Hi - I’m a moderately fit 54 year old (currently 97kg) - Started zwifting this year in CAT D which felt about right - I could be competitive and finally managed to win an event ( big effort - short race - small field) with a 2.7 wkg. . My glory was short lived as immediately got disqualified and put in Cat C - where I have had a few races and although way off the leaders - feel like I can cope and improve as a cat C racer- I had a race today where I came I think 28 out of 36 - hard work - tired legs and new bike ( allez) - This has now condemned me back to Cat D - I know its all on the numbers but its a bit disincentivising to be honest.I know I can still Race C if I want to - but all the same
Hi Ben,
Congratulations on your fitness progression since joining Zwift.
The disqualification is at the event organisers (TEZH in this case) discretion and some will DQ if you perfrom above the limits for the category that you entered.
You’re back in C (I checked and updated your profile on Zwiftpower) and I would focus on building your strength to compete in that tier.
HI
definitely still saying D on my profile ( have refreshed) - looking at the numbers I am at the very top of D ( zftp/wkg = 2.62 and zmap/wkg = 3.14 - so I guess its likely I’ll go up and down depending on what events I do ( for example short races will push me over perhaps) - Also if i drop a kg that will push me over as well -
Ah, I think it’s a rounding error between the two systems (super edge case) and it’s the matter of 1w that would make the difference.
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happened again - did a race - came first in D of small field (time would have been last in C) and get DSQ again - although still in D cat - how does anyone win a race without getting disqualified - so frustrating
By joining races/events that will not DQ riders. You can see on Zwiftpower before joining the event what kind of setup they have…if you see anything that is mentioning Wkg boundaries you will be DQ because you are over the original ZP cat limits.
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Of course, it doesn’t seem at all easy now to figure out where you stand vs. the old limits. I don’t think there’s any longer a way to see your averaged 95% 3-best 20min efforts, nor easy to even find what the old cat limits were/are.
Unless you need to refresh your zwiftpower profile (clicking under your profile photo), you have a zFTP of 255W and you weigh 97Kg, making your W/Kg zFTP 2.628
The zFTP boundary for D is zFTP 2.625W/Kg or a zMAP of 3.36W/Kg for Category Enforcement races.
The average of 95% of your best three 20min races in the last 90 days is ~255W, which would tip you just into C in the old pen allocation system, still being used by those Torturefest crits.
Unless your zFTP is out of date on zwiftpower, you need to embrace C for racing without getting DQed from the rare events using the old system (Category Enforcement won’t let you sign up to an easier pen than you should), until around mid June.
You might be able to lower your zFTP a fraction by doing a stronger ~5min effort and/or 12min effort, but I don’t think your power profile has much leaway to improve without solidly making you a C.
I was resigned to taking the pain in CAT C after being promoted from D - although I was never going to anywhere more that lower mid table - but one bad race and I get put back down to D - then DSQ for winning a D race - but not put back in C - nothing more annoying than putting a big effort in and then having glory snatched away!
Although Ben now weights 97kg I believe he may have set some of the key CE best powers at a weight of 98 kg. From what I have read from Zwift HQ on this forum his w/kg zFTP is probably using a higher weight, possibly 97.75kg which is, IMO, why he is still CE cat D.
I think the reason he has recently got these two WKG is as Dejan mentions above.
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thanks - makes sense - didn’t realize there were effectively 2 systems being used concurrently
Yeah, point taken, power and weight from around 1st March is under evaluation from Category Enforcement today (rolling 60 days). Forgot about the decision to take sort of average from weight changes over the 60 days.
I’ve been there this year, being promoted from D to the very bottom of C, it’s a very tough school.
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certainly is
In theory yes two systems, although mostly now CE but some Club organised races are using CE but using the option to dsq based on old ZP WKG rules.
Although it is good to support Club races you may find it simpler to race in this months Zwift Crit Club race series. Races organised by Zwift and you will not get a DQ for putting out high power - but you might get upgraded !! Good info on link below and races this month are flattish and of the distance you seem to be wanting.
@James_Zwift (hope you have remembered not to work on this Bank Holiday )
At end of March Flint wrote the information below. Although this doesn’t really impact me, no racing for 6 months, could you answer two questions which might help others:
- How many weeks or months ahead have most clubs already set up races with WKG enforcement rule?
- Can you tell if any/many clubs are actually choosing to configure this option?
“By default, events in ZwiftPower will no longer Upgrade or DQ riders based on their category or W/Kg limits. This is because we plan to use Category Enforcement in the majority of events going forward, and this change will work well with that. Event organizers will have to configure this option explicitly in ZwiftPower on a per event basis if they wish to continue to use the legacy system.
This change won’t affect events already in ZwiftPower when the release happens. Only future events being picked up will have those enforcement options turned off by default.”
Thanks
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We at VirtuSlo are now using only zMAP Wkg with 5 categories and tighther boundaries…the limits are perfect for everyone just on the Cat Limits with zFTP.
We have a monthly series with a race every Wednesday at 17:40UTC / 18:40BST / 19:40CEST
Join us at The at Home Cycling & Running Virtual Training App
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Interesting, but do you think for clarity you should perhaps be instead defining the cats by ZP 5-minute wkgs (as it seems to be the same thing as zMAP)? I assume Zwiftpower is where and how you’ll validate as well the correct cat was entered by each racer since our zwift/feed is (hopefully) only available to see by ourselves?
Or, did you get some sort of custom CE setup with HQ? How is this race tagged as CE but with different boundaries based on different time durations?
zMAP is more like 5 to 6mins and we can’t use ZP values cause they are 90days but Zwift CE is 60days…riders can’t enter other categories as it is Category Enforcement and every organizer can now use Category Enforcement with different criteria.
zMAP Wkg is IMO the best at the moment.
OMG IT’S A HOLIDAY???
Oops.
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Some event organisers still have events set to use WKG Enforcement. I try to tell them when I spot them.
There’s still quite a few. I couldn’t tell you how many. We were going to force them all to use no category enforcement, but this messed things up for quite a few, sp we stopped.
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We’re going to change CE to 90 days. Should probably have always been the case.
Next few weeks.
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