Anti sandbagging and other areas that need development and communication

That may be true for the C-A categories, but in D-category you will also find those first-timers.
When you look at the race description of e.g. the Giant Crit Crushers - Week 1 - Race 1 mentioned above:

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR GROUP

All races are grouped by how many watts/kilogram (w/kg) Zwifters can average for the duration. Newbies should probably start out at group D (1 - 2.4 w/kg). The fastest of the fast should register for group A (4+ w/kg). If you’ve raced before, you probably know your category, but there’s more info here.

It is clear to me that there will be “newbies” choosing the wrong category.
I haven’t said that sandbaggers don’t exist :wink:

Maybe Zwift can provide a workout that can give newbies the category they belong to. Like the FTP tests give you your FTP, this will give you your (initial) category.

I think they have to make the decision to invest in community racing or let the community handle it themselves. By investing they will have full control but will have to do develop, support, and maintain it. A potentially costly and time-consuming investment for a minority of their users. By opening up APIs and letting the community develop services around racing, they will only be responsible for the APIs and the community will have to do development, support, and maintain. There could even be commercial 3d-party companies that could specialize in Zwift racing services where users could have subscriptions or pay-per-race. The possibilities would be endless :slight_smile:

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I’d agree. Without the “community” or grass-roots racing, how do new talented racers even get introduced to the racing scene? Potential superstars wouldn’t have an opportunity to learn the game and how to race on Zwift. We’ve already seen that there are plenty of high-end performers who aren’t professional cyclists; and there are certainly pro riders who don’t give a toss about Zwift (Sagan, I’m looking at you).

Sure, the showcase races and events raise the profile of the product. But if people are enthused by the idea of racing on Zwift, only to find out there is no racing for the plebs they’re not likely to stick around if there are other platforms that do offer racing for the masses.

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It’s not possible to judge this based on podium spots alone. You need to at least involve HR readings.

If this guy is always racing at 85-90% of his max HR, it’s very likely he simply has a power profile (low FTP, high 1m/15sec, and most importantly, high ability to recover between efforts) that legitimately puts him in the C-cat, while having 0 chance of reaching the finish with the bunch in a B-cat race, even on a flat course.

If this is the case, consider that you are demanding someone who’s playing by the book to spontaneously promote himself, and deteriorate his Zwift experience considerably, so you can take a podium, instead of a top 10 finish :wink:

With the current classification, some people are just permanently lucky/unlucky…

Blame the system - not the rider (well - sometimes at least :slight_smile: )

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Yeah in fairness he could have easily finished 8-12th in all those races (in-game), translating to 4-8th from those registered on ZP, then podium after automatic or manual DQs. They might all be low-attended events. Doesn’t necessarily mean he’s sandbagging, you’d need to look further.

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You have these racers at the top of all categories except A. They are either cruising or just lucky with the combination of weight and abilities. The system is to blame as @W_ally said.

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I’ve raced with this person. He legitimately gets podium all the time. Definitely sandbagging.

He also dominates every ZRL race by snagging 1st or 2nd for every prime and finishing in 1st every single week. Not giving this guy the benefit of the doubt.

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Fair enough, sounds like a gimp. :rofl:

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Cool.

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Cool race 2

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Funk sake, ridiculous :smile:

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Ideal for new racers

Zwift HQ understanding their own product there 100%…
I really hope there are few people in zwift hq solely there for the money & picking up a cheque… as if they are actually putting some effort into the product and this what is produced, I worry…

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@Dave_ZPCMR should share that on the Facebook groups. It really is the best illustration of the current ■■■■ show.

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Not unusual by any means though, particularly for cat D.

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Probably worth a thread on this event in the events section as I feel it might swallow this whole thread up and become focussed on this event…

Hey @Mark_Cote - any thought on the D results in the Giant Crit Crushers races yesterday? This is a big showcase event it would seem from the blurb and marketing. It looks a bit silly when 75% to 80% of the top 24 are disqualified for being in the wrong category.

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I don’t pay for RGT, I don’t even use RGT, but this is exactly what we have been asking for. An open statement on progress of a key system and involving the community in the process.

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Bravo! I’m rooting for them to succeed.

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I almost rode on RGT today. But then I remembered I had to use my phone to do it, so I rode on Zwift instead. I wish RGT had a “no phone” mode.

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This sort of feedback is great, but it’s not really a fair comparison any more as I suspect being able to do this is more an indication of RGT scale, or lack of, that they are able to engage in this way. I tried it for the first time this week, there was 5 blokes and their dog using it at the same time, so pretty easy to ask them all what they thought.

I’d put money on them not continuing to operate like this should they ever get to Zwift scale.