everyone responds to training differently, sure, but you can train it. bear in mind that i am still around 54-55kg
I can understand why creating the capability for custom CE for community race organizers might be difficult, but from Zwiftâs end, couldnât they universally themselves change the cat definitions globally? Eg. for all of next weekâs CE races, move all Cat definitions up or down 5%. Do the opposite the week after than, etc. I know that early on in the beginning of CE, numerous formula tweaks were seemingly made.
Start getting people used to the idea that racing Cats are not set in stone, and if last weekâs race didnât work well for you, maybe youâll like next weekâs.
Yes, we will start using random power ranges for categories. I canât see how anyone would possibly be confused by that.
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Its probably more intuitive for people who race or have raced in real life compared to those who have only tried it virtually (I suspect the VR only racers would probably also be a bit surprised at what happens when their front wheel touches someone elseâs back wheel).
thing is, if you cant sprint being at the front is irrelevant as those that can sprint in the group are going to decimate you, I talk from experience on this
You can train to sprint. I mean, doesnât mean youâll be the greatest sprinter in the world, but you can train to get better at it.
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category boundaries last week was to loose? one would say ?
When I race and I make it in the front group in the last±2km I call that a win.
Sprinting is for a special type of rider.
1000w is not a huge ask on fresh legs but very hard after chasing light weights over the climbs.
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The problem for me is that most of the events (especially in lower categories) are much too short. The events dictate the type of rider who can be competitive, 20 minute power is very short, and ZP (and CE?) only try to assess those short efforts. Getting back to the OPâs point, riders who know they canât be competitive in the Zwift style of racing wonât be there at the back of the pack - many wonât show up at all. I use Zwift to train for endurance events, which means I have no plans to train for sprints or punchy efforts because that wonât help me reach my goals. You can count me among the riders interested in racing but mostly not finding suitable events.
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you could try FUSION thursday races (BST evening), DBR saturday races (BST morning), KISS sunday 100 (BST morning and BST afternoon). they are all pretty long (1:30-3hrs), run weekly, and are cat enforced/split. the pace is usually appropriately sensible
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Oh yeah⊠theyâll be confused. But for only a little while. And no more than they are now when they canât figure out why theyâre categorized the way they are. But if yâall look a little bit longer term, there will be a dawning realization that it is, what it is, Whatever happened last week might be a different story next week.
I think itâs probably a losing proposition that everyone understands exactly where they stand in the ranking, how they got there, and how to game the system to place themselves wherever they want to be. So, just keep shuffling the deck.
A more workable solution might be for Zwift to introduce some easily accessible split-cat races (even better if they could do so with CE)?
My enjoyment of Zwift racing increased tremendously when I discovered the TFC Mad Monday Series.
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Wait. Are you saying that the categories will be set in stone?
Because I thought that one of the main points was to allow event organisers to change the boundaries, just like they can do now.
You do talk a lot of bottom sometimes John.
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Sigh. No.
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1 data set in a sea of data should not be enough to be statistically significant. Sure it could have been a day where it all clicked but there is a higher chance that you had bad/poor data for the aforementioned ride. If this is in fact how Zwift has decided to do this we should have access to our data and to be able to flag bad data/power spikes. Training programs such as WKO5 has this function and it sounds like Zwift could learn from it.
Sprinting in Zwift is for a super special rider. Hit 1280 in a local Crit but struggle to consistently hit 4 digits without the trainer âwalkingâ away from its original location, or at all in races.
throw out your useless training mat and buy some heavy duty rubber flooring they put down in barns or the back of construction vans. it cost me like $20 for a huge sheet of it
Thereâs a complete other parameter here, on how soon and many times a rider can get close to their max effort (along with how close they can come and still recover) - I think this has a HUGE part in Zwift (and real) races.
There is a LOT more to this than the power curve, and I think trying to use any power curve measurement is always going to leave some people unable to stick with the group on surge 3 or 4.
Racing so much better now with category enforcement. Not perfect but much better than the wild west it had become. Good work zwift!
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