Correct
Yes. Someone else. Registration is, well, a bit of an arcane thing.
Yes. It’s a community run website by some really dedicated guys that put countless hours into making the racing as fair as they can for the community with the tools they have.
Zwift probably could be more helpful in what they do, but these guys have created a hub that anyone halfway serious about physical eSport racing uses as the “official results service”. Even for the invite only races, you have to be fully registered on zwiftpower as part of the rules!!
It is very flawed - but also very engaging. Proof that things do not need to be perfect to be good. I don’t care that I get spit out, that the sprint is held between a proxy server, a guy with a lawnmower engine rigged on a vintage Minoura trainer and a guy who says he weights 40kg and is 1m05 tall - I’m still pushing like crazy and having fun.
Absolutely but post race enforcement allows the race to be dramatically impacted.
I can imagine this is less frustrating to you because it doesn’t impact the A races. There isn’t as much of it even in B but the C races are a disaster.
I think if zwift is going to hold a “world championships” regulated by the UCI they should start to implement some rules at the ground floor. There needs to be a clear path from my first day on zwift to me donning a world champion e-racer jersey.
If I was more naive about bike racing I might come out of those race going okay I’m clearly not good enough to progress through the ranks even though I’ve been training my butt off and I’m in really good form for myself.
The issue with e-racing goes both ways. The organizers needs to be better at controlling things across all levels not just the high end and people need to play fair.
Not criticizing you specifically here, Andy, but this logic is so flawed. People should ignore the “official” results and look at an unaffiliated 3rd party site (for which they have to register, etc) to see the “real” results?
Not to mention that not everyone knows of, or signs up for Zwiftpower…so to think that represents the “real” or “better” results is just kinda weird.
Oh, and I had some guy blow by me today doing 23+ w/kg. Yeah, OK…
That’s one hefty lawnmower. Probably has the turbo version.
Unfortunately yes, if that is the what it tells you to do in the race description.
Zwift doesn’t tell you to do that in theirs. “Results are shown as you cross the finish line. Good luck Zwifters!” Most community organizers tell you the final results will be posted on ZP.
It is crazy that they have to do that but with no option from Zwift, it is the best we have right now.
It is not making the racing “fair”, it is attempting to make the results “fair”.
But again, if not everyone knows about it, or is registered for it, how can it be considered fair or a realistic representation of the results? How many people race at their correct w/kg but aren’t on Zwiftpower and get their results negated?
Agree with your overall thought here. But I wonder how many on TR might e dope since TR has released the bell curve of cyclists on TR. For example, I’m not happy because I’m on lower side of that bell curve. So I dope my trainer calibration so my watts are higher. This technically doesn’t cheat myself, because all my workouts will still be the same rpe/actual power. Just my posted watts would be high. So in TR, there is a scenario where you can cheat others without cheating yourself.
As @AndyGajda stated, it’s a problem with the users, not just with Zwift.
Oh, believe me, I am not absolving Zwift of their abdication of responsibility. IMO, it is their responsibility to provide a fair and reasonable categorization system and actually enforce it if they are going to go all in on eSports, as they are doing.
The idea behind Zwiftpower is great, but the idea that it somehow represents “better” results is, at best, flawed. It only shows the “corrected” results of those who have signed up.
So I’ve never done a Zwift race. But this guidelines you listed for a,b,c, etc. Is that supposed to be your threshold or what the average pace of the group will be?
Apparently, whichever interpretation will improve your probability of winning.
Exactly. No one seems to really know which.
“You must be opted-in on Zwift.com & ZwiftPower.com to be counted for race results.”
I don’t have any sympathy for people that race but disregard the race rules. That is their option and they are rightly left out of results. ZP is the racing license for those events.
Goes with what I said - I don’t quite get it. Then again, they caught a Canadian lady who was cheating triathlons to finish at the top of her age group - an accomplishment that probably 8 people on the planet could have known and/or cared about.
How many people cross the line, see where they are and call it good? They don’t go on to ZP or look at other areas for results. They cross the line, save the ride and get off the trainer.
A lot of them
Good question. Zwift How-to: Choose Your Cycling Race Category | Zwift
Different races can have different categories, but most races on Zwift use a similar format. They often will set category boundaries based on your functional threshold power (FTP) in watts per kilogram (w/kg). Your FTP is roughly equal to the maximum power you can hold for one hour. It’s commonly estimated by taking 95% of your power on a 20-minute FTP test.
Once you have a number for your FTP in watts, divide it by your weight in kilograms. Most of the time, this will be what you use to figure out your category. (For example, if a rider has an FTP of 210 watts and weighs 75 kilograms, that means the rider’s FTP in w/kg is 2.8.)
These are the most common category boundaries:
- A = 4.0 w/kg and above
- B = 3.2-3.9 w/kg
- C = 2.5-3.1 w/kg
- D = 2.4 w/kg and below
Of course, it’s best to look at the event description to double-check the rules before a race.