You are right on all points Gerrie.
I do feel having read some of Zwiftpower comments that the w/kg system is over
complicated and enables some riders to abuse the system.
Your second point is covered by my third quote I think? Plus…
I’m not suggesting of getting rid of Cats.
And I agree with your last point.
Auto assigning race categories would be a good start. It could be done fairly simply - first race you’re uncategorized, after that you’re assigned a category based on a statistical analysis of previous race performance. Just my two cents.
I may have misunderstood you. Sorry.
O yes, It is not the best option. Yes people does abuse it.
I agree that Zwift should auto-assign race category based on past performances. Would go a long way toward reducing those who select the wrong category based in their abilities.
O yes, and it would make racing more pleasant for lower cat racing. There a lot of new riders that will race one or two races and then give up because they think it is to hard, where in fact they are on par but 10% of the field is in the wrong cat sandbagging or not knowing how to calculate the correct cat.
I need to vent - last night I entered a race and stopped about 3/4 way through. I checked Zwiftpower interim performance stats (not sure if they were “live” while still racing or interim results) and calculated approx 80% of the 25-30 odd were in the wrong category. Example, D grader not once under 4w/kg and according to strava, frequently enters a, b, c and d grade races.
I normally dont care with the odd person getting it wrong as it can be explained (someone entering wanting a recovery ride and get caught in the racing hype, others just dont know), but last night I got my undies totally in a knot.
Grrrrrr, vent over.
And why cant I vote multiple times for these Feature requests that potentially address this issue 
So 324 riders on Zwift power and 65 of those were DQed. that is 20% of the riders on Zwift Power were in the wrong starting pen.
There were many more riders in the race, who knows how many of them were in the wrong pen.
With races like this it is important to start in the correct pen.
Zwift Please help us out.
I completely agree that riders should be automatically entered in the correct Class depending on average race ftp (W/Kg)
I am a B Class but a lot of people with the same W/KG are entering the C Class which is why i will always end in the tail of the B Class.
@Welby_Lloyd welcome to the forum.
this topic is more for Racing, and it seem like you are talking about a group ride. Group rides does not have different starting categories. but you are correct a D group ride should be at lower watts, but different D group rides has different w/kg ranges.
Looking at the ride on Zwift power, it look like the ride leader was within the w/kg range
I would suggest finding rides that have lower w/kg requirements, to build up your power while having fun.
Thanks for the info. But how do you find that info. Everytime I look at the ride the zwift is not and easy to navigate website. Seems like I have to go to the app to get more information. But I won’t keep replying here I am obviously off topic. Thanks
Why hasn’t Zwift changed how we enter races yet? For example, if one is a Cat. A on Zwift power why would they have the functionality to race in the C’s? Each rider should only be able to enter their own category when it comes to races. That would eliminate the sandbagging issues that skew race results.
Given the UCI announcement, the retirement of KISS from organising (as many) races, and the recent ZwiftCast interview, I expect things to happen on this front relatively soon.
Zwift have been mostly hands-off regarding racing up to now. Most racing is community-driven and supported, with some in-game updates and other assistance from Zwift (they host the ZwiftPower project for example, I believe).
But it’s untenable for them to remain so distant from racing if they want to position Zwift as the platform of choice for serious eRacing.
I so hope so.
Zoon 
Hi, why not use AI to auto assign race category based on performance? keep the W/kg ratio but assign it after based on race results.
Maybe you can assign categories during the race based on average w/kg? so you still can see were your opponents are during the race?
this makes it easier and more real life then basing the categories on an ftp test… it also solves the problem of the duration of the race. different distances or flat or climnbing races will sort themselves this way.
The only thing you need set before the race is rider weight and the correct power settings for the trainer you use.
at the start everybody is in the same competition and based on the performance of the moment they automatically enter their own competition after a few minutes in race.
I have no idea what this means?!
I agree, although what I’d love to see zwift enforcing category limits at the completion of races- so many times I have been blown away by 1-4 riders early in a c grade race, finished best of the rest then log into zwiftpower after and see I’ve finished 1st or 2nd,either because the people that ‘beat’ me produced w/kg more than 10-20% over category limits, or they’re not on zwiftpower. This could seemingly be very easily done - zwift KNOW when a rider has averaged w/kg exceeding race category limits-so why do these people get classified in the race results that pop up at the end of the race at the end +in the companion app? I would love to see people clearly racing out of category not to be classified in results shown immediately after the race and in the companion app, with a big red Disqualified flag against their name…better yet a red flag over their Avatar if they ride at the end for a cool down… that would add some extra drama and excitement!!! A bit of tolerance should be allowed i.e. as your fitness improves (nothing like competition to bring out your best!) but in general feel zwift & zwiftpower functionality should be consolidated - there is currently not enough disincentive not to cheat and race out of category. I love zwift racing, but it does get frustrating when you frequently get blown away by people who should be racing in the grade above.
If they do it even before the race start then there will be no need to do it afterwards.
