Maybe also add weight change limit 2kg per week? I got my 100kph badge on the Bologna course. You do you. Knowing when to go hard and having the fitness to do so are also vital skills.). Youve got people putting out 5+ watts/kilo atRead more . IMHO, enforcing in-category entry for races will be a quick, easy and effective change. Im 170cm and currently 61kg with an ideal triathlon racing weight of 59kg. ), You say at the end..you do you, it doesnt affect anyone. 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. When I go outdoors I go on a trail bike and bring a backpack full of food and drink for a several hours ride. ), So what is reverse weight doping? In a race not in Zwift it is very easy for people to recongize who I am. was the lowest of top 15 riders. There is no disqualification for going over your w/kg limit. I may of course be wrong, and these are all true weights, but Id be very surprised if that were the case, in the races where this matters, riders have to submit a private youtube weigh-in video <2 hrs before the race. This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. Cyclingnews is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Someone with my FTP should be CAT B, regardless of weight. The categorization system is, like you say, fundamentally flawed. Threshold HR is around 151 bpm. 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. 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 . Sandbagging is pointless if winning means youre going to move up (unless you want to take 3 months off after your win. I have a Withings scale and in the Zwift Settings, it shows up as connected. Just the fact that you need a third party (ZP) to validate race results really says it all. 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). Daniel Ostanek is production editor at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired as staff writer. Although does WTRL encourage reverse weight doping? How does it work? 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. Then lets stop with all athletic competition! However, I have a lighter and faster son that smokes me head to head. In real life, Id dust that guy. People can be far to either direction im 25 and my max that I have hit is 217. Well, its adding weight to gain an advantage. however 2 riders at the same w/kg, heavier riders have the advantage on flats & descents: https://zwiftinsider.com/wkg-tests/. If the categories are split using purely w/kg a lighter rider doesnt have any advantage up the climbs at all. I am not saying that everyone with a low weight on zwift is cheating, but I am suggesting that there are many who are because zwift favours light riders, and people do like to win. 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. She can crank but her w/kg is low. USA Cycling has categories that are based on experience and performance. Zwift Insider is independent of Zwift corporate (www.zwift.com), although Zwift does provide funding to help defray site costs. It does the job as described. Some people are clearly living in a fantasy on zwift. It's possible to check just about any kind of Zwift result using ZwiftPower, with the website sortable by leagues, race series and segments. Find out more about how we test. Race them if you want, but Rides like Tour de Zwift are not based on rider category, they are based on distance. On Zwift I look suspicous. At least I can be best in one thing on zwiftpower. I mean youve both got a point. I completely missed these as I reinvented the wheel, trying to stir up the hornets nest on the Zwift forums the other day. Racers who get top 1,2,3 more than a few times get upgraded period. Why you can trust Cyclingnews If youre a 300-pound dude who wants to go a little faster uphill as a virtual 200 pounder, have at it. Connecting to ZwiftPower Before you can start using ZwiftPower, you'll need to create an account. I would say 1kg or more is more normal. Riders weight will rise and fall but under normal circumstances within a range. Other planned changes communicated last week, including plans to improve the reporting features in Zwift will be rolled out as planned. I think with a results based system would help as it would the sandbaggers, but it wont eliminate the weight cheats entirely, those that just want to gain a little more w/kg by losing a few virtual pounds. Hitting G on your keyboard will do it, or swipe up on iPhone or iPad, etc then tap the graph button. 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. Adjusting Difficulty Before Your Workout. 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. 240W 50kg riders (4.8W/kg) beat 380W 95kg riders in B category Tempus Fugit time trials. Now head back to ZwiftPower, click 'Connect' at the top of the page, then enter your Zwift ID in the box when prompted. Great article, Eric. But maybe Im just thinking like a lady its hard for me to imagine a lady voluntarily gaining weight, even virtual weight. They CANNOT win. Have you ever compared numbers for calories burned, power output and even elevation ridden for a Zwift ride uploaded to Strava? 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. Some races (many, in fact) on Zwift work exactly like that. Have you considered drinking during a race? plain and simple. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). 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. I am always passed by everyone on the way up but can usually catch up on the way down (190cm/93kg). 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 In fact, the only riders at or below my w/kg were minutes off the back. Either these racers need to calibrate the trainer or they are sandbagging big time. Manually change your weight in Zwift by adding 10 pounds. I once made myself much heavier so I could compete against my 11-year-old son in a head to head Zwift climbing race. (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 . But Its hard to confirm whether or not its transmitting the weight to Zwift. Login Required The Zwift Engineering team is focused on improving security for ZwiftPower users. 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. I am 42 years-old with a HRmax of ~169 bpm. Keep answering that question and youll keep most people on side. I think theres another more interesting angle than just trying to stay down a category. Food for thought. Im more concerned about the guy who finished 5th with 144bpm. The guy who got first weighs 106kg on strava but 45kg and only 411 on zwift. 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. Tour de Zwift events were races? They are not, and never were, skill classes of any kind (ie. . My power to weight is decent at about 4w/kg. As soon as there is a single bit of flat cheerio! You can record your weight n height n have it verified by experts etc up to five minutes before an event. I am about to hit the four year mark on Zwift. Response to our post as well as Zwifts own post in their forum were resoundingly negative from members of the Zwift racing community. How does being heavier help a cyclist? you may ask. While the benefits of being light fully kick in while climbing a mountain (as it is easier for smaller guys to achieve certain w/kg), the benefits of being a tall and strong guy dont fully apply in the flats. Why not only require weight and height for entry to A and B races? 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. I never thought i should weigh myself with my kit on. Thats hilarious. As long as youre being honest with yourself I wouldnt worry about it too much. Too light and watts go down as does watts per kilo. There is no cat C rider at 58kg who has a hope in hell of beating me in any race. Ive seen many A Riders with 300 FTP on Zwift who I beat by a HUGE MARGIN at triathlon events, including the cycling portion. On a tablet or smartphone, you can download the. Last week I did the prl full and Uber pretzel and tried to get #1 by weight on those segments. See how you can support Zwift Insider! Then save your ride and log out. In IRL there is a double draft. Would love your thoughts, please comment. 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. Hopefully ZHQ will take a harder look the changes that have been proposed over the past year or so. 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. 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. Exactly. 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? 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. You must be a much better person than me, because thats something I will Never make peace with. 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? Do you believe weight doping (reverse or otherwise) is a big problem in Zwift racing, and if so, what can be done about it? Would achieve the same thing. Thanks! otherwise no way in hell hes beating you. https://zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=697996. 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. Frankly I struggle to believe these are real. Shame I cant edit my post for the horrendous spelling and autocorrect gaffes. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy I love reading it. 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 dont mind the low HRs but the low power and high w/kg really irk me! Current category system simply allows very fast but heavy riders to race in categories lower than their actual abilities. 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). The Tour de Zwift events this year were much moreRead more , Wait. That's pretty straightforward the usual email, username, password, terms and conditions so you won't have any trouble with this step. Everyone races at the same weight/height. 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. If it is.. someone must be able to point me to the rule where it says that it is forbidden..? Its only a bit of fun at my level (solid B with the odd podium). 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.. The other race, events, and activities are needed to display that data. ZwiftPower FAQ We're sure you have several questions about ZwiftPower and what it is. He had fun laughing at fat dad, but I pipped him at the line! bottom line for me, its a virtual training world, a virtual hammer isnt the same as a real hammer. 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. Or are you looking for a participation trophy on every race as well? Too heavy watts are up but watts per kilo goes down. , 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. 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 . Generally weigh myself once a month. Next up is the most finicky part of the process finding your Zwift ID in order to connect your accounts. I was just naturally heavy and it put me at the top of the C class in w/kg. hanging with the front group is very though for me because i am exactly at the bridge between A and B. 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. But I will, and Ill get hammered and hopefully improve. Race specific phase: 3x10min 50-60rpm intervals with . In the many B races i have done it was more fun because i was competitive. Unless a youth rider, height is generally going to remain the same. Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. Yes, but hopefully the system would be designed so, if drop a category then begin doing well, you get upgraded again! His favourite races are Strade Bianche and the Volta a Portugal, and he rides a Colnago C40. Okay, I now see in ZP where it has my minimum racer category (B) in my profile based on my last race, so I can choose B or A going forward. Fluctuations of a few percent would be tolerated and percent change would be displayed on ZP. People still rode at B level pace in a C group. But without any hard and fast rules, we cant say anything is illegalat least for certain races. On Zwift, weight dopers seek to gain an advantage by entering a lower-than-life weight into their Zwift profile. 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. Not true, at least not absolutely. Keep hammering the point and finding ways that Zwift can improve controls. Even some of the regulated weight rides will give 2kg leeway. I have just accepted that at my height I will always be heavier than the average cyclist. This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. First up, you'll have to head to Zwift.com and log in, then click on Settings > Profile > Connections and choose 'opt-in' under the ZwiftPower logo. 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. 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. Yes, we need to be categorized by our race ranking, not power. Choose a Zwift workout, but before you start riding look at the workout breakdown on the left side of the screen. Currently trying to convince a friend who is new to Zwift not to reverse weight dope. What if you are super committed and gain the weight in real life just so you can stay in the category , Excellent posts on perhaps the most serious non-hardware problem in Zwift right now. 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. 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. 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. Just short of my 68th birthday I still dont see any point in cheating. . 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. LOL. If you set your weight high enough that you fail to do well you will drop in the categories. It all has to do with the way Zwift's racing categories work. Leave the setting unchanged and climbs often feel challenging. And atRead more . 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. 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. Last week we announced Zwifts plans to remove rider height and weight from ZwiftPower, among other changes (read the full post here). I rode outside last night, and Im sure I will again soon. I still have no sprint kick so Im never winning anything anyway. I havent even used my road bike outdoors since 2012. 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. They do? You only change it in Zwift and it should get picked up with regular backend processing periodically (maybe overnight). There are two ways to do this. It does not stop cheating at all. 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. Certainly it impacts the accuracy of race performance and results. Fact ! 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. My power is often in the top few. That was my first thought when a fellow Zwifter commented on my recent race, Somehow you always get your w/kg down. 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. You'll receive a four-digit code, which you'll then have to add to your. But I get beaten by lots of other zwifters, even on flat courses. I have heard women admit on social rides that their zwift weight is their goal weightRead more . And this is why reverse weight doping is a thing. Its funny, I was talking to one of my work colleagues who also Zwifts about AdZ and how because Im heavier (125kg / 276lbs) I would never be a sub 60m AdZ rider (I reckon Im looking at sub 2 hours, if lucky), Ive never once considered weight doping, sure I know I could but why would I? 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. 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. If you were to meet meRead more . 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. Im glad you wrote about this. People with eating disorders, or a proclivity toward extreme dieting. IRL I am 85kgs and cant pretend to be 65kgs. The categories are the cycling equivalent to weight classes in boxing. 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. Then everyone would know who is legit or at least somewhat legit. Note how he wins races while his max HR is around 30 beats below his maximum. 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.