MyRead more . stop worrying about whatRead more . This site contains affiliate links to Amazon, Wahoo, and other brands. 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. I have climbed well and I have suffered on climbs but also sprinted well. I was going flat out the whole race, and by no means cruising along watching my watts. 2022 SNOW Sprint Series Prior to joining the team, he had written for most major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly, Rouleur, and CyclingTips. In the many B races i have done it was more fun because i was competitive. (I dont recommend this approach, but it proves the point that weight doping is an issue that concerns many Zwift racers. If the categories are split using purely w/kg a lighter rider doesnt have any advantage up the climbs at all. 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. Similar to the announcement of the European Super League in soccer, Zwift failed to read the room. Tour de Zwift events were races? I think a once-weekly weigh-in is acceptable. https://zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=697996. At all. My IRL time and my Zwift time are almost the same. We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices. Contribute a post, shop through us, make a donation, advertise on this site. However, I have a lighter and faster son that smokes me head to head. I have been light and I have been heavy. High intensity: 30/30 and 40/20sec Rnnestad intervals like 3x (10x40/20sec). The issues with e-racing remain the same, and largely ignored for years now. I mean youve both got a point. How Do I Change My FTP On Zwift? My HR numbers are almost identical to yours. Even some of the regulated weight rides will give 2kg leeway. 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. 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. Context, Tim, context! When a rider can change categories by modifying their virtual body weight, thats an issue. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy Adjusting Difficulty Before Your Workout. You lose 10 liters of sweat during a medium long ride? It certainly didnt feel like I had taken it easy when IRead more . If you set your weight high enough that you fail to do well you will drop in the categories. Is it doping though? 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.. Why no monitoring on this? Would achieve the same thing. You weigh 80kg and have an FTP of 248 watts, which works out to 3.1 w/kg. Hahahahaha. 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 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. In fact, you can change a workout on Zwift about as fast as you can U-turn a bicycle on a real hill. Gain a few (virtual) pounds. If it is.. someone must be able to point me to the rule where it says that it is forbidden..? Not too many people actually want to see other peoples height or weight except to be able to verify race results are reasonable. It all has to do with the way Zwifts racing categories work. I dont mind the low HRs but the low power and high w/kg really irk me! Zwift power usually looks at numbers vs the category race he entered. Now I know it is a thing. The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox! What stone have you been living under? There is no progression from lower to higher categories through placement. This is real frustrating as hes a top u12 racer and wants to see his efforts recognise. Best turbo trainers: Smart trainers to improve your indoor cycling experience 1. I never thought i should weigh myself with my kit on. 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. Monthly weigh ins arent perfect but they are better than no weigh ins. If I am racing I want to be able to look across at the guy/girl next to me (ie on the Companion app) and get an idea if they are going to kill me on the next hill, or not are they a 185cm/90kg guy versus my 172cm/74kg. 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. Zwift should take accountability for what matters most to start with and thats the cheaters. would that be cheating then ? I should mention: many Zwifters have lied about their in-game weight for perfectly acceptable reasons. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. yes, but you are missing my point. I dont think so. This is why for a while I was ranked as a C even though my w/kg was higher than 3.2 since my watts werent over 200. How about simply showing a percentage variance. hanging with the front group is very though for me because i am exactly at the bridge between A and B. Thanks Many riders is talking about cheating, when someone enters a lower category but it's not, in my opinion. But what exactly is ZwiftPower and how does it work? Taking weight out of the equation you could just make everyones avatar moving forward by holding down the up arrow on their keyboard. For example the threshold for cat B is FTP over 200 watts and over 3.2 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. 1 - Manually Set Your FTP Let's say you already know your FTP, then you can go into Zwift and manually change it to whatever you'd like. 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. I think he is referring to the 2021 Haute Route GC (or lack thereof), Sorry, thats right, it was the Haute Route 2021 events. Incrasing virtual weight would probaly downgrade me to B again. Skinny guys get DQd if they match heavies on the flat for power so they can NEVER win, even in the mountains. What you see a lot are riders who are (claiming) to be really light with decent but not exceptional watts. Just from riding regularly I went from 166 FTP to 187 in 800 miles over a 2 1/2 months. Hi, very impressive w/kg at 65. Congratulations John on your retirement and Zwift is a great retirement present. Login Required The Zwift Engineering team is focused on improving security for ZwiftPower users. I may try it just to see what difference it makes. why because of weight, not power. I hope they learn from this and are more careful with things like that in the future. 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. The only way for complete cheat free racing is in the zwift Pro race which is all done in a single room with all riders together. Zwift is full of cheaters and thats not going to change now. But theres one problem: this puts you into the B category, and you dont want to race the Bs. As far as my weight goes the only thing I care about is being as accurate as I can to get accurate results. Think of ZwiftPower, then, as something similar to Strava, only entirely Zwift-focused, and free! (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 . If I get down to 52 kilos I can climb well but my sprinting is terrible. 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. It would be easy to deny it was intentional. Also a really frustrating thing is why doesnt Zwift autoRead more , is he riding in the right category? Thats the reason why a results category would be more interesting like Erics suggested in his topic. Everyone races at the same weight/height. So am I a super-drafter, the king of indoor efficiency? If youre a 300-pound dude who wants to go a little faster uphill as a virtual 200 pounder, have at it. Find some hilly races As a result your suggestion of the watts vs w/kg different systems is already baked into the game physics in a way. Im the opposite. ), You say at the end..you do you, it doesnt affect anyone. 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. 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. Your voice is important to us. It does the job as described. 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. indispensabile essere sinceri nel dichiarare il proprio peso , per se stessi e per il rispetto degli altri . Im in the same boat. Zwift excessively rewards the athlete for being light and small. Plus imagine how bigRead more . How do you actually update your weight on ZP?? People still rode at B level pace in a C group. The categories are power to weight divisions. I am currently 145kg and have not experienced any bullying so far. . I have just accepted that at my height I will always be heavier than the average cyclist. I have seen riders weighting 56 kgs and week later they are 35 kgs. As long as the button to enter a lower cat is active, riders will Press It. Thats hilarious. If you are on the lighter side, try picking some climbing races. Im assuming you should weigh just before getting on the bike with all kit including shoes and not just before stepping into the post-ride shower (shorn of all kit and approx 1kg of sweat). I am racing in the Cs finishing in the 40-50s but there are 30 + racers ahead of me posting watt/kilo of A, and strong B racers. See how you can support Zwift Insider! Either these racers need to calibrate the trainer or they are sandbagging big time. . 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. Wow, cheating !! 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. But the vast majority do not. Ill remain skeptical until I see some actual changes. It this fair? Or theyll ignore leaders instructions and ride off the front of a group (flyers). But Its hard to confirm whether or not its transmitting the weight to Zwift. Good question. The Tour de Zwift events this year were much moreRead more , Wait. Whatever your answer, some people will never like it, but there has to be a clear, credible answer for the majority to support. 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. 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 . Put simply, ZwiftPower is a community-driven website that complements the Zwift app. 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. Email zwiftpower@zwift.com if you want to reset everything. 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. Zwift essentially encourages people to be less than truthful about their weight. As a relatively light 69kg rider, I often feel at a disadvantage in the flatter races, of which there are many more than hilly ones. 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. He had fun laughing at fat dad, but I pipped him at the line! 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. I think the main problem with women and weight on zwift is regular weightdoping, magnified probably by all the wonderful social stigmas and judgment surrounding womens bodies. However, insecure Freds jumpingRead more , I am new to Zwift, but I do wonder how it is youll see a bunch of people finish at the front of a D race at 4-5 W/kg. And flags height and weight changes if they go up or down alot. The guy who got first weighs 106kg on strava but 45kg and only 411 on zwift. If you're putting out enough power, then you can make your way up the ranks and keep on racing. Im glad our collective voice was heard on this one, 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.. either a) ur starting ur sprint way too late or b) ur leading him out. Some people are clearly living in a fantasy on zwift. Hardly true Say you train and commit yourself to being honest to achieve better fitness,and also better results, albeit virtually..then someone finishes better than you solely because of the BS numbers they entered. Bob, what on earth is that all about? My 3.9w/kg (a new PR!) People with eating disorders, or a proclivity toward extreme dieting. Ive connected my garmin scale with this app https://smartscalesync.com/?utm_source=tr In IRL there is a double draft. if youre on zwift and intentionally cheating to get whichever fake virtual badge or win whichever fake virtual place in a race, then youre real-life literal loser. 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. If they keep riders from competing in categories below their ranking, it will reduce the number of sandbaggers and cruisers. This afternoon, Zwift posted a follow-up message on the forum. Hide the weight who cares let them upgrade all the way to As where you have strict reporting requirements. 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. Food for thought. 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. Or theyll ride races 1-2 categories below their actual W/kg so they can still win and feel like that theyre legends. Additionally, well be moving forward on hiding height and weight from Zwift Companion and Web. Im older heavier and relativily fit. 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. Im using a quarq crank power meter on my rock and roll while I save up for direct drive. As a lighter racer 136lbs it pisses me off to see cheating. Youre having fun winning (or nearly winning) C races! 5x5min, 4x8min but definitely never longer than 8 minutes. (and dont do organized rides for fairness) so I dont have resistance changes and sometimes zwift reports extraordinary power readings for a ride. That was my first thought when a fellow Zwifter commented on my recent race, Somehow you always get your w/kg down. The only trouble is the downhill doesnt take as long of course, so the light advantage is obviously better. 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. Remember - Zwift is a trainingplatform.. and if a rider feels his/hers motivation to ride, is higher when entering 'wrong' it's ok with me..AND obviously with Zwift too. Other planned changes communicated last week, including plans to improve the reporting features in Zwift will be rolled out as planned. Manually change your weight in Zwift by adding 10 pounds. Goodness. He argues hes not gaining an advantage. Nice work! England and Wales company registration number 2008885. This is done by separating riders based on their FTP (functional threshold power) a wattage test you can take part in on Zwift over a 20-minute, 45-minute or 1-hour period. Thank you for signing up to The Pick. Not true, at least not absolutely. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy 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. We can name and shame these few. 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!!). Some people, I think, just have a lower HR. Had assumed I just rode inefficiently. 2022 Race Like A Pro. We are new to Zwift and My son Whos 12 has used it to race to make up for his list u12 crit season. however 2 riders at the same w/kg, heavier riders have the advantage on flats & descents: https://zwiftinsider.com/wkg-tests/. Even at my age I still plan to compete in MTB races when the world gets back to racing. 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. 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. , 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 don't think you can do it from the game itself. Yes, there are plenty of variabies, but power is power. If thats not something that needs fixing then why run any races? Zwift should offer a Validated Racer package for a slight premium over normal membership. 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. All the emphasis on physical metrics makes sense for putting together how speed is calculated but not how one can race. On a tablet or smartphone, you can download the. Enforce race category entry and youll fix much of the problems with Zwift racing. But then you could have someone in the same age group who maxes out at 170. 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). Best Zwift setups: Indoor cycling setups to give you the competitive edge. We remain committed to protecting the health and well being of the broader Zwift Community, and we look forward to enacting additional measures in the future. The rule set for the categories is so simple yet Id bet >99% dont understand it, to my knowledge cyclingRead more . 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. It doesnt appear that people are abiding by the categories. Secondly, Zwifts statement says they agree there is a need for tools that deliver greater transparency to Zwift racing. Thats good to see, and we completely agree! I completely agree with the last paragraph here. Weight would be updated as normal throughout the month. Yes, but hopefully the system would be designed so, if drop a category then begin doing well, you get upgraded again! Well, its adding weight to gain an advantage. There could be Zwift level weight bonuses instead of another pair of socks. I just got upgraded to CAT A according to zwiftpower. Shame I cant edit my post for the horrendous spelling and autocorrect gaffes. I am about to hit the four year mark on Zwift. Well, imagine youre a strong C racer. 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. 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. Leave the setting unchanged and climbs often feel challenging. Stick a few more kgs on to stop you getting upgraded, would that get you a ban? Race them if you want, but Rides like Tour de Zwift are not based on rider category, they are based on distance. Chip on the shoulder there or what? I did this because I had a particular effort level planned for my workout that day, and didnt want to exceed it. So I just bumped myself up to the B group and went faster overall simply because there were faster people to draft off of. There was a problem. Their hr should also correspond, which they often dont. Nekkid and I only update my weight in zwift if it moves more than a KG. Ugh! Hitting G on your keyboard will do it, or swipe up on iPhone or iPad, etc then tap the graph button. If people want to cheat, they will and can do so in any uncontrolled situation. (Its not the only part, of course! But without any hard and fast rules, we cant say anything is illegalat least for certain races. 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. Take one of our four FTP tests to determine your FTP. 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). How many cyclists do you see in real life who are 65kgs, but they are ten a penny on Zwift. With Zwift control is difficult (in getting Zwifters to enter their accurate) wait. My last ride I spotted 35kg lad who last week was 56kg. 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. thanks for the help with the graphs. Racing the As resp. With racer categories? Example: have you ever purposely avoided weighing yourself (especially you who have a Withings scale that automatically updates your Zwift weight) because you know youve put on a few pounds over the weekend? The first way is to head into your profile. Light guys have the advantage on the hills, in the sprints, and because they have a higher w/kg, the flats too even if my absolute watts are significantly higher. Im sure it happens, but I would guess its pretty rare certainly less of a problem than normal weight doping. Look at ZP results. Note how he wins races while his max HR is around 30 beats below his maximum. But maybe Im just thinking like a lady its hard for me to imagine a lady voluntarily gaining weight, even virtual weight. Hopefully ZHQ will take a harder look the changes that have been proposed over the past year or so. 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). 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. 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 . ZwiftPower - Login Please update your Zwift ID on the connection page to complete registration. And one cheater leads to another and its an arms race of gaming the game. 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). Im not sure Id say the algorithms help heavier riders in descents. 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. As long as youre being honest with yourself I wouldnt worry about it too much. If so, that makes sense to me and I can absolutely see the point of that. To change your profile to have to log in on the Zwift website and then edit the profile there. 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. 2022 Primr RWB League - Cycling Ireland eRacing Winter League. Tie that together with not letting people race in a lower (but letting them race in a higher) cat, and youll have fixed a number of the issues. If someone dopes so they do 4w/kg then they should be racing with other people who do 4w/kg. Im not heavy (68kg), have a typical climber/TT phenotype (no short sprint but good FTP). Keep it on. Some races (many, in fact) on Zwift work exactly like that. Threshold HR is around 151 bpm. I rarely race, don't care. His 150 or 160 is not comparable at all to what mine would be, I have been Zwifting for a couple of years now I can honestly say I am completely addicted to Zwift. 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. Would love your thoughts, please comment. The license would be needed to participate in ranked races, however if you dont have a license, other races would be available to participate in. Same reason there are categories and age group races outdoors! Sandbagging is pointless if winning means youre going to move up (unless you want to take 3 months off after your win. If I lose 1 more pound Ill go to 4.0 and its a daunting thing to think of going to As when I am often cruddy in the Bs. Weight doping is only a serious issue when its done in competition. also interesting about this equation are the: wattage data points and the zwift computations of W/Kg. Then lets stop with all athletic competition! Have you ever compared numbers for calories burned, power output and even elevation ridden for a Zwift ride uploaded to Strava? Other than that, I rarely look at weight unless some results are very weird. As a low to mid-cat rider, ImRead more . Among the communicated changes were plans to hide the visibility of height and weight from ZwiftPower in an effort to encourage individual health and wellness. The COVID-19 lockdown period, now in its third month around the world, has seen an unprecedented boom in virtual cycling. I have long ago earned all of the challenges and levels. In theory (at least) weight dopers could game the results based categories as well. The categorization system is, like you say, fundamentally flawed. Just short of my 68th birthday I still dont see any point in cheating. I agree WTRL ZRL races dont feel like they have cheaters. My solution would make everyones chances equal, while yours would strongly favor heavy riders. 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. (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 . Since strava is all that matters of course. 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).