Good question. Im the opposite. SoggyAlbatross2. there's a million and 1 reasons why it is not a legitimate sport. angels stadium covid rules. Nice work! Exactly. I have been light and I have been heavy. Hes had to up his weight as he is only 35kg ( upped time 45kg) he but puts out 220watt so his ftp is 5.5-6w/kg in a race. 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. 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.. In IRL there is a double draft. Best turbo trainers: Smart trainers to improve your indoor cycling experience With Zwift control is difficult (in getting Zwifters to enter their accurate) wait. I just got upgraded to CAT A according to zwiftpower. I think he is referring to the 2021 Haute Route GC (or lack thereof), Sorry, thats right, it was the Haute Route 2021 events. It's possible to check just about any kind of Zwift result using ZwiftPower, with the website sortable by leagues, race series and segments. For example the threshold for cat B is FTP over 200 watts and over 3.2 w/kg. 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. 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 . Simply put, the system cannot measure weight it can only measure power, so for racing, peoples weight should be disregarded by that I mean, just as everyone in a zwift academy race has the same bike, they should be given the same weight , then it is a race based on FTP banded categories with point based promotion. below this level you just have to take people's word for it. Hide the weight who cares let them upgrade all the way to As where you have strict reporting requirements. Finally, just head back to ZwiftPower and click 'Connect to my Account'. 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. But I get beaten by lots of other zwifters, even on flat courses. otherwise no way in hell hes beating you. 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. however 2 riders at the same w/kg, heavier riders have the advantage on flats & descents: https://zwiftinsider.com/wkg-tests/. Conserving energy is a key part of successful bike racing. Im more concerned about the guy who finished 5th with 144bpm. The easiest way to qualify for a higher category is to cut weight. That's pretty straightforward the usual email, username, password, terms and conditions so you won't have any trouble with this step. Certainly it impacts the accuracy of race performance and results. We would like to thank the community for your passion and feedback. My power to weight is decent at about 4w/kg. I put my real weight 95% of the time. A thank you to Zwift HQ for listening to the feedback from the racing community and taking action. I have a Withings scale and in the Zwift Settings, it shows up as connected. (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 . IRL cycling pros are not exactly heavy weights and lean-ness is highly encouraged. Obviously, these are generally accepted rules in the Zwift Community. 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. Cheapest Zwift setup: Everything to help you onto Zwift for the first time Privacy Policy, How to Race on Zwift (Setup, Strategy, and More). As long as the button to enter a lower cat is active, riders will Press It. Race them if you want, but Rides like Tour de Zwift are not based on rider category, they are based on distance. 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. Is a very strong rider for his age and trains hard. Perhaps if you post a W/kg in excess ofRead more , So thats why I could easily keep up with a 3-3.4wkg group yesterday whilst keeping my wattage at some 2.5-2.7just my 107kgs.the rest were probably featherweight category :) Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. bottom line for me, its a virtual training world, a virtual hammer isnt the same as a real hammer. If it still doesn't work email zwiftpower@zwift.com and they should be able to sort. In theory (at least) weight dopers could game the results based categories as well. Noob question though, whats the etiquette around weighing with kit on or off. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The best solution would be for Zwift to actively monitor all racing for people cheating. 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. Honest mistake on my part and one I wont make again, so fair enough to be filtered outRead more , Related (and apologies if the answer is obvious but Ive only done one Zwift race), really what is the point of the categories? I hopeRead more . Many riders is talking about cheating, when someone enters a lower category but it's not, in my opinion. Stick a few more kgs on to stop you getting upgraded, would that get you a ban? However, I was able to navigate to the settings page by doing the following. Most of the time, this will be what you use to figure out your race category. Take one of our four FTP tests to determine your FTP. Whether w/kg is the appropriate way to categorise races is anotherRead more , As a 92kg rider, with a w/kg FTP of 289 (or 3.14 w/kg) I wholeheartedly agree. You must be a much better person than me, because thats something I will Never make peace with. 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 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. If you were to meet meRead more . The first way is to head into your profile. But many people (including myself) prefer categorized races because we want to have a chance to actually battle it out for a win. Launch Zwift and go to the Menu. I recently won a C race, but it didnt feel like winning as I knew there were 2 categories faster. This can be seen by comparing Zwift physics with real life physics (calculated by websites likeRead more . We like this move from Zwift. 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 . indispensabile essere sinceri nel dichiarare il proprio peso , per se stessi e per il rispetto degli altri . We are new to Zwift and My son Whos 12 has used it to race to make up for his list u12 crit season. As a lighter racer 136lbs it pisses me off to see cheating. 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!!). (and dont do organized rides for fairness) so I dont have resistance changes and sometimes zwift reports extraordinary power readings for a ride. Which brings me to todays topic: reverse weight doping. I dont think any of my shorter (under 5ft10) running or cycling friends weights more than that. Two months ago he had a magic weight loss on zwift. Future state can add a nominal cost to said license to support clean racing via Zwift tech updates. I wont do and will rather try my very best to compete with the As. In spectacular and shocking fashion. Why not only require weight and height for entry to A and B races? Someone sandbagging will get promoted out of category and will not be allowed to reg for lower categories. Skinny guys get DQd if they match heavies on the flat for power so they can NEVER win, even in the mountains. 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. We can name and shame these few. . 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 . Im quite heavy, at about 85kgs, but also 183cms tall (and 52 years old). Honest and goal driven. I agree Paul great idea. I dont think so. there seems to be a lot of variability in power products and what people are using to feed into zwift. Unless a youth rider, height is generally going to remain the same. Is it doping though? 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. They are not, and never were, skill classes of any kind (ie. The categorization system is, like you say, fundamentally flawed. Ugh! 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. But for most riders watts per kilo rules the day, determining which category you race in Zwift. All rights reserved. There is no cat C rider at 58kg who has a hope in hell of beating me in any race. 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. Kudos to Zwift for listening to their customers and admitting they made a mistake. I currently use the Garmin Smart Scale so I may invest in the Withings scale. Once I hit 185 its either sit up and catch my breath of fall of the bike. As some others already mentioned, the bodyweight tends to oscillate over the week and even the day. A good rule we follow is to take our FTP divide it by 3 and then put that in as our weight (in Kilograms). Yet the lesson is clear if you want to win, even on flat courses, have or claim a very low weight. In fact, if in a long ride your weight could change by more than 1kg over the course of that one ride!!! ThatRead more . Hi, very impressive w/kg at 65. I hope they learn from this and are more careful with things like that in the future. But then you could have someone in the same age group who maxes out at 170. In some cases this even happens unfairly. You should do much better at your actual weight in that case. This is pretty timely for me as my FTP is 283 and my weight is currently 71.2kg. 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! Its only a bit of fun at my level (solid B with the odd podium). A strict w/kg classification isnt perfect. This covers name changes as well as weight/height changes during an event. I dont know why this is, but i dont care one bit if people are cheating. They do? Food for thought. 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. Can someone answer why we need the different categories? I still have no sprint kick so Im never winning anything anyway. Withings scale that automatically updates your Zwift weight, a month ago in the final post of my race category series, https://smartscalesync.com/?utm_source=tr, https://zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=5528, https://zwiftinsider.com/how-does-zwift-calculate-my-speed/, 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. Im not heavy (68kg), have a typical climber/TT phenotype (no short sprint but good FTP). 5 year age categories and incredibly competitive a in most age groups, Thanks so much for your helpful comment. 2022 Race Like A Pro. The algorithms very much help heavier riders in descents, which gets forgotten when all we discuss is climbing. 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). 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. The bottom line is that in any competition there will always be someone who wants to cheat to win.Read more . (Same effect in a sprint, just harder to isolate). Other planned changes communicated last week, including plans to improve the reporting features in Zwift will be rolled out as planned. 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. 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. My 3.9w/kg (a new PR!) 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 . Note how he wins races while his max HR is around 30 beats below his maximum. It's also possible to filter results and data by categories, such as different age or power ranges. 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. 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). Generally weigh myself once a month. As well as original reporting, news and feature writing, and production work, Daniel also runs The Leadout newsletter and oversees How to Watch guides throughout the season. You could attend races where all categories go together (same start, all riders visible) for a while if you find that to be more fun 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). In real life, Id dust that guy. Theyre only cheating themselves and it all comes out in the wash eventually. It's a real community hub. IRL if your weight is 85kg, itll take you longer to climb the Ventoux than if your weight is 65. How big of a problem is reverse weight doping? It is obviously a stupid thing ( weight doping) and why a rider would do this is beyond me but pride and quasi Strava bragging or Zwift Power bragging is a thing. As for the weight, I weight 190lbs, (86Ks) I put in 190lbs. The categories are the cycling equivalent to weight classes in boxing. Thats the graph. You will receive a verification email shortly. 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. My power is often in the top few. Though our intent is to protect potentially vulnerable users by removing labels that can trigger unhealthy behaviour What are they trying to protect? Yes, there are plenty of variabies, but power is power. It doesnt appear that people are abiding by the categories. Why dont you start self-regulating then? EZ and self regulating. The COVID-19 lockdown period, now in its third month around the world, has seen an unprecedented boom in virtual cycling. I am 42 years-old with a HRmax of ~169 bpm. Now head back to ZwiftPower, click 'Connect' at the top of the page, then enter your Zwift ID in the box when prompted. If people want to cheat, they will and can do so in any uncontrolled situation. Wow, cheating !! This would cover submission and review of a private video showing height and weight which would result in a check mark on ZP showing this rider was height/weight verified. .Personally I one of the outliers on height and weight. Why not ride to your strengths? Well Eric, my weight is plummeting, and Ill probably be taking a break from Zwift over the summer, so Im sure the upgrade is coming very soon!!!