XC… just in ZWIFT alone I can off the top of my head think of a number of girls that I know and ride with regularly who are 49kg / 46kg / 52k and 51kg. (And not in same order - Cat, Debs, me, Beate) If I can come up with that many just like that there will be lots more. We are talking of ZWIFT here not the entire human population. Women exist in ZWIFT too and shouldn’t be excluded.
2 Likes
That’s an article about men and a comment about men.
I rest my case.
4 Likes
David - thank you! ZWIFT and guys like this need to be encouraging women and juniors into this male dominated sport not excluding us.
5 Likes
Those are all outliers, the average weight for women aged 30 to 59 in the United States is approximately 170.8 pounds (about 77.5 kilograms). This is based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). (Given data from the US, as it is readily available).
If you look into the data, you’ll find that women weighing 50kg or less are extremely rare. You should feel fortunate to belong to such an exclusive and healthy population.
XC - we are not talking about women in general nor the high percentage of overweight women in the USA. We are talking about ZWIFT and the world of ZWIFT and the women who cycle. Are you trying to tell me that the average weight of the female ZWIFTer is 75kg? Your article about cyclists body weight and TDF is all about men. Women exist and want to cycle and ZWIFT too!
2 Likes
Hi,
I think the idea of different weights pacers (lighter) is interesting. Is the suggestion of specifically 50 kg based on data from Zwift about the weight distribution of the population of women (or other lightweight cyclists) or some other data points (like the average weight of women pro cyclists)?
XC… your assumption that I am 49kg just bcs I’m ‘fortunate’ is pretty dismissive of the fact that I work hard to be healthy and fit riding some 2hrs plus a day every day - it’s not about being fortunate. It’s an intent, an effort, a discipline.
2 Likes
It’s a good question. If the goal is to address diversity and have RPs more suited to female riders, is 50kg the average weight of Zwift females? ie. why not 55kg or 60kg?
1 Like
Just a side note, I think it’s not accurate to conflate weight (without any other metrics or information) as the sole indicator of health or fitness.
5 Likes
Agreed 100%
1 Like
Average weight for the female Zwifter is somewhere in the 60 to 65 kg region. A cat tends to be a bit lower, lower cats tend to be higher. However, keep in mind that weight alone doesn’t tell the whole story with regards to what our power numbers produce in terms of speed. Height is extremely important as well and Zwift already has a heavy bias towards light/short riders, giving us an unrealistic boost compared to normal laws of physics. In the ~2.5 w/kg range, substracting 5 kilograms is somewhat the same as substracting 10 cms. Ladies, while being lighter than men, are also shorter, so a 60 kgs 165 cm lady will be on par with a 65 kgs 175 cm robopacer.
According to data from the UCI Women’s WorldTour, the average weight of a female professional cyclist is around 61 kilograms (134 pounds), with an average height of 170 centimeters (5’7").
@XavierC
What’s your problem, man? You can ride your way, why don’t you just accept what others would like to have?
7 Likes
I totally agree that lighter riders could really use some lighter Robó pacers. My wife weighs around 50kg and has to work really hard to keep up with the heavier Robó pacer groups. Lately, the pack dynamics have shifted, and she gets left behind when bigger riders come up from behind. It’s like she’s a bowling pin getting knocked out of the side pack and there is nothing she can do to avoid it.
5 Likes
In my (non-light) experience there has been something profoundly weird about the pack dynamics in the big groups around pace partners since about PD3, somehow it just feels a lot easier (and the numbers agree) to ride in a small group ahead of (= faster than) the pace partner than in the big blob.
I’m not sure if it has more to do with the pace partner’s position varying wildly based on how it is drafting or just the way the humans in the blob are riding, with everybody towards the back pushing unnecessarily hard and constantly moving further ahead in the group pushing others further back, rinse and repeat. At some point (typically after a descent) the PP blob will probably catch up with your group but then you just have to push forward to form a new breakway group.
Anyway, I would suggest that the OP also try pushing past the pace partner group and pick one of the smaller groups that nearly always tend to congregate in front of at least the most popular pace partners to see if riding there might turn out to be easier than in the big blob. (Might lose the drops multiplier at some point but who cares.)
1 Like
This is because PD4 introduced braking; and “wasted watts.”
Which has only been compounded as of the recent few weeks with “PD5” which … as of yet hasn’t been officially announced despite all of us being the guinea pigs for it, trying to understand what on earth is going on and why group rides are wonky all over again.
I still don’t understand how a lightweight bot fixes the understanding issue of why two bots with the same w/kg are “different.”
People are just going to start complaining why they keep dropping X RP “but it’s the same w/kg as that other one,” and think something is wrong on their end.
1 Like
The problem isn’t the watts per kilogram. The real issue is the raw power. We all know that raw power is what really makes you go fast on flat terrain. So, if you have a 75kg Robo pacer, they’re going to be putting out more raw power than a 50kg Robo pacer with the same watts per kilogram.
Yes we all understand that.
But the only way Zwift lists things, is in w/kg.
So how is the casual user supposed to understand why one bot is slower than the other despite being potentially the same listing in power as another bot.
None of raw power or w/kg is enough to be the sole predictor of flat speeds on Zwift. The claim that watts are watts and raw power is what propels you forward on the flats is simply false. However, between the 2, w/kg is by far the most reliable in at least getting you in the ballpark. Take 2 riders:
1 Light lady, 50 kgs, 160 cm.
1 Heavy guy, 100 kgs, 185 cm.
Ask them both to ride at 2.5 w/kg and the speed difference between them will be ~2.7 km/h, with the heavier being faster.
Ask them both to ride at 200w and the speed difference between them will be >2.5 times that, with the light rider being much faster.
Ask them both to ride at the same speed (Maria/Coco level) and the light rider, despite needing 0.4-0.5 w/kg more, will be outputting ~80-90w less raw power.
2 Likes
But the request is for lighter robopacers to supplement the existing ones.
We have Halloween robopacers that never seem to cause issues for “‘main menu scrolling UX” or any of the other “problems”. This problems only seem to be brought up to hose down the request which now is close to 100 votes.
Just implement some more robopacers and see how things go.
1 Like