Category enforced

can you take a look to see what has caused me to be bumped into A cat for CE? as i don’t feel that by making sure my weight is correct and last nights race, whether that had a determining factor or its the 60 day thing of why I was bumped from B to A based on short term power, cheers

thank you, i have had some support from race organisers etc, and there are kind people in the community like yourself. but don’t race zrl in division 1. the helmet isn’t worth it

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It’s your VO2max going over 65

image

so vo2 max is in effect? well I guess i’m out of racing for a while, cant keep up with the A pace over more than 10 minutes, intervals.icu has my vo2max at 58.9 over the last 60 days,

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If you’re doing 5+ w/kg for 5-8 minutes I would expect you to keep up. Much more than I could do when I was in A.

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my short term always has been like that due to outside riding locally in the hills, they are all those types of efforts, and those efforts on zwift are literally all out max efforts meaning i’m dead after them but still i know its not power related but lung capacity related

Second that

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James
Thank you for sharing these figures. I had thought that 5.4wkg MAP might have been exceeded but VO2 Max also makes sense as 6 minute power number is very high.

Edited back in again having checked my facts again - sorry !

The advertised level of VO2 is 60 not 65. Looks like the calculation is using 65?

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These numbers should be available for users to see on their profile

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I’m still confused why Rich’s promotion happened yesterday, those strong 5-8min numbers are from two weeks ago, yesterday’s crit ride power numbers were 90 day PBs only for sub 18sec.

Unless the effort wasn’t a completed race and so not on Zwiftpower.

We know Zwift uses all rides but I am wondering if my slight weight loss yesterday evening before the crit triggered something when it shouldn’t and that’s now bad on my be weight not my weight at the time

I never go balls out for a few minutes in free rides or pace partner rides, only ride I’ve quit lately was an attempt up the Alpe by that was weeks ago

Rich
If I may outline what I guess has happened.
On 14th Oct you did Socks4watts hill climb and hit a 60 day 6 min pb. This took you over 65 VO2 max.
On 18th Oct you raced B cat in WTRL which doesn’t use CE so you might not have noticed you had moved to CE cat A.
You then noticed you had been moved to CE cat A and thought it was your Short/shortish power efforts in WTRL race. You actually posted elsewhere on the fact.
On 19th Oct you weighed yourself and raced TEZH in Cat B which doesn’t use CE. Your weight had gone up and moving to your new weight took you from over 65 VO2 max to around 64.5 VO2 Max and now back to CE cat B.
On 20th Oct you raced F365 in Cat A - I’m not sure why as I think you could have chosen Cat B.
On 21st Oct Sock4watts only one mens category (A)
24th Oct racing in CE Cat B - 3 R race.
25th Oct racing in ZwiftRacing.app race not CE or ZP.

And then going into race on 27th Oct you went in CE Cat B with a VO2 max of 64.5 but having reduced your weight you came out of the race with. VO2 max of 65.1 as shown by James. Nothing to do with any power changes just weight change.

I believe it is your 6 minute power on the 14th Oct which is being used for V02 max. But as you are so close to the 65 limit (should be 60?) that your subsequent small weight changes have taken you out and then back into Cat A again.

Our F365 race I was signed up for B for a week and when I looked at other races in cat enforcement I could only enter A so rather than risk dq I entered A

The hill climb effort then last Friday dropped me back to B after increasing my 3min power

Last night put me back in A most likely the weight loss but this shouldn’t affect previous efforts or we’ve been told they don’t

Personally im not getting why Zwift’s calculations does what it does but because we can’t see any sort of metrics on profiles it’s purely guess work and this is the major issue at the moment as I see it, data not being available and publically available at that seeing as mine has been pushed to the public

I’m spending a weekend on the beer so happy enough to leave this as it is if it was vo2max related opposed to power

We have been told they do affect past. As it takes watts/current weight. Put back your weight and you are B tomorrow.

This has been mentioned several times on this forum but never clearly indicated. That’s why sandbagging is more prevalent with new categorisation rather than old one. As with old one you at least we’re stuck to a cat for 90 days. Now to none for more than a day.

try

10.8 * 5min power watts + 7 then divide by your bodyweight in kg

for a vo2 estimate. this is the golden cheetah algorithm, it’s different to how garmin and probably intervals.icu calculates theirs (i dont use intervals.icu or anything more complicated than a notepad and pen nowadays though, so i’m not sure). i doubt this is what zwift are using though since in my experience 5 min raw watts and w/kg don’t seem to matter in the slightest. @Ian_Attoe probably gave you a better answer

So is the boundary 60 or 65ml for Vo2 bump?

If all the literature and recently published guidelines suggest it is 60 why is only kicking in when he breaks the 65ml barrier?

That suggests there will be a load of riders riding in the cat below where they should be placed based on the published criteria.

Any chance we could have some clarity @James_Zwift @xflintx?

they don’t even enforce the 5 min w/kg limits, which would make more sense than a (probably significantly inaccurate) vo2 estimate. and i’m told they aren’t planning on changing anything in the foreseeable future either

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Today my B category is back. I don’t know why. No need to wait 60 days :man_shrugging:

Im a low end A rider on zwiftpower, but category enforcement has recently been allowing me to enter the B pen, i guess as the limits are slightly different. I dont usually bother, but today i tried it out in the 1400 UTC Mountain Massif race. I came 1st, but got UPG disqualified on zwiftpower. Fair enough i suppose, but its a bit confusing that zwift allowed me to enter.

That will be the race organiser leaving the 20min dq code on