kg. ur allowed +/- 5% weight for pro zwift races so +/- 0.5 kg is not going to make a difference :p. add weight if u want to stay in D. lower weight if u wanna move to C. up 2 u. Ride On. Some of the reasons Ive never pushed as hard on a real ride include: Stopping / slowing for junctions Traffic / pedestrians / other hazards Appreciating the view No watt meter on my real bike I dont race in real life I dont do workouts in real life Changing wind Threat of a headwind on my home journey And the biggest: WantingRead more , Agree with the above. I have just accepted that at my height I will always be heavier than the average cyclist. How do I get started on Zwift? Then weigh yourself, and open Zwift, and see if it reflects the change. My guess is that another reason some do it, is because it gives you points on zwiftpower, becauseRead more . Updating Your Public Profile Zwift takes your physical measurements into account for things like leaderboards, speed, and your avatar's physical appea. The Forerunner 265 series watches have become Garmin's lowest-priced AMOLED display endurance sports-focused watch, coming in at roughly half the price of the Garmin Epix series launched a year ago - but here with full multiband GNSS support on all Forerunner 265 units, while also adding in Training Readiness - a major Garmin endurance sports focused feature. People with eating disorders, or a proclivity toward extreme dieting. How come I get beat in sprints when a 60kg guy puts out 700W, when I put out over 1000W at 76kg? (better than any bike upgrade i could afford) Yes its great to win,but as long as you improve yourself who cares what anyone else does.You will always get cheaters,dodgy equipment and so on so just enjoyRead more . When a rider can change categories by modifying their virtual body weight, thats an issue. You do you. If the categories are split using purely w/kg a lighter rider doesnt have any advantage up the climbs at all. hanging with the front group is very though for me because i am exactly at the bridge between A and B. While most Zwifters seemed to understand and even appreciate the intent behind the change, there was concern that removing this information would result in increased height/weight doping. Fluctuations of a few percent would be tolerated and percent change would be displayed on ZP. But youre not affecting anyone elses experience. Exactly. Most of my ZwiftRead more . I averaged between 300 and 310 watts for all segments and my heart sat pretty consistently between 140 and 144.Read more , saying x number of watts per kg at xxx hr is flawed anyways max and resting hr can vary alot. ZwiftPower FAQ We're sure you have several questions about ZwiftPower and what it is. Share your thoughts below! As others have said, your higher weight helps on flat courses. Tour de Zwift events were races? In the many B races i have done it was more fun because i was competitive. The bottom line is that in any competition there will always be someone who wants to cheat to win.Read more . This is real frustrating as hes a top u12 racer and wants to see his efforts recognise. In fact, if in a long ride your weight could change by more than 1kg over the course of that one ride!!! You will receive a verification email shortly. it's a good training tool. Im more concerned about the guy who finished 5th with 144bpm. As Zwift racer James Eastwood so aptly put it, The community dont want to see peoples weight they want fair racing.. As long as the button to enter a lower cat is active, riders will Press It. At all. Dont worry about your weight fluctuating through the week and remember you gain 0.5kg by drinking a half-litre bidon and lose it again through sweat (and by going to the toilet). What I think your articles miss to point out, though, (Im sure you are well aware of the problem), like people have mentioned already, is exactly how many cheaters there are that manage to stay in lineRead more . Its a huge problem. Im using a quarq crank power meter on my rock and roll while I save up for direct drive. But your point is correct, if someone has a good string of results, upg them regardless of cat limits, and zwift needs to lock them out of cat in-game for it to be effective. As far as my weight goes the only thing I care about is being as accurate as I can to get accurate results. 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. I agree with your idea. They CANNOT win. Living at 5,900 ft. adds a performance restriction on me, I get it. She can crank but her w/kg is low. 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. IRL I am 85kgs and cant pretend to be 65kgs. It certainly didnt feel like I had taken it easy when IRead more . Yes, but hopefully the system would be designed so, if drop a category then begin doing well, you get upgraded again! Finally, just head back to ZwiftPower and click 'Connect to my Account'. More of an issue than thisRead more . How does it work? 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. And atRead more . It does not stop cheating at all. Here it is in its entirety: Last week we outlined a number of planned changes to address harassment and further safeguard the health and wellbeing of the Zwift Community. With my question answered as to what I should pick for my next race, Id delete my original post if I could, but I cannot figure out how. This site contains affiliate links to Amazon, Wahoo, and other brands. Im in the same boat. 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. Thats why there are no top 40 Cat C riders in 70-75Kg range. there seems to be a lot of variability in power products and what people are using to feed into zwift. if someone is entering a fake weight on their Zwift profile, the only person they're cheating is themselves, cos they're going to get destroyed out on the roads where it really matters. either a) ur starting ur sprint way too late or b) ur leading him out. I know a woman who is 5 feet tall and almost 200lb. Have you considered age category racing. When I go outdoors I go on a trail bike and bring a backpack full of food and drink for a several hours ride. In theory (at least) weight dopers could game the results based categories as well. One question I have struggled to answer though which maybe is not a consideration is that on the flat watts is what is required and I also have to push high wkg to stay with groups. triathlon). Its funny, I was talking to one of my work colleagues who also Zwifts about AdZ and how because Im heavier (125kg / 276lbs) I would never be a sub 60m AdZ rider (I reckon Im looking at sub 2 hours, if lucky), Ive never once considered weight doping, sure I know I could but why would I? 2022 Race Like A Pro. Hitting G on your keyboard will do it, or swipe up on iPhone or iPad, etc then tap the graph button. Best turbo trainers: Smart trainers to improve your indoor cycling experience I agree WTRL ZRL races dont feel like they have cheaters. Generally weigh myself once a month. As we said in the first post, Assuming race organizers can access the data via ZwiftPower, and the site includes simple tools for spotting potential weight or height dopers (perhaps flagging those who made dramatic changes recently), then hiding weight and height data from the public should work swimmingly.. Hopefully when it comes time to hide height and weight from public view on ZwiftPower, Zwift will have some really useful tools in place which help race organizers do their jobs more quickly and effectively, while promoting wellness in the racing community. How many cyclists do you see in real life who are 65kgs, but they are ten a penny on Zwift. Some Zwifters go so far as to social-stalk other riders, comparing their photos to their Zwift weight and calling them out for weight doping. 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. 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. 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. Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. You'll receive a four-digit code, which you'll then have to add to your last name back in your Zwift settings (you can change it back after the process is completed). was the lowest of top 15 riders. He argues hes not gaining an advantage. Some people, I think, just have a lower HR. I have a Withings scale and in the Zwift Settings, it shows up as connected. 8 months ago I was 96kg, but didntRead more , As a light (58kg) rider racing in the Bs it is very frustrating on flat routes where since the main thing that matters is raw watts and not w/kg I would have to put out well over 4 w/kg to keep up with the heavier guys and therefore I pretty much always get dropped before too long. My last ride I spotted 35kg lad who last week was 56kg. 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). On Zwift Power categories have both a wattage requirement and a w/kg requirement. The Tour de Zwift events this year were much moreRead more , Wait. Zwift is full of cheaters and thats not going to change now. As some others already mentioned, the bodyweight tends to oscillate over the week and even the day. Why we are treating this differently from actual racing? Keep writing this sort of thing. Have you ever compared numbers for calories burned, power output and even elevation ridden for a Zwift ride uploaded to Strava?
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