Other than that, I rarely look at weight unless some results are very weird. Most of my ZwiftRead more . MyRead more . Its going to take a certain amount of calories for a certain person to perform a given amount of work in a given time. 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. 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 . My HR numbers are almost identical to yours. Whats the cheaters solution? The categorization system is, like you say, fundamentally flawed. I currently use the Garmin Smart Scale so I may invest in the Withings scale. 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. Nice work! 240W 50kg riders (4.8W/kg) beat 380W 95kg riders in B category Tempus Fugit time trials. Once you have a number for your FTP in watts, divide it by your weight in kilograms. How does it work? All the emphasis on physical metrics makes sense for putting together how speed is calculated but not how one can race. If thats the norm, then I really dont see theRead more . Just the fact that you need a third party (ZP) to validate race results really says it all. Additionally, well be moving forward on hiding height and weight from Zwift Companion and Web. Im glad you wrote about this. And atRead more . Updating Your Public Profile Zwift takes your physical measurements into account for things like leaderboards, speed, and your avatar's physical appea. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy Im 70 inches tall and 156 pounds right now vs 166lb on Jan 1. Fact ! Manually change your weight in Zwift by adding 10 pounds. There is no disqualification for going over your w/kg limit. Just like the CEO promised us rowing years ago, right? 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. 2 Likes _Jynxy_EVO (:)) October 1, 2021, 1:41pm #8 thxs mike, Then weigh yourself, and open Zwift, and see if it reflects the change. 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. But many people (including myself) prefer categorized races because we want to have a chance to actually battle it out for a win. As long as people are using reasonable weight/height and arent cheating or changing it drastically all the time (my scales autoupdate my weight, so mine changes once a day, but by small increments), Im much more interested in being able to see the weight of my teammates so I can properly plan my TTT lineup than I am the weight of my competitors. Its more fun and engaging that way, for me at least. This calculates that this heavy rider would take 23:14 to do the distance a justRead more , Everyone has a sweet spot for weight. are clay hart and sally flynn still married; composite chart 12th house; tupperware party points; st francis of assisi school jobs Blaming Zwift for allowing cheaters is the system problem that gets more people frustrated, upset, etc. If someone on zwift holds an avg power at a given heart rate, then goes out on the road and holds that same heart rate but cannot sustain even close to that power, I am sorry, but that isnt physiology; that is hardware. True, but not necessarily in the way you think. I just we had a better system than category limits, racing license anybody? angels stadium covid rules. Ride On. 2022 Primr RWB League - Cycling Ireland eRacing Winter League. I wont do and will rather try my very best to compete with the As. So I dont expect to be as competitive vs. a pure cyclist. stop worrying about whatRead more . I dont know why this is, but i dont care one bit if people are cheating. Im not heavy (68kg), have a typical climber/TT phenotype (no short sprint but good FTP). Exactly. Introducing a horrible measure that addresses a problem that doesnt exist, and subsequently retracting it following mass protest is not exactly what I would call revolutionary change. Riders weight will rise and fall but under normal circumstances within a range. How big of a problem is reverse weight doping? But Its hard to confirm whether or not its transmitting the weight to Zwift. 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. Racers who get top 1,2,3 more than a few times get upgraded period. I did on one and second on the other. 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. The key phrase is assuming both riding at the same W/kg, so for the same watts, if I claim to be 10kgs lighter than I really am my W/kg will increase considerably. Included with this license agreement can be the approval to show height and weight. Category systems are complex beasts, of course, I agree, people can have fun with weight doping and such aslong they dont enter competitive races. My power to weight ratio would be the same, but Id get the benefits you get from being a heavier rider. (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 . I don't think you can do it from the game itself. High intensity: 30/30 and 40/20sec Rnnestad intervals like 3x (10x40/20sec). 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. This is pretty timely for me as my FTP is 283 and my weight is currently 71.2kg. You must be a much better person than me, because thats something I will Never make peace with. 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. So what! I am about to hit the four year mark on Zwift. 2022 SNOW Sprint Series In some cases this even happens unfairly. Had assumed I just rode inefficiently. Unless a youth rider, height is generally going to remain the same. Why try to force IRL parameters that can not be enforced. My W/Kg has gone from 3.76 to 3.97 without me really improving my FTP. This is how racing is supposed to work. If you were to meet meRead more . On Zwift, weight dopers seek to gain an advantage by entering a lower-than-life weight into their Zwift profile. I dont think so. 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. Login Required The Zwift Engineering team is focused on improving security for ZwiftPower users. Also a really frustrating thing is why doesnt Zwift autoRead more , is he riding in the right category? Cyclingnews is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. People still rode at B level pace in a C group. The race categories end up looking something like this (taken from the current Tour of Watopia race events): ZwiftPower, home of official race results for community races, adds some pure wattage breakpoints to the above list to help lightweight riders stay competitive. , 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. Its a huge problem. As Zwift racer James Eastwood so aptly put it, The community dont want to see peoples weight they want fair racing.. First, you need to sign up for an account. I am 65 kg with FTP of 270 W, which equlas 4,15 w/kg. Have you considered drinking during a race? 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. That a cat rider may win a d race but on zwiftpower they will be DQd for not riding an A race. Generally weigh myself once a month. Hahahahaha. Best Zwift setups: Indoor cycling setups to give you the competitive edge. 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. 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. It will not eliminate this behavior but the races will be much more realistic and enjoyable. Totally agree with you. Yes us heavier riders have the downhill advantage definitely. Otherwise I stand by my comment. I use Zwift to get in shape and prepare for outside riding. EZ and self regulating. It impacts the Group Rides and as you said the performance statistics individually. 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. Context, Tim, context! 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. I once made myself much heavier so I could compete against my 11-year-old son in a head to head Zwift climbing race. 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. We may call it sandbagging or reversed weight doping but its legal . 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 think a once-weekly weigh-in is acceptable. Put simply, ZwiftPower is a community-driven website that complements the Zwift app. 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. The rule set for the categories is so simple yet Id bet >99% dont understand it, to my knowledge cyclingRead more . Its also why the Zwift Transparency Facebook group was created, where racers post videos of themselves weighing in using a particular protocol which makes it difficult to fake your numbers. Please refresh the page and try again. 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. If other people want to obsess about my weight thats up to them but I wont. Thats the reason why a results category would be more interesting like Erics suggested in his topic. I was going flat out the whole race, and by no means cruising along watching my watts. What particularly annoys me is being beaten by light but moderately powerful riders doing individual time trials on flat courses. But the vast majority do not. 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.. For the time being, height and weight will remain visible on ZwiftPower. 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. ZwiftPower use 95% of your best 20 minutes during the whole race, so it does not matter if the race is 21 min or 3 hours, you will still be categorized the same way. there's a million and 1 reasons why it is not a legitimate sport. 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. When I go outdoors I go on a trail bike and bring a backpack full of food and drink for a several hours ride. This isnt IRL racing it is e-racing. Privacy Policy, How to Race on Zwift (Setup, Strategy, and More). This afternoon, Zwift posted a follow-up message on the forum. the lighter rider has to ride much harder to stay in the groups with a few big guys cruising along. If you set your weight high enough that you fail to do well you will drop in the categories. Thank you for signing up to The Pick. I would say 1kg or more is more normal. 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. nothing less. But without any hard and fast rules, we cant say anything is illegalat least for certain races. A great challenge for those looking for those training gains. 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. BA1 1UA. Yes, smaller riders have less frontal area, but the difference in CdA isnt that much. In order to ride with him I have to drop my weight to allow me to keep up. Hopefully ZHQ will take a harder look the changes that have been proposed over the past year or so. Hes asking for a fair race. Or theyll ignore leaders instructions and ride off the front of a group (flyers). How does being heavier help a cyclist? you may ask. It this fair? There was a problem. Someone sandbagging will get promoted out of category and will not be allowed to reg for lower categories. If there are problems, Zwift already has a reporting function and everything is recorded police that properly andRead more . I have to say I weigh myself most mornings in the buff (just my glasses on so I can see the numbers)! As Ive posted elsewhere, I like having weight available at my fingertips so I can use it to plan the TTT rotation (I like going heavy/light/heavy/light to avoid the big guys pulling away on flats/descents or the little guys pulling away on climbs, plus one category of rider tends to get exhausted on any given route if I plan my pull times incorrectly, so its nice not having 2 people in a row suddenly need to skip a pull). I may try it just to see what difference it makes. Not true, at least not absolutely. At all. 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. I hope they learn from this and are more careful with things like that in the future. Keep answering that question and youll keep most people on side. A strict w/kg classification isnt perfect. Is a very strong rider for his age and trains hard. In spectacular and shocking fashion. Races can use different schemes to categorise riders, but most of them use this scheme: You can, of course, progress through the ranks as you race. I completely missed these as I reinvented the wheel, trying to stir up the hornets nest on the Zwift forums the other day. Blaming Zwift for eating disorders is not sensible. If so, that makes sense to me and I can absolutely see the point of that. I agree with what you say Eric but the weight doping does negatively impact the casual rider if they are following other riders in a casual/social ride. Zwift Insider is independent of Zwift corporate (www.zwift.com), although Zwift does provide funding to help defray site costs. Which brings me to todays topic: reverse weight doping. 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). Two months ago he had a magic weight loss on zwift. Tour de Zwift events were races? If I get down to 52 kilos I can climb well but my sprinting is terrible. On a flat ride I would beat every sub 60kg cat B rider too. I completely agree with the last paragraph here. Noob question though, whats the etiquette around weighing with kit on or off. The categories currently used in most Zwift events are based on your FTP watts per kilothat is, your FTP in watts, divided by your weight in kilograms. Case in point: in the A race I mentioned, only one rider was heavier than my 85kg dad bod. Some weight dopers are obvious and blatant other times its much less egregious. Im not sure Id say the algorithms help heavier riders in descents. Thats not what I recall at all, everything is a race, even if you werent aware . Race specific phase: 3x10min 50-60rpm intervals with . Hes not looking for a trophy every race. otherwise no way in hell hes beating you. Incrasing virtual weight would probaly downgrade me to B again. For me its the most fun to see the progress I make on strava, new PR on climbs or on flats (hanging in on the back of a group) If I would lie about my weight I throw off my goals to Improve atleast make them near impossible for the coming time in the End I dont see the funRead more , I reversed dopped by mistake when I first started Zwift putting my height as my weight and weight as my height. And this is why reverse weight doping is a thing. (Example: if your FTP is 300 watts and you weigh 75kg, your FTP w/kg would be 300/75, or 4 w/kg.). I have wondered about this subject on a few occasions. I think he is referring to the 2021 Haute Route GC (or lack thereof), Sorry, thats right, it was the Haute Route 2021 events. Best turbo trainers: Smart trainers to improve your indoor cycling experience 2.5w/kg (215Watts) is hard for me to hold for extended periods but I keep trying. Whilst this might be the case, as Eric implies in flat races light weight riders have to work harder to stay in touch with the heavier riders in the bunch. 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. Youd think theyd be the same but when Zwift and Strava dont even agree on stats for the same ride, Ill take any other comparisons with a big pinch of salt. Frankly I struggle to believe these are real. In real life, Id dust that guy. Even if Id ridden at threshold a little over 4 W/kg, I wouldnt have been able to hang onto the front in a D race, it seems. (ignoring that it evens out and you have the advantage on the hills but lets ignore that because its all about you and you should always podium in every race in your life, because mommy told you that you were special and big mean Zwift is making you work so hard on the flats). IRL if your weight is 85kg, itll take you longer to climb the Ventoux than if your weight is 65. See how you can support Zwift Insider! Racing on the Zwift virtual platform has only increased, with the professionals getting in on the act, too, via the Zwift Tour for All, the Virtual Tour of the Gila, and e-races organised by Team Ineos. But what exactly is ZwiftPower and how does it work? Just short of my 68th birthday I still dont see any point in cheating. 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. When you're in the game, click "Menu". Privacy Policy, How to Race on Zwift (Setup, Strategy, and More). 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. Especially for the C and D groups but even for the Bs albeit to a lesser degree. 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. I dont care anyway. It's a bit more complicated than most website sign-ups, but now you'll be all ready to get started. I agree WTRL ZRL races dont feel like they have cheaters. I have tended to notice that a significant number of powerful zwifters real world Strava performances pale in comparison to their online achievements. As a lighter racer 136lbs it pisses me off to see cheating. It doesnt appear that people are abiding by the categories. If it is.. someone must be able to point me to the rule where it says that it is forbidden..? Kudos to Zwift for listening to their customers and admitting they made a mistake. Its ridiculous. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, 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.