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. 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+. So what! IRL cycling pros are not exactly heavy weights and lean-ness is highly encouraged. Even at my age I still plan to compete in MTB races when the world gets back to racing. (Example: if your FTP is 300 watts and you weigh 75kg, your FTP w/kg would be 300/75, or 4 w/kg.) LOL. Yes us heavier riders have the downhill advantage definitely. https://zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=697996. 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. If you gave the power, it will come out. In a race not in Zwift it is very easy for people to recongize who I am. How Do I Change My FTP On Zwift? Yet the lesson is clear if you want to win, even on flat courses, have or claim a very low weight. I should mention: many Zwifters have lied about their in-game weight for perfectly acceptable reasons. If you set your weight high enough that you fail to do well you will drop in the categories. I would suggest a free (for now) virtual race license that would outline racer behavior with consequences. Launch Zwift and go to the Menu. Shame I cant edit my post for the horrendous spelling and autocorrect gaffes. 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. Category systems are complex beasts, of course, I agree, people can have fun with weight doping and such aslong they dont enter competitive races. Unless a youth rider, height is generally going to remain the same. As a 59/60kg rider who always seems to have a higher w/kg than the people I finish around, Ive been curious about adding 50% to both my weight and http://ftp. Especially for the C and D groups but even for the Bs albeit to a lesser degree. Hi, very impressive w/kg at 65. If thats the norm, then I really dont see theRead more . Now you'll have to head over to ZwiftPower.com and register there. Otherwise I stand by my comment. 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. If its not done during a competitive Zwift event, I dont see it as a problem. There was a problem. Current system means that heavy weight top of cat riders climb at the same speed as skinny guys with same wpk but can have 60% more power on the flats. .Personally I one of the outliers on height and weight. Im the opposite. I know a woman who is 5 feet tall and almost 200lb. Zwift Insider makes a small commission on purchases made from these links, so please shop through them to support our efforts. How do I get started on Zwift? IMHO, enforcing in-category entry for races will be a quick, easy and effective change. Doing this will bring up a box at the bottom of the browser showing a web address something similar to: https://s3-fit-prd-uswest2-zwift.s3.amazonaws.com/prod/000000/a2e1b7f8-27610843. As soon as I start pedaling Im pretty much into threshold (around 170bpm). We are taking an iterative approach to the ongoing upgrades to the back end of the site. But I get beaten by lots of other zwifters, even on flat courses. I said if its not done during a competitive Zwift event, its not a problem. I would include chasing Strava Zwift KOMs as a competitive event (but I could see how what I said could be interpreted otherwise. nothing less. When I go outdoors I go on a trail bike and bring a backpack full of food and drink for a several hours ride. My power to weight is decent at about 4w/kg. I have just accepted that at my height I will always be heavier than the average cyclist. Zwift doesn't need a fancy code fix, they don't need special anti-cheat software, special post race investigations, and they don't need to change anything other than when the game updates personal attributes. 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. 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. Ive been on a mission to get back to my racing weight in 2020. 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. I put my real weight 95% of the time. Why not only require weight and height for entry to A and B races? 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. But youre training and racing and getting stronger, and eventually your FTP improves to 260 watts, which is 3.25 w/kg. 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. This covers name changes as well as weight/height changes during an event. 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. below this level you just have to take people's word for it. Good question. My weight is showing orange everytime. 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). Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. BA1 1UA. I am about to hit the four year mark on Zwift. Just like the CEO promised us rowing years ago, right? Enforce race category entry and youll fix much of the problems with Zwift racing. Its more fun and engaging that way, for me at least. I think you can force it with the Refresh Profile button in your ZP Profile but again, not sure if that triggers it immediately or overnight. I rode outside last night, and Im sure I will again soon. i was just having a similar discussion with my old lady about watts and weights, etc. The categories are the cycling equivalent to weight classes in boxing. It all has to do with the way Zwift's racing categories work. You do you. 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. Youve got people putting out 5+ watts/kilo atRead more . I have wondered about this subject on a few occasions. In fact, if in a long ride your weight could change by more than 1kg over the course of that one ride!!! If you need to cheat to get the results you want then why even bother. I never thought i should weigh myself with my kit on. On one occasion I entered a flat race (Laguardia Loop) following my ZP category (class C), finished almost three minutes down (though since it was a small field I still got third place), and then was disqualified for averaging 3.6 w/kg and 206 watts. This is real frustrating as hes a top u12 racer and wants to see his efforts recognise. Goodness. Now head back to ZwiftPower, click 'Connect' at the top of the page, then enter your Zwift ID in the box when prompted. So I dont expect to be as competitive vs. a pure cyclist. Last week I did the prl full and Uber pretzel and tried to get #1 by weight on those segments. You lose 10 liters of sweat during a medium long ride? But youre not affecting anyone elses experience. Then everyone would know who is legit or at least somewhat legit. 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. Im quite heavy, at about 85kgs, but also 183cms tall (and 52 years old). 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. Maybe they should display and categorise HR as a %age? How about simply showing a percentage variance. Would love your thoughts, please comment. Other than that, I rarely look at weight unless some results are very weird. People can be far to either direction im 25 and my max that I have hit is 217. Ive lost 2.2kg over a 6 hour ride due to carb loading before, and burning that and hence losing a lot of water weight during the ride. Thanks! Bump your Zwift weight up to 84kg and even with your new and improved 260-watt FTP youre only at 3.1 w/kg! 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. 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. this is how it is in real life , big ian stannard putting in hard fast miles on the front for (was) team sky , while all the small guys tuck in the peloton getting drafted along saving energy for later on in the race , because they can`t compete on the flat with the big boys . When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. That was my first thought when a fellow Zwifter commented on my recent race, Somehow you always get your w/kg down. I love reading it. You will receive a verification email shortly. So I just bumped myself up to the B group and went faster overall simply because there were faster people to draft off of. Some people are clearly living in a fantasy on zwift. also interesting about this equation are the: wattage data points and the zwift computations of W/Kg. 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. That gives me more hope for the future of the platform than any announcement from Zwift ever could. I dont think any of my shorter (under 5ft10) running or cycling friends weights more than that. Thats why there are no top 40 Cat C riders in 70-75Kg range. 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 . I agree with your idea. Zwift lets you adjust the difficulty of your workout, before or even during your ride. Similar to the announcement of the European Super League in soccer, Zwift failed to read the room. Which brings me to todays topic: reverse weight doping. Or weight bonuses for completing events that last for a set amount of days or even hours. Daniel Ostanek is production editor at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired as staff writer. EDIT Found my answer: 250w, Theres a chart about halfway down this page: https://zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=5528. It would be easy to deny it was intentional. (Example: if your FTP is 300 watts and you weigh 75kg, your FTP w/kg would be 300/75, or 4 w/kg.). Many riders is talking about cheating, when someone enters a lower category but it's not, in my opinion. Garmin sets your zones based on your maximum heart rate, while Zwift defines it as 76 to 90 percent of your Functional Threshold Power (FTP), which is the highest power you can sustain for 20 . indispensabile essere sinceri nel dichiarare il proprio peso , per se stessi e per il rispetto degli altri . This is especially true if you are trying to ride with riders you possibly know locally or otherwise. 1 second per 1 km on the AdZ dowhill (after losing minutes going up it) is literally the only place in the game its beneficial and the IRL advantages on the flats over light riders is excessivelyRead more . Have you considered drinking during a race? 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 . Any thoughts on verifying? This clearly shows the power of the Zwift blob it impacts more than just drafting. If I get down to 52 kilos I can climb well but my sprinting is terrible. What you see a lot are riders who are (claiming) to be really light with decent but not exceptional watts. Its a huge problem. Nailed it. I hopeRead more . 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. If I were to drop say a kg obviously the watts required would not change to keep at the speed of the group andRead more , Youll go faster at a lighter weight on the flats. Some races (many, in fact) on Zwift work exactly like that. I know Ive done it! 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). Cyclingnews is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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.