I dont mind the low HRs but the low power and high w/kg really irk me! I think one of the biggest issues with weight (and height) in Zwift is that you get punished really hard for something you only have limited control over. Gain a few (virtual) pounds. What is that!?! SoggyAlbatross2. Zwift power usually looks at numbers vs the category race he entered. But youre not affecting anyone elses experience. I would suggest a free (for now) virtual race license that would outline racer behavior with consequences. It's possible to check just about any kind of Zwift result using ZwiftPower, with the website sortable by leagues, race series and segments. 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. Context, Tim, context! I do ZHR Masters on a Tuesday night. why because of weight, not power. Level 50. It certainly didnt feel like I had taken it easy when IRead more . Zwift Insider makes a small commission on purchases made from these links, so please shop through them to support our efforts. Many riders is talking about cheating, when someone enters a lower category but it's not, in my opinion. I agree with your idea. Why you can trust Cyclingnews All this makes me laugh. points based), riders can win by any margin any number of times and remain in their category so long as they do not exceed category limits. 5 year age categories and incredibly competitive a in most age groups, Thanks so much for your helpful comment. Its ridiculous. 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. Privacy Policy, How to Race on Zwift (Setup, Strategy, and More). Exactly. But I get beaten by lots of other zwifters, even on flat courses. We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices. Totally agree with you. Hahahahaha. 2.5w/kg (215Watts) is hard for me to hold for extended periods but I keep trying. Have you considered drinking during a race? Also a really frustrating thing is why doesnt Zwift autoRead more , is he riding in the right category? Racers who get top 1,2,3 more than a few times get upgraded period. Contribute a post, shop through us, make a donation, advertise on this site. That's it! EDIT Found my answer: 250w, Theres a chart about halfway down this page: https://zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=5528. I have no idea. This is pretty timely for me as my FTP is 283 and my weight is currently 71.2kg. Even at my age I still plan to compete in MTB races when the world gets back to racing. If I feel happy in my body thats the most important thing for me, and why I rarely weigh myself. 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. With Zwift control is difficult (in getting Zwifters to enter their accurate) wait. My 3 race FTP is at 4.07w/kg (248w @ 61kg), but Im still in Cat B. As soon as there is a single bit of flat cheerio! A recent Crit City A Race is a very good example of this: I finished in the front pack, sprinting it out for 9th place. 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. 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. Someone sandbagging will get promoted out of category and will not be allowed to reg for lower categories. Or theyll ignore leaders instructions and ride off the front of a group (flyers). Prior to joining the team, he had written for most major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly, Rouleur, and CyclingTips. 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 have just accepted that at my height I will always be heavier than the average cyclist. There are two ways to do this. Race specific phase: 3x10min 50-60rpm intervals with . Some weight dopers are obvious and blatant other times its much less egregious. I am currently 145kg and have not experienced any bullying so far. In a race not in Zwift it is very easy for people to recongize who I am. Read on for our guide on how the app works, how to get set up, and how to analyse your racing. 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. Although does WTRL encourage reverse weight doping? , 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. The COVID-19 lockdown period, now in its third month around the world, has seen an unprecedented boom in virtual cycling. Zwift should take accountability for what matters most to start with and thats the cheaters. also interesting about this equation are the: wattage data points and the zwift computations of W/Kg. Click on the Settings button and you'll find the Trainer Difficulty slider. light guys categorically do NOT have an advantage on the flats vs heavier guys, assuming both riding at same w/kg, heavy guy WILL be going faster on Zwift. When a rider can change categories by modifying their virtual body weight, thats an issue. 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. 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. Im surprised that (off wheel) smart trainers dont have the ability to weigh the rider when they get on the bike. I was told that was possible but I couldnt see how. It does the job as described. the lighter rider has to ride much harder to stay in the groups with a few big guys cruising along. 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. Either these racers need to calibrate the trainer or they are sandbagging big time. How big of a problem is reverse weight doping? Im quite heavy, at about 85kgs, but also 183cms tall (and 52 years old). I was wondering is it possible to get the graph at the bottom of the screen that shows youre power and other stuff on a normal ride and not doing a FTP test or workout. I currently weigh 59kgs but my BMI is 25 which technically overweight. I take issue with the weight doping is okay in none competitive events because of strava. 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. Category systems are complex beasts, of course, I agree, people can have fun with weight doping and such aslong they dont enter competitive races. Great drafting skills!, Heres the thing: I probably am a fairly efficient racer, when I want to be. ThatRead more . You have lowered your weight and skewed your power graph so it is inaccurate. i was just having a similar discussion with my old lady about watts and weights, etc. BA1 1UA. I am alleging that weight cheating is endemic in zwift, especially among those who care about winning. 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. I have climbed well and I have suffered on climbs but also sprinted well. nothing more. And as well as your race results, you can check your distance ridden, total metres climbed, power peaks from one second up to 75 minutes, and more besides. Hes asking for a fair race. My power to weight ratio would be the same, but Id get the benefits you get from being a heavier rider. Id say physics does! 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. Most of my ZwiftRead more . If its not done during a competitive Zwift event, I dont see it as a problem. Mike, Great article as ever Eric. 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. Bath It all has to do with the way Zwifts racing categories work. High intensity: 30/30 and 40/20sec Rnnestad intervals like 3x (10x40/20sec). How doRead more . I think a once-weekly weigh-in is acceptable. That is pretty low compared to most people on zwiftpower. Enforce race category entry and youll fix much of the problems with Zwift racing. 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. Wow, cheating !! Absolutely impossible. Zwift excessively rewards the athlete for being light and small. . 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. Blaming Zwift for allowing cheaters is the system problem that gets more people frustrated, upset, etc. 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 what exactly is ZwiftPower and how does it work? 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). If youre a 300-pound dude who wants to go a little faster uphill as a virtual 200 pounder, have at it. Food for thought. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. 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. It's also possible to filter results and data by categories, such as different age or power ranges. 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. See how you can support Zwift Insider! Using your Mac or PC, you can do it online on the Zwift website. My last ride I spotted 35kg lad who last week was 56kg. Why can we just all race together and the fastest person wins? Actually no, sorry, I was wrong. 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. I have seen riders weighting 56 kgs and week later they are 35 kgs. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. I may try it just to see what difference it makes. Response to our post as well as Zwifts own post in their forum were resoundingly negative from members of the Zwift racing community. But I also did it because I knew it was great practice! Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Last week I did the prl full and Uber pretzel and tried to get #1 by weight on those segments. Too light and watts go down as does watts per kilo. Lucky forRead more . 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. Yes, smaller riders have less frontal area, but the difference in CdA isnt that much. Would achieve the same thing. I agree Paul great idea. 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 got my 100kph badge on the Bologna course. I have heard women admit on social rides that their zwift weight is their goal weightRead more . Thats why there are no top 40 Cat C riders in 70-75Kg range. 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. Nice work! To change your profile to have to log in on the Zwift website and then edit the profile there. ), So what is reverse weight doping? (I dont recommend this approach, but it proves the point that weight doping is an issue that concerns many Zwift racers. Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. 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 have been light and I have been heavy. Since strava is all that matters of course. w/kg is partially based on real world physics. Not too many people actually want to see other peoples height or weight except to be able to verify race results are reasonable. As some others already mentioned, the bodyweight tends to oscillate over the week and even the day. But It doesnt mean that that person is going to be the person riding the bike on the trainer during the race does it. Exactly, although As arent that regulated, unless you hit the premier class, which is a very small section of A riders. Race them if you want, but Rides like Tour de Zwift are not based on rider category, they are based on distance. It's a bit more complicated than most website sign-ups, but now you'll be all ready to get started. otherwise no way in hell hes beating you. Nailed it. 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. You should do much better at your actual weight in that case. 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. (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 . As long as youre being honest with yourself I wouldnt worry about it too much. We may call it sandbagging or reversed weight doping but its legal . triathlon). I averaged between 300 and 310 watts for all segments and my heart sat pretty consistently between 140 and 144.Read more , saying x number of watts per kg at xxx hr is flawed anyways max and resting hr can vary alot. Find out more about how we test. This clearly shows the power of the Zwift blob it impacts more than just drafting. 2 yr. ago. Once you have a number for your FTP in watts, divide it by your weight in kilograms. In the 2 months Ive been on Zwift Ive become a stronger rider than ever, because Zwift encourages me to push myself harder than I do in real life. Same reason there are categories and age group races outdoors! The bottom line is that in any competition there will always be someone who wants to cheat to win.Read more . I completely agree with the last paragraph here. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy You'll receive a four-digit code, which you'll then have to add to your last name back in your Zwift settings (you can change it back after the process is completed). Im more concerned about the guy who finished 5th with 144bpm. I guess I shouldnt be surprised. Share your thoughts below, and you may also wish to share those thoughts on the actual forum post. stop worrying about whatRead more . Goodness. All rights reserved. People still rode at B level pace in a C group. IRL I am 85kgs and cant pretend to be 65kgs. Do some races have split out start times so you are only racing with those of similar ability? This afternoon, Zwift posted a follow-up message on the forum. I should mention: many Zwifters have lied about their in-game weight for perfectly acceptable reasons. Just the fact that you need a third party (ZP) to validate race results really says it all. 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.. Had assumed I just rode inefficiently. Is it doping though? there seems to be a lot of variability in power products and what people are using to feed into zwift. Certainly it impacts the accuracy of race performance and results. And this is why reverse weight doping is a thing. This raised concerns within the Zwift Racing Community regarding fairness in racing. Most of the time, this will be what you use to figure out your race category. So I just bumped myself up to the B group and went faster overall simply because there were faster people to draft off of. however 2 riders at the same w/kg, heavier riders have the advantage on flats & descents: https://zwiftinsider.com/wkg-tests/. Included with this license agreement can be the approval to show height and weight. ), You say at the end..you do you, it doesnt affect anyone. The 33-pound Hub is 14 pounds lighter than the 47-pound Wahoo Kickr, even though the two trainers are almost exactly the same size. Completing this first step means that you've given permission to share your results and activity history with ZwiftPower, so now all of your performance and race data can be transferred across to the website. 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). Thanks! I dont think any of my shorter (under 5ft10) running or cycling friends weights more than that. 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. Youve got people putting out 5+ watts/kilo atRead more . Congratulations John on your retirement and Zwift is a great retirement present. 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. Zwift lets you adjust the difficulty of your workout, before or even during your ride. 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. Taking weight out of the equation you could just make everyones avatar moving forward by holding down the up arrow on their keyboard. 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). Cheapest Zwift setup: Everything to help you onto Zwift for the first time The algorithms very much help heavier riders in descents, which gets forgotten when all we discuss is climbing. Can someone answer why we need the different categories? My power is often in the top few. If there are problems, Zwift already has a reporting function and everything is recorded police that properly andRead more . Yes thats completely unacceptable, you should never be at a disadvantage at any time in your life, just as your mother raised you. 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. Hes not looking for a trophy every race. In fact, you can change a workout on Zwift about as fast as you can U-turn a bicycle on a real hill. Some people are clearly living in a fantasy on zwift. Living at 5,900 ft. adds a performance restriction on me, I get it. (Example: if your FTP is 300 watts and you weigh 75kg, your FTP w/kg would be 300/75, or 4 w/kg.) 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. While most Zwifters seemed to understand and even appreciate the intent behind the change, there was concern that removing this information would result in increased height/weight doping. ZwiftPower - Login Please update your Zwift ID on the connection page to complete registration. Now in A i get dropped all the time. Mate youre a legend. 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. But youre training and racing and getting stronger, and eventually your FTP improves to 260 watts, which is 3.25 w/kg. She can crank but her w/kg is low. The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox! People can be far to either direction im 25 and my max that I have hit is 217. Privacy Policy, How to Race on Zwift (Setup, Strategy, and More). look at the article. I wont do and will rather try my very best to compete with the As. yea but realistically is it worth it for them to dedicate the resources to that $$$$$$$, Well, thats good news. Id be super interested in the timing you set your weight. If people want to cheat, they will and can do so in any uncontrolled situation. I put my real weight 95% of the time. Tough to recover after attacks in a race when youre always near maxing out. Is a very strong rider for his age and trains hard. 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 It would be easy to deny it was intentional. In order to ride with him I have to drop my weight to allow me to keep up. Manually change your weight in Zwift by adding 10 pounds. I know its just virtual but my godi hope they enjoy their lies. As far as my weight goes the only thing I care about is being as accurate as I can to get accurate results. In real life, Id dust that guy. Everything you need to know about the third-party Zwift results and analysis website. Ride On. was the lowest of top 15 riders. Why we are treating this differently from actual racing? I used to live next to the Alpe and later, next to the Ventoux. If you are on the lighter side, try picking some climbing races. IfRead more . Then weigh yourself, and open Zwift, and see if it reflects the change. 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.