Been Zwifting for a few years mainly for staying fit, but have tried racing occasionally, too. The post-race rankings are just baffling to me. I don’t understand the most basic of calculations, such as Prime, which apparently determines how I ranked ultimately. Granted I’m a small, older guy who will most likely never get out of D grouping, but I’d love to know what I can do to improve there. Two races recently are good examples. I finished 3rd of 5 in one race and 10th of 14 in another. Both, however, I had what seemingly was the fastest total time of everyone in the group. Correct me if I’m wrong, but why wouldn’t that make me rank first in both races? If I were a horse and I had the fastest time in a horse race I would have won the race! Seems simple, no? Is there some place online I can learn about all this…that avoids cycle jargon and is WRITTEN FOR A BEGINNER?
Without a link to the event in question I can’t be sure, but it sounds like you entered a points race - points are awarded for first across a line or fastest through a segment, usually with points for finish order as well. If someone places well on primes they can finish ahead of someone who finishes ahead of them. You should try to find out the scoring before the race in order to know where to put in efforts.
Thanks. That was exactly the reason! I guess it might help READING the race descriptions before signing up.
Sometimes the descriptions are a little shorthand, easy not to notice, especially if you aren’t really familiar with the jargon used for different race formats on Zwift.
All kinds of different points formats out there, and some of them are an absolute blast.
Hope to see you out there!