You have that with or without categories? You are fighting for the highest place finish?
If your not winning your category, place 1-3, what difference is 4/5/6th/lower or 20/50/70 something in an open field?
I would rather race open and beat people in a cat above, than come 16th in a B race?
Once out of the placings the only thing your getting is ranking points.
But for me it is more competitive knowing that the Âą20 riders in the category is about the same level of rider. And I better not come last 
Probably a personal preference.
The good news is there is already open races for you to attend, so shooting down another added way of racing is not very productive.
Hey!!
Iâm currently struggling with Zwift category Racing. I was injured for a few months and let my friends use my Zwift account for training and racing (they are both much heavier and fitter then me)
It is now only letting me race in the A category when I should be with the Bs based on my ftp of 3.5.
Any ideas on how I can bring this back down?
Itâs not shooting down, the point was raised about why do we need Cats - itâs a fair point that was dismissed as people want a digital trophy.
If we move to a ranking system, do you still want cats so you can chase your digital pixel or will it remove the need as you will be racing people of a similar stature?
Very honest⌠lolâŚ
If you canât see the issue with what you did good luck. Promoting lending your account to others is brave.
Toward that sentiment, hasnât it been suggested that the Cat labels be next to each of the riders names during a race so you know what level riders in the visible field are? I think this was one of the anti-sandbagging options thrown out there (before CE), but even with CE, might have some use in case there are riders who are riding up a Cat from where they could be.
If we have ranking then I would expect to still have separate starting pens (and only seeing my group). There is some motivation knowing you are grouped with similar people. I see ranking as doing the same as CE only based on how you performed in a race. So ranks 1-200 will start in A 200-300 in B âŚ
So you will end up with a ABCD letter based on your rank.
60 days of riding at your level will do it. But that will be 60 days of racing in A cat if you decide to race.
If your splitting ranking by a,b,c,d how is that better than splitting by wkg?
Still allows for the boundary limits to be gamed?
If variable boundary limits is the response, there separate issues?
I donât understand what is the point of Ranking if you are not going to split the starting groups?
Am I missing something here?
If your racing for ranking points why limit it by catergory?
I donât know how ranking will work. The only thing that I would want is to use it to split categories.
I surly donât want it so that I know I am #58925 on Zwift. I want it to make Racing interesting, so I can âenjoyâ that 45-60 minutes of racing.
You get if you leave the A-D cats and split by that it just leaves the opportunity to continue to game the system for some?
You have to break away from that, to change the racing culture.
Variable boundaries on a variety parameters set that tone.
Indeed - variable boundaries, different metrics used to determine the pens, which could include ranking, and a global ranking system that underpins the whole thing.
Iâve not heard anyone disagree with this approach yet, and there are people here that will disagree with anything. (unless you count people saying CE is a waste of time, but with this approach they still get what they want, sođ¤ˇââď¸)
But how would you do with variable boundaries? One week A will be 1-200 and next week 1-250. That is fine
Or you take the 100 people that entered the race and split them in to 4 equal groups A,B,C,D or if you are clever you will grade the 4 groups so that if there is the bulk of the people in the middle you will have 10A 35B 35C and 20D
I think we could do some of this with the current CE system as well.
But in the end all I would like to see is a sub group around my ability to race against.
I agree with @Gerrie_Delport_ODZ . I want to be with a group of similar rides, not exactly the same but similar to keep it more interesting. You can still have a global ranking along with breaking that into âcategoriesâ for who you will race with. If you keep winning your ranking would increase and you would end up moving out of that âcategoryâ or as Gerrie said break it down by who entered the race. Most people want to be with others that challenge them and make them get the best out of theirselves not watching riders ride off in the distance while you TT by yourself all race.
Itâs the practicality of only having 4 groups and such a diverse range of users who all want to be âcompetitiveâ. I simply think practically you canât make that happen unless you move away from a-d.
With 4 cats across a range of 1.0 to 6.0 for wkg regardless of a ranking system you will have to over load atleast one of the categories, so a group will always struggle to see that utopia people want of every race being competitive.
Whilst we talk about moving away from wkg as the category divider, that is what will determine who wins each race with the current physics⌠There will be a point on the curve where it is no manâs land regardless of solution unless you have variable boundaries or no boundaries
This is very true.
It doesnât matter which way you cut it - all the riders in to 4 groups causes the same issues.
The key is to mix it up from race to race. You donât care if you are in the bottom of the field, if next time you race you are competing for the podium, or the race after you get dropped in the final 4km. Variety is key. And on those days when the podium isnât a possibility, at least you can improve your rank by beating better riders around you.
If ranks were 1000 - 0 perhaps 900-1000 could be platinum, 700-900, gold etc etc. But that doesnât dictate the pens. Pens could be 850-1000 and 680-850 or however organisers see fit, or they could use the CP model, or a custom version. Or they could use age groups. But regardless, do better versus your peers and work your way up the ladder.
I am not asking for matchmaking just slicing and dicing the race into 4 groups, how the formula works I donât really care as long as it make sense. (maybe I care a bit.)
But what is important is everybody in the race play by the same rules.
Edit: more than 4 pens will be nice, but we were told that is not in the plan
To circle round where we started from⌠you donât want to be competitive (ie podium), you want to race your peers?
You donât need cats to do that - throw the chips up and see where they fall. Who you end up racing next to is your peer? Does it matter if they started as a B or C or rank 200 or 600? You still performed similarly on the day.