the raw watt floor was added probably as an afterthought when they found light riders were doing poorly in races, honestly. there’s a stereotype that lightweight riders tend not to be anaerobically strong.. they are light and therefore must be “climbers”
i’m not sure why the community originally settled on 20 minutes as the benchmark but it’s probably just because FTP is the most basic and well understood gauge of a rider’s general ability.
it’s easy to take advantage of by people who want to, for example, i am 55kg and default to B because the watt floor for A is so high that it’s not really possible for me to trip the cat limits without doing 4.75wkg for 20 minutes in a B race, which is completely unnecessary, i’ve never actually needed to go above 4.4 to win a race in B.
so my honest conclusion is that the community at the time basically just picked numbers that sort of sounded like they made sense and it stuck for 4+ years
Worth noting that just before ZP was taken over by Zwift, they were close to implementing a cat system that took more of the curve in to account, and the ability to use Zwift Ranking to sort the categories.
Of course existing outside of the Zwift ecosystem, none of this would have been enforced in Zwift itself.
Potted history is that I - and others - raised the issue that female riders were being DQd regularly from the Hare & Hounds, even though they were nowhere near the front, purely because their w/kg were over the limits.
I suggested a minimum “floor” and estimated a figure off the top of my head, based on what I was seeing. James looked at wider data sets to set it a bit higher.
That’s pretty much about it. Nothing too scientific but just a net to save honest riders who happened to be female or light (or even juniors). Their w/kg may have been high but some were DQd in Cat C with a mere 120W and placing several minutes behind the front pack
You are totally right, there is a floor and max wattage necessary to hang with the peloton and to win a race. Nobody ever need to maintain his effort at more than 4.5 - 4.6 during 20 minutes to win a race, because even on ventop, the effort is often not maximal for all the ascent.
But if you do less than 200w I think you won’t be able to stay with a B peloton on the flat (during the stable phase of the race).
The boundaries should be based on the floor wattage necessary to stay with the peloton.
Maybe 250w for A+, 225w for A, 200w for B, 175w for C?
That way people would be able to stay with the main pack of their category and then be able to fight on the relevant part of the race (the sprint on a flat race, the final ascent on an hilly one, or the max effort segment on an ondulating one)
in the current system i would just lower the raw FTP requirements by 5w or so, so 245w for B > A, i don’t know about C or D because i’ve never raced there. it’s a small change but it might just be enough to give heavier riders a chance at holding the wheel on 20 min climbs without breaking the cat limits themselves
by the way, IMO the best draft in zwift is to sit right at the very back of the group, but you have to be confident about not falling off the back of the peloton. in a B race i usually avg 165-180 on the flat. give it a try
Yes, I’m starting doing it on races where I don’t feel in danger, it is a lot better. My son always does that and tells me to do it, but with his massive abilities in sprint and big ftp he knows he will be able to come back if someone attacks. I only do that when the opposition is weaker or when I know that no attack can happen…
By the way, speaking of my son : he is in the same situation as you, with his very low weight (52kg) and very good ftp irl (270w), he never found a race where he had to use his abilities on Zwift, he never had to give this power for twenty minutes. Hence his category staying B… because of the floor wattage for B.
So yes, the new categories can be a good thing for people like him : in his workouts he does use his power, so Zwift knows his real category, and he will be a A in the categories in test.
Anyway, he already prefers to ride in A category to have some opposition !
I would be fairly similar 56kg FTP 286 Watts the best CAT selection I have raced in are TFC Mad Mondays as my FTP is under 300 Watts I can race in low CAT A still no chance of winning but have managed to stay with front pack on several occasions
I suspect the thread has been deleted so as to not explicitly show people how to cheat, but I hope the stuff I posted earlier about a fundamental issue with the Companion app is being worked on rather than swept under the carpet.
They will be aware of it. I wasn’t, and only saw it today. I thought it was particularly worthy of note given that the last few weeks/months have seen a big step forward in terms of making racing on the platform fairer at a community level.
I am just curious. How do light riders fair in real racing outdoors? Are we trying to replicate outdoors or are we trying to make it so anybody can win? Because that is not realistic. There are people who race all their lives and might not ever win a race. It all depends on who you are racing that day AND who wants it bad enough.
