I am lost with the actual categorization and need some help. I had an 18 month break due to leukemia. Biking is very beneficial for recovery (as running is not possible due to lack of hemoglobin). As I had to take cortison for a long time also leg muscles almost disappeared, which hindered any progress in the first months after being released from hospital.
In the last few weeks circumstances became better and as I remembered the fun and motivation through racing I signed up for a D race (Glasgow Crit Circuit, 10 laps). Unfortunately we were only 3 riders in D and one was gapped from the start. I became 2nd over the line but won on points (Crit race, Avg. 2.0 W/kg). My second race was on London Loop, 1 lap (Box hill), became 5th of about 50. After the race I was graded as a C rider; all riders that beat me stayed in D although most W/kg values were higher than mine. My 20 min power was 2,6 W/kg and I could not really sprint (15s power 5,4 W/kg) due to low VO2max (36,9) and low HB.
While I consider my effort as strong it should be well inside cat D, even more as all other riders including the winner (40sec solo winner) were not upgraded. Or look to 8th place.
What has changed?
Thank you for your help.
Without Looking at the race description. i assume it was category enforced, meaning people are sorted before the race into the correct pen. Those riders either did not have a lot of riding history or they did an excellent effort. I would assume they will be upgraded and next time won’t be able to join the D category.
What does your profile “feed” at https://www.zwift.com/ say for your zFTP and zMAP W/Kg (you will have to manually divide the Watts by your weight)?
In pen D, the zFTP threshold is 2.625 W/Kg and the zMAP has recently been reduced to 3.2 W/Kg, using all your Zwift data (not just races) over the past 90 days.
Looking at your zwiftpower power profile (which doesn’t show some of your data that the graph on your Zwift feed will show), you have exceeded the zFTP threshold by just a few Watts, because the model will see your 2-12min output as very “flat.”
You can solve that with an all-out effort from something like the lead-up to Hilly KOM banner, basically an effort that will take you approx 3-4 minutes.
Thank you for the information Steve. Numbers are as initially posted, when dividing by weight zFTP is 2,659 W/kg and zMAP is 2,95 W/kg. My best ever FTP number (stated by the algorithm after the above mentioned race was 189. So it stays a miracle why my zFTP is 200 and for all the others in front of me it seems to be lower (in W/kg). As I anyway hope to get stronger soon I do not care too much. Next problem arises when I am at 250W FTP LOL. Actually I also lost two kilos 
.
It’s likely that your zFTP is somewhat higher because your MAP is fairly low relative to your longer term power. That may just be the reality of your physical condition but you might find that doing a better MAP effort would actually lower the zFTP number. That doesn’t mean you would necessarily change category, but it’s possible if you are right on the category border. You might just be a low C now instead of a strong D. I had the experience of my zFTP dropping by 20W when I did a MAP effort (a few minutes) on a climb after a warmup (not in a race). Also consider that the zMAP and zFTP numbers are divided by an average of your weight across all the power PRs on your my.zwift.com profile in the last 90 days, so the exact number to use as the denominator is not your current weight if your weight has changed in that timeframe. Since you lost weight the average number is probably a little higher.
The Zwift profile indicated the date when the number for the former zMAP was calculated… in my case June 21st, when I did a race (but without short efforts) and an FTP test. zMAP was therefore calculated from FTP test (best 3 or 5 minutes I think).
So I repeated the FTP test today (10 W average more on 1 minute, HR 2 lower). Although best minute was better today (274W), leading of course to higher FTP, in the same moment zFTP dropped from 200W to 194W and zMAP rose from 222W to 230W.
So thanks Gerrie, Steve and Paul for contribution. Probably a 3 min hard push in a group ride would impact even more to zFTP and zMAP. I once was at 322W+ for 5 minutes, now 234W.
UPDATE: I was rated D again in Zwiftpower, so I dropped in category by a 10 W better FTP test (zFTP=2,61 W/kg). It turns out that Zwift FTP ramp test is rather a zMAP test. 
My Wife regularly races in mixed D cat because she’s below the 150watts. At only 49kg she has a decent w/kg but its no good against raw power on the flats and downhills.
Today two Cat C riders managed to slip in to the prime time D event (Event ID 3749500) and came 1st and 2nd. Looking at the history, both look like they rarely miss a podium.
If it is a category enforcement race then they can’t slip in.
Zwift will only open the category that the belong in
I don’t know but i suspect the winner might had signed up to the event a few days ago as D but been promoted and still racing anyway.
As the power and anything hitting 90 days does not make any sense if that race was the cause of upgrade
I guess they could both have been upgraded after today’s race since it was one of the longer ones for Zracing. They both have very high punch rating and today’s winner also raced last week and won with a 40 seconds solo lead. Hopefully they are in the correct category now after upgrade.
Race against the Petr regularly, the Ds will definitely miss him, he is one that would do long pulls to help GC time for the pack.
Petr has probably been the strongest performing pen D racer this year and surprisingly went over the zFTP W/Kg threshold by tiny margins in yesterday’s race.
Craig has been in pen D since May and has been another strong racer, he went marginally over the zMAP threshold yesterday.
Jo, like a number of ladies marginally under the zFTP threshold of 150W preventing them being promoted to pen C, is usually at the pointy end of pen D races. Yesterday, she was with four racers including Petr and Craig, that pulled free over the final Mech Isle climb. If it wasn’t for the minimum 150W zFTP, she would have had a zMAP promotion to pen C, just like on 19th June.
I somehow caught back to the leading group seconds before the finish line, but I don’t have a sprint at the best of times and certainly not while doing my first 45min+ race in months. After the race, I discovered that chase was marginally under the zMAP threshold.
It might only be pen D, but the pointy end finishing positions are often decided by tiny margins.
Ok, thanks for the context, Steve and William.
I’m surprised Jo hasn’t been bumped to C yet as while her zFTP is 2 watts below 150, her zMap is over threshold for Cat C.
I was watching the race, that was massively impressive use of your Aero to close the gap for the finishing line. Jo tried to grab your wheel but ran out of steam (she’s also not a sprinter)
Watt Floors are more important so if a rider is under 150W she or he can have higher zFTP and zMAP W/kg than boundaries.
I did my first Cat D ride this week and had to drop out after 30 minutes as I found I was on full throttle just to remain in 56/68. As I’m something like 1.5 w/kg it possibly explains it. Just way too hard for a beginner.
At 1.5 the choice of races is quite limited. I would suggest the herd weekend beginner races as they split the d cat into sub cats so you have.
Hi all,
Posting in case anyone interested (particularly cat d) in the next season of our 365 league, starting tomorrow night. Details below in the link;
In fairness I didn’t say it was, but usually numbers are decent enough so we get a spread of abilities across cat d. Bit light this morning but hoping it picks up.