i was just having a similar discussion with my old lady about watts and weights, etc. On a tablet or smartphone, you can download the. But it highlights a bigger problem, and that is the fundamental flaw of using watts per kilo for race categorization. Kudos to Zwift for listening to their customers and admitting they made a mistake. Great drafting skills!, Heres the thing: I probably am a fairly efficient racer, when I want to be. Email zwiftpower@zwift.com if you want to reset everything. 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. A good portion of that weight difference is in the Hub's 10.3 . Two months ago he had a magic weight loss on zwift. I would say 1kg or more is more normal. I completely agree with the last paragraph here. 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). England and Wales company registration number 2008885. Then weigh yourself, and open Zwift, and see if it reflects the change. As soon as I start pedaling Im pretty much into threshold (around 170bpm). The only trouble is the downhill doesnt take as long of course, so the light advantage is obviously better. But I will, and Ill get hammered and hopefully improve. This calculates that this heavy rider would take 23:14 to do the distance a justRead more , Everyone has a sweet spot for weight. If you're putting out enough power, then you can make your way up the ranks and keep on racing. Im not sure Id say the algorithms help heavier riders in descents. Thank you for signing up to The Pick. Or weight bonuses for completing events that last for a set amount of days or even hours. Especially for the C and D groups but even for the Bs albeit to a lesser degree. Do some races have split out start times so you are only racing with those of similar ability? (Example: if your FTP is 300 watts and you weigh 75kg, your FTP w/kg would be 300/75, or 4 w/kg.). Even some of the regulated weight rides will give 2kg leeway. Zwift is full of cheaters and thats not going to change now. Just the fact that you need a third party (ZP) to validate race results really says it all. I have heard women admit on social rides that their zwift weight is their goal weightRead more . I never thought i should weigh myself with my kit on. In fact, the only riders at or below my w/kg were minutes off the back. ThatRead more . Weight doping is only a serious issue when its done in competition. I hopeRead more . You only change it in Zwift and it should get picked up with regular backend processing periodically (maybe overnight). It's possible to check just about any kind of Zwift result using ZwiftPower, with the website sortable by leagues, race series and segments. 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 understand if someone has a banner day or just bumped up out of upper C to lower B. 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. BA1 1UA. In some cases this even happens unfairly. Ive been on a mission to get back to my racing weight in 2020. As some others already mentioned, the bodyweight tends to oscillate over the week and even the day. 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. There is no disqualification for going over your w/kg limit. I agree Paul great idea. Problem solved! Any thoughts on verifying? The rule set for the categories is so simple yet Id bet >99% dont understand it, to my knowledge cyclingRead more . are clay hart and sally flynn still married; composite chart 12th house; tupperware party points; st francis of assisi school jobs Would depend entirely upon the bike geometry, how much weight is over the front wheel and how much over the back. 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. Just short of my 68th birthday I still dont see any point in cheating. It does the job as described. I agree WTRL ZRL races dont feel like they have cheaters. On the flats and descents she crushes her w/kg field. You can record your weight n height n have it verified by experts etc up to five minutes before an event. why because of weight, not power. Then save your ride and log out. 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. The algorithms very much help heavier riders in descents, which gets forgotten when all we discuss is climbing. USA Cycling has categories that are based on experience and performance. What anyone wants in any game or competition is to feel its fair, and as they look to make changes going forward, I hope people at Zwift always keep asking themselves this question: How can Zwifters see these races are fair?. This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. As a Triathlete, I have a different perspective when racing and riding on Zwift because the vast majority of Zwifters (according to Zwift and Strava) are only cycling; whereas Im also training by Running and Swimming. There is no progression from lower to higher categories through placement. They are not, and never were, skill classes of any kind (ie. I rode outside last night, and Im sure I will again soon. On a flat ride I would beat every sub 60kg cat B rider too. Check out this FAQ for some of our frequently asked questions: Q:&. it's a good training tool. Im 170cm and currently 61kg with an ideal triathlon racing weight of 59kg. 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. This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. Zwift can wipe your Zwift Power profile and give you a clean slate to start over if you want, but I think you will lose all past data. My power to weight is decent at about 4w/kg. 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. Well, its adding weight to gain an advantage. People can be far to either direction im 25 and my max that I have hit is 217. Goodness. Nekkid and I only update my weight in zwift if it moves more than a KG. Congratulations John on your retirement and Zwift is a great retirement present. 2022 SNOW Sprint Series With Zwift control is difficult (in getting Zwifters to enter their accurate) wait. We are new to Zwift and My son Whos 12 has used it to race to make up for his list u12 crit season. Knowing when to go hard and having the fitness to do so are also vital skills.). Which brings me to todays topic: reverse weight doping. I may try it just to see what difference it makes. Current category system simply allows very fast but heavy riders to race in categories lower than their actual abilities. ), So what is reverse weight doping? 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. Ive done multiple races where my main goal was to keep the watts as low as possible while hanging with the front group. there's a million and 1 reasons why it is not a legitimate sport. Some big Zwift races have specific rulesets, etc. Honest and goal driven. 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. To change your profile to have to log in on the Zwift website and then edit the profile there. hanging with the front group is very though for me because i am exactly at the bridge between A and B. In fact, you can change a workout on Zwift about as fast as you can U-turn a bicycle on a real hill. I dont care anyway. Additionally, well be moving forward on hiding height and weight from Zwift Companion and Web. Theres also fitnesssyncer.com that is free up to 4 sync services. You do you. Everyone races at the same weight/height. I disagree with you on this point. Thanks! Look at ZP results. Im glad you wrote about this. Thats the graph. So its not that easy for light people to hide in the pack and benefit from the draft in Zwift, which is half the reality (in many ways its easier IRL). But I get beaten by lots of other zwifters, even on flat courses. The winners are almost always people with recorded weights sub 70kgs, more typically 65kgs, even 59! Then everyone would know who is legit or at least somewhat legit. Id never do this as my Zwift Power is an accurate log of weight and power but it does make me wonder how much easier itd be to be bigger. I think theres another more interesting angle than just trying to stay down a category. It doesnt appear that people are abiding by the categories. The COVID-19 lockdown period, now in its third month around the world, has seen an unprecedented boom in virtual cycling. You make a good pointthere isnt a published race ruleset that clearly states that riders are 1) required to use accurate weight and 2) enter the correct race category. If I feel happy in my body thats the most important thing for me, and why I rarely weigh myself. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. Id be super interested in the timing you set your weight. 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. If thats not something that needs fixing then why run any races? My W/Kg has gone from 3.76 to 3.97 without me really improving my FTP. My last ride I spotted 35kg lad who last week was 56kg. Gain a few (virtual) pounds. 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. Also a really frustrating thing is why doesnt Zwift autoRead more , is he riding in the right category? 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. Im quite heavy, at about 85kgs, but also 183cms tall (and 52 years old). Conserving energy is a key part of successful bike racing. Not too many people actually want to see other peoples height or weight except to be able to verify race results are reasonable. 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. 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). Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy The Tour de Zwift events this year were much moreRead more , Wait. 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. Launch Zwift and go to the Menu. there seems to be a lot of variability in power products and what people are using to feed into zwift. As an ambitioned A Racer with no smart scale, I stick to the higher end of the spectrum when setting my Zwift weight once a week. Since strava is all that matters of course. What stone have you been living under? It's a bit more complicated than most website sign-ups, but now you'll be all ready to get started. Even at my age I still plan to compete in MTB races when the world gets back to racing. If so, that makes sense to me and I can absolutely see the point of that. Thats not what I recall at all, everything is a race, even if you werent aware . Everything you need to know about the third-party Zwift results and analysis website. The book Fast After 50 is a good read on how masters athletes can train more effectively. I got my 100kph badge on the Bologna course. 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. My 3.9w/kg (a new PR!) Incrasing virtual weight would probaly downgrade me to B again. Many riders is talking about cheating, when someone enters a lower category but it's not, in my opinion. Or are you looking for a participation trophy on every race as well? thanks for the help with the graphs. Yes, there are plenty of variabies, but power is power. (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 . Nice work! In spectacular and shocking fashion. I am 65 kg with FTP of 270 W, which equlas 4,15 w/kg. This afternoon, Zwift posted a follow-up message on the forum. I dont know why this is, but i dont care one bit if people are cheating. ZwiftPower - Login Please update your Zwift ID on the connection page to complete registration. She can crank but her w/kg is low. Keep it on. If you need to cheat to get the results you want then why even bother. I once made myself much heavier so I could compete against my 11-year-old son in a head to head Zwift climbing race. Had assumed I just rode inefficiently. It lets Zwift racers and race organisers track results and check out all the details of the races they've participated in, as well as monitoring and analysing their data. I tried racing a D race, and finished way off the front behind about 2/3 of riders after Id ridden at 2.9W/kg for the race. I have tended to notice that a significant number of powerful zwifters real world Strava performances pale in comparison to their online achievements. How do you actually update your weight on ZP?? But It doesnt mean that that person is going to be the person riding the bike on the trainer during the race does it. (Its not the only part, of course! When I go outdoors I go on a trail bike and bring a backpack full of food and drink for a several hours ride. 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. . You have lowered your weight and skewed your power graph so it is inaccurate. Thanks To move up to the next rank, ZwiftPower will take 95 per cent of your 20-minute average w/kg figure from your previous three races. 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. Bump your Zwift weight up to 84kg and even with your new and improved 260-watt FTP youre only at 3.1 w/kg! You enter a real race,out in the world, you are ready to finish in the top 20 for your best result of your life,then out of the blue a dirt bike rides past you goes tabletop and crossesRead more . I think that point based system is an improvement, but it doesnt address the weight issue. 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. (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 . 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. There could be Zwift level weight bonuses instead of another pair of socks. 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. Racers who get top 1,2,3 more than a few times get upgraded period. I guess I shouldnt be surprised. Future state can add a nominal cost to said license to support clean racing via Zwift tech updates. 240W 50kg riders (4.8W/kg) beat 380W 95kg riders in B category Tempus Fugit time trials. I dont think it can all be attributed to weight; it appears that some hardware tweaks can scale up the reported power output. Contribute a post, shop through us, make a donation, advertise on this site. Please refresh the page and try again. 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. Connecting to ZwiftPower Before you can start using ZwiftPower, you'll need to create an account. This is pretty timely for me as my FTP is 283 and my weight is currently 71.2kg. But since there are no clear rules on it at this time, its a bit of a self-policing thing with a fair amount of grey area. Click on the Settings button and you'll find the Trainer Difficulty slider. 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. 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. I agree with your idea. This raised concerns within the Zwift Racing Community regarding fairness in racing. And atRead more . Makes me happy to see that the community is able to speak with one voice if necessary. Why not ride to your strengths? What particularly annoys me is being beaten by light but moderately powerful riders doing individual time trials on flat courses. Yes, but hopefully the system would be designed so, if drop a category then begin doing well, you get upgraded again! (I dont recommend this approach, but it proves the point that weight doping is an issue that concerns many Zwift racers. If someone dopes so they do 4w/kg then they should be racing with other people who do 4w/kg. 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. The bottom line is that in any competition there will always be someone who wants to cheat to win.Read more . Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. 2.5w/kg (215Watts) is hard for me to hold for extended periods but I keep trying. Other than that, I rarely look at weight unless some results are very weird. Hes not looking for a trophy every race. Its only a bit of fun at my level (solid B with the odd podium). You weigh 80kg and have an FTP of 248 watts, which works out to 3.1 w/kg. Im surprised that (off wheel) smart trainers dont have the ability to weigh the rider when they get on the bike. I am a long time racer in NorCal and cheating is cheating. 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. I rarely race, don't care. Best turbo trainers: Smart trainers to improve your indoor cycling experience Your voice is important to us. 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. I don't think you can do it from the game itself. 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. I have seen riders weighting 56 kgs and week later they are 35 kgs. I havent even used my road bike outdoors since 2012. I suffer from excess sweating and will easily lose 10kg in a race on Four Horseman, for example (although Im certainly not the norm, but to say no one is untrue). We like this move from Zwift. If other people want to obsess about my weight thats up to them but I wont. See how you can support Zwift Insider! But then you could have someone in the same age group who maxes out at 170. 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. I dont think any of my shorter (under 5ft10) running or cycling friends weights more than that. In IRL there is a double draft. How Do I Change My FTP On Zwift? If you set your weight high enough that you fail to do well you will drop in the categories. Just sign up for A races from now on. You lose 10 liters of sweat during a medium long ride? Well, imagine youre a strong C racer. Cheapest Zwift setup: Everything to help you onto Zwift for the first time Food for thought. Are you efficient, or just heavy? We are taking an iterative approach to the ongoing upgrades to the back end of the site. SoggyAlbatross2. It's also possible to filter results and data by categories, such as different age or power ranges. If you're on Zwift and planning to get racing, then signing up to the third-party app ZwiftPower (opens in new tab) is an essential step. This isnt IRL racing it is e-racing. 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. I am in the 5 percentile of height and weight at 52 and 130lb with my lowest weight of 118 lbs in my racing career. Now head back to ZwiftPower, click 'Connect' at the top of the page, then enter your Zwift ID in the box when prompted. Zwif: your ultimate guide Todd_S (Todd S) March 12, 2015, 3:09am #4 I'm new to the app. There was a problem. Just like the CEO promised us rowing years ago, right? Tough to recover after attacks in a race when youre always near maxing out. As such, we have agreed to pause this change while we develop tools that deliver greater transparency to Zwift racing while promoting wellness. However, I have a lighter and faster son that smokes me head to head. This clearly shows the power of the Zwift blob it impacts more than just drafting.