@Tom_Smith_6539 I didn’t see this in time to refer you for this past weekend, but we’ve got fairly strong front-of field in Herd Winter Racing, which is 0-1000 ZRS.
The time slot I did had 9 690+ riders out of 41 finishers, winner was 879, and the 690+ riders weren’t the first 9 finishers. (on 4 laps of Seaside Sprint)
Been thinking about this one.
Is this what Zwift wants us to do. With putting riders together with huge gaps in powers it is more route depended if you want to do good.
But if everyone starts doing that it would mean even less racers in the events.
And if you do like Steve you will only see your sscore go up, since you dont ride routes where you will get dropped and so drop in ZRS.
If we look at me. I am at my floor now (473). On flat routes I can compete for the win. On rolling terrains I struggle and anything with a hill I get dropped hard.
I find doing only flat races boring so I am also doing rolling and the occaisionally hilly route. But that makes my score stay the same. I gain some on flat but lose that again on anything hilly.
Since ZRS went live I am at this 473 floor score and the is no movement whatsoever.
Some would call that sandbagging, but if you ride routes who dont suit you, you drop in ZRS, its that simple.
Its not that a purposefully ignore them, its that there are so many better options for a Puncheur/Sprinter to race in.
I had great fun doing Chasing Tour, but I got really hammered on the mountain sections and iTTs. (great for fitness though).
Likewise FRR series, racing for 2 hours up Epic KOM and AdZ is not for me. Its not why I pay my subscription. So I avoid it.
I am luckily in the respect that most races less than 1 hour suit my phenotype. If I was a Climber or Time Trialist It would be frustrating.
The thing is ZRS works for me. When I was in B, I got to a capability where I could top 10 on nearly all 30 min routes with the exception of routes that included Box Hill or Volcano KOM or massive primetime fields.
Now I’m in the 690 pen and it’s the right place for me based on my current fitness level. Just don’t expect me to race in many Cat A ZRL, or FRR stages.
That is of course the main thing here. You can not go any higher than that. So for you it doesnt really matter if your score only goes up and you can be picky what race you do.
But for people in lower cats this might be a problem if they only pick suited routes. At one point they reach their cap and are than in a cat where they cant even win their suited races. and if the minimum effort kicks in, it might be very hard for them to drop some points and probably have to do races on terrains they dont like. But who does and effort if you get dropped quickly …
It seems to me the system at this moment makes you race also on routes you dont like and are sure to lose just so you can keep your score to a ‘fun’ level.
I think you are right in that there is a much wider spread of ability in each pen since its not split by power any more.
Though most populated day to day racing is the zRacing series, and the routes for this are often flat to rolling.
In the previous power based system Climbers/Time Trialists were disadvantaged (assuming they were racing for podiums) since the sprinters would sweep up the virtual silverware.
Now they are able to ‘escape’ their wkg constraints and race in a lower pen and put the hurt back on. Likewise, sprinters who get good results are pushed up into higher categories and now have to hang on as long as we can.
I think the issue might be with the variety of routes in zRacing. The Community series has certainly been timed well with ZRS to give us a much wider course profile than normal.
That was a big problem indeed. It wasnt alone the sandbagging. Most races werent just not hard enough to drop the sprinters. I started the ZRaces in October last year and in Augustus I had the first series where I struggled. All months before were mostly flat.
Although interestingly, if you wanted to, you could still orchestrate a break in B before ZRS, either by going long or smashing it up a climb. It was hard though to avoid a sprint.
Not sure about now - I suspect the wider w/kg spread in B means the race is less controlled than before - and any decent climbing will really split the race
You could, but you had to dance on the limits of CE to do it. The best plan was to go for the final 3min or final 8min +, so as not to risk your 4-6min upgrade watts.
I think in current B, there seems to be a chase of the guy who is in the wrong category, which nullifies attacks. Oddly, this is also happening with A, where people have unrealistic power profiles and just sit on the front policing (by accident) any action.
Same in Cat 3.
For the Rhino Racing Short Crits, we weren’t seeing much of an A field lately, so starting today we chopped off 800-1000 and will try it with narrower pens, hopefully get a little improvement for the lower classes. Of course this does not fix ZRS but perhaps the differentiation from standard pen ranges will attract some folks, and we leave the 800+ riders to choose from fewer events.
So what are you ranges now?
Is there therefore a ‘cap’ after which you can’t do your race, or is it just a wide top category?
Capped at 800.
At the moment, we just took 800 as max and divided by 5, but will probably play around with it more. I could envision changing it every few weeks.
E 0-160
D 160-320
C 320-480
B 480-640
A 640-800
Any highly scored racers looking for a slightly longer mass start event that should have a decent sized field, we have a one-time event on this Saturday, 7 June, 12:30 UTC, The Rhino Classic
Great event Paul, you picked a good route picked for the distance, made for a very tough and attritional race. Great turn out too, with lots of A+ in the field.
I dropped from the front group at the end of lap 3
followed by a TT to the finish to maintain my position. I hope it made for fun groups further back too.