Hi All, I am a lightweight female rider (48kg). Under category enforced racing, I am being put in cat C but they are up to 3.2w/kg. To come even half way up the field I am putting out 3.6+w/kg average. This means I will surely soon be moved up a cat or D/Qd. But if I go up a cat, I will be nowhere near being able to even hang on to the back. What do I do? I contacted customer support but they didn’t seem to understand the issue.
Don’t worry. As you are a lightweight rider your zFTP will need to go to, or above, 200w before you will be promoted to Cat B for mixed races. The advantage for you is that you can push around 4.1 w/kg in a race before the likelihood of any promotion to B Cat. Very useful in hilly races where w/kg is important but not so useful in flat races.
Oh, that’s great. Thank you. Why couldn’t customer support explain it in that way?!
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customer support mostly just handle sales stuff and troubleshooting busted setups rather than questions about the more detailed game mechanics… but the faqs on the site are pretty good. the problem is finding them. there’s a sticky thread in this forum with most of the basic stuff in it though and feel free to ask here if there’s anything else and someone like myself or david ian etc will be more than happy to give you an inaccurate answer
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Alright Tina calm down
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Similar issue as a (reasonably) lightweight 62 y.o. male - 165cm / 59kg.
I can put out a reasonable amount of power on a climb but struggle to maintain around 2.6w/kg on the flat. I’m totally stranded out of the gate in my Cat Enforced "C"races - my top sprint speed is about 4w/kg (on a very good day!). Racing on Zwift for me is a bit of a non event, shame, as I’m sure I’d quite enjoy the experience of actually being able to race, rather than being left for dead right from the get- go. 
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Maybe races should be started on a reasonable length hill.
I’m similar weight to you (and a bit taller). I’m on the border of B and A, if I do some very hilly rides I’ll be pushed up to A, if I don’t then I’ll be back in B.
And my max power is only about 615w anyway and will not get back to the 900-1000w I used to be able to achieve. So I don’t bother with racing. From the nature of the discussions in the racing crowd I don’t think I’m missing much aside from being able to say, yeah, I race…
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@Chris_D9 look at doing this route https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFiLQj6ufgE
The issue seems to be that all race categories are based on w/kg but actual speed is based on w/kg with a factor of raw power. Maybe something Zwift could consider looking at?
I’m not sure I see your issue.
Enjoy the race but you need to realize, you’re slow.
I’m sure you’re not winning any races in real life either.
I’m in the same boat.
I don’t expect Zwift to be any different than real life.
If you are interested in entering team events, I highly recommend the 5v5 Club Ladder, which uses the zwiftracing.app category system, so you would not be in “C” and would be on a team that contains people with similar race results as yourself. If the results aren’t great, that puts you in a lower category. Every rider on the team can make a difference because the team win comes from totaling up all of the finishing positions. You only need to beat one rider on the opposing team to make a positive contribution to the score, and the team win does sometimes come down to one point so we have won races where our rider finished 9th out ot 10.
Another team event that you might enjoy is the WTRL team time trials (Thursdays) where your squad will try to keep you with the group as long as possible instead of blasting you at the start.
In both cases you will find teams that are happy to have a rider of your abilities. If you decide to look into this, you’ll need to think about the days of the week and time/timezone you are available, and find a team with a squad at your level that matches your availability. Let me know if you’re interested and I can tell you how to go about it.
Why not enter those races that meet your course criteria? I choose longer races with medium climbs all the time and I get good results. Those races usually have smaller fields which also means that breakaways can work. My sprint is pretty bad but I still win a race every few months, never in a sprint. Sometimes a breakaway, sometimes an uphill finish, and sometimes from having better endurance fitness to keep surging after an hour of racing. I bet you would have a fair shot at placing well in a race on the Alpe because you know the route so well and it suits your characteristics. Do it while CE says you’re in B and you don’t have to care about whether it moves you to A. You don’t have to race in A if you don’t want to. You can just enjoy a B race and then go back to whatever you enjoy most.
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With those power levels you are going to have to work on strength. It seems that you are light but also not a lot of power.
Build more leg strength and work on your core (if that’s lacking). You can have great cardio but if you don’t have the muscle strength then you won’t have a lot of power.
To a degree this training can be done on the bike (low cadence), but it’s better done with weights at the gym (or at home if you have the weights). Things like squats, etc leg presses will help. Box jumps also good - see how Anna Meares does them, start off low until you get the technique. Those box jumps build up your explosive power, which you’ll use for sprints.
You don’t need to do masses of reps on the squats, but learn the form and then start increasing the weight.
The gym work is first phase, then you can do the low cadence intervals.
Then work on getting better. If I could come back from extremely serious injury with a year off the bike and 5 months not walking, permanent physical differences then you can do so as well. You just have to work consistently. I went from 5.2w/kg FTP and 1200w max sprint power) down to 1.9w/kg FTP (after injury) and then gradually got back to 4.6w/kg and still working to do more. I’m not young either so it isn’t easy, but you can also get better.
I completely agree.
My issue is Zwift has turned my fitness upside down (for the better).
I used to ride fast rides with my friends in the Summer.
I did not realize it at the time, but it was basically 4 group rides per week.
Started Zwifting to be in better shape earlier in the Spring.
A few guys started using TR.
Then I noticed, I’m in better shape in May and June than September.
Realized i had the group ride curse.
Now my outdoor rides are more structured with Zone 2 Days and Vo2 Max days.
I’m already looking forward to Zwift racing in Nov/Dec.
I can’t Zwift in summer in my unheated and uncooled garage.
I’m hoping to get kicked up to cat B, then I’ll be able to get my 60 min Alpe achievement…