I don’t view this feature request as elitist at all but similar to how USAC categorizes riders…into specific categories to make races more evenly matched. I am a recently retired elite amateur racer who finds real life criteriums too dangerous in my ripe 40s. At least those races have a real life official to enforce the rule book and to discourage breeches of etiquette.
Bottom line, I would rather know that I am competing against like-minded individuals that have had to qualify for a specific event than have a free for all, non-objective self- classification. This puts some “skin in the game” and hopefully discourages cheaters and sandbaggers.
Yep, ever since my first race back in September 2016 I’ve thought that a degree of selection and authentication is required to make races more meaningful. There can be open feeder races but certain events should only be open to pre-authenticated riders.
Duane I don’t know enough about Zwift’s back end to be sure how it would work but conceptually there are two approaches and I think both could be applied.
One, let’s call it Definitive, is that organisers could submit a list to Zwift in an approved format (a .csv spreadsheet for example) which has a list of riders and their Zwift IDs. Zwift matches that with logins and only people on the list can ride the race. That would work for races where people pre-registered (like the Masters) or if for example someone ran a series of qualifying events leading up to a final, or something like the CVR races where the competitors are known.
The other approach, call it Demographic perhaps, is that an organiser says anyone who meets the following criteria can enter this event e.g. female, Under 18, over 80kg… whatever. Obviously that relies on people entering correct data but with ZwiftPower recording all the events someone who changed age or gender would be immediately obvious.
There may be other options, but those are the possibilities that spring to mind.
If I could choose one thing Zwift should focus on - this would be it. With events/races running every 15 minutes I don’t see the “exclusion” of some people being a problem at all - and even if they do feel that way - they still have the option to organize open races/events that meets their desired criteria.
Would be even better if the solution was combined with Zwift releasing info of what power sources people are using. We just have to accept, that smart trainers and PM’s are different and not all are that accurate - nothing we can do about it. The option to create a Tacx Neo - only (one that can’t be manipulated) race/league would IMO really take zwift racing to the next level…Don’t know if some finds this controversial but so be it :-)
Interesting I thought this was the case anyway. Clearly, it isn’t but should be. I’m an old apparently weak (compared to most here) rider and it would be nice to have a better chance of winning a race and also stop me messing up races for others.
Prior to doing this I do think Zwift needs to revamp the listing of rides. Right now it’s fairly basic, you can filter on day and classification A - D, and E for group workouts. But that’s it. Beyond that it’s a mess, an extensive list of social rides and races mixed together, no filtering on time or lap count, etc.
This was fine when the number of events was low a few years back, but currently with the already high number as is it’d quickly become frustrating to have it riddled with exclusive rides as well.
So well yeh, all for the change but overhaul the event selection system with it.
Having taken the best part of a year out from race organising and Zwift, I can’t believe I have come back to the EXACT same problems and an even more poisonous atmosphere in the groups with regards racing. The overwhelming majority of problems with cheating, poor setups etc. could largely be eliminated by allowing organisers to submit a list of pre-registered and vetted riders to a race/event, ZP could easily manage this system for Zwift at an arms length. At KISS we would be more than happy to make sure there were checks and balances in place (e.g. feeder races to closed races, transparent explanations about what would be required for closed races and pretty much whatever restrictions Zwift wanted to ensure no abuses take place)
Yes agree it would be a useful tool failing that at least a way of designating difference between riders that for the category (Swift know your weight,age,sex and ftp). We still need the open races so barriers to entry for new racers are not too high
Agree completely and I can guarantee that as a race organiser there would be no chance that all of our races would become private, KISS has always been about mass participation. What we would be keen to see though is if pre registering (some?) riders helped to make the whole experience more pleasant for everyone.
It is the only solution for something that could be close to a level playing field for all riders (not only zada approved A’s) Agree with Michael - it is disappointing that nothing has happened yet…