And with that, the cold East Wind has blown through and vanished
Hey @James_Zwift, why doesn’t Zwiftpower show who is signed up for these races? Is there some limitation on showing who is signed up 6 or 7 days in advance? Or, are these hidden on purpose?
That’s pretty normal behaviour for Zwiftpower for an event about a week away.
I think (I may be making these numbers up) it only updates every 24 hours when it’s multiple days away.
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Ok, looks normal I guess. Same happens when trying to view other events next Monday.
Thanks!
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Any staffers such as yourself planning on taking part in these events?
Count on it.
I did our internal test event too.
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I need my legs to not feel like they’ve dropped off after this morning though.
You can join me in A for the 4pm Pacific event 
Edit: just realized you are in the UK
Yeah I saw that when @Oliver_ZRace_Central cyberstalked you. 
Good stuff. 
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Might be a little late
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@James_Zwift is there any scope for whatever calculation is being used being adjusted ahead of next week? It looks like it’s using raw Watts rather than W/KG, which has resulted in a lot of heavier riders being moved from C to A or D to B.
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C to A in my case ist still active after changing to 360w
I’m fine with that!
Seriously speaking though. I don’t know what the criteria for each category is.
I seem to be one of the few people that isn’t outraged by this. I agree it isn’t what was promised so I can see the anger there and it does seem to have flipped the preffered body type around so again I see the frustration in people who have been bumped up.
If you are going to have categories then they should be enforced, but I do agree with people that those categories should be clearly defined which they are not.
I find the current w/kg categories very frustrating as someone who is stuck at the bottom of B and can see plenty of legitimate C riders who can thump me all the time, but stay in C because they are heavier than me.
At this moment I wish they would just bin all categories and just have open races.
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I don’t think it’s watts because I have an ftp of 155 and I was placed in A. I am very light since I am a junior so my wpk are high.
i also have been placed in A… and i used to be B because less than 250w… it’s gonna be hard!
According to what’s been written, you can be promoted through either high enough watts or high enough w/kg. So both very light people with low watts like you, and very heavy people with low W/kg (like others who have posted), will be in A and be absolutely slaughtered by people who have lots of both.
I do have some sympathy for the view that a change in the cat system to reduce the inherent advantage of heavy riders wouldn’t be a terrible thing. But the fact remains, W/kg is a reasonably good equaliser across a considerable range of weights, albeit imperfect, and absolute watts is terrible in comparison. That’s just a consequence of how physics and racing works, at least in zwift.
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Looks like regular zwift racers are all in Cat A or B…it’s going to be crowded and most likely some lonely people in Cat C & D.
From Low/middle B to A
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Currently women’s categories differ from men’s categories.
How does this new system and categories account for the generally lower absolute watt power of women and how is this included in these test races?
Are there any plans to have different women’s categories and when will this be tested?
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Blockquote * How long will the races be?
- Each race will be roughly 45-60 minutes and on a variety of courses.
Blockquote
I think this methodology for testing needs refining, in terms of expected race duration.
More meaningful test results will come from pen enforcement tests on races with more varying duration, from 1 lap ~5min super sprint races through to ~60min races.
In 2022, I believe I’ve done one 30min+ race (Clydesdale/Athena on 1st Jan), two 16.1Km TT proper efforts (on 5th Jan and 10th Feb) and usually 2/3 weekly sub 15min Team Electric Spirit Co lunchtime sprint races.
After a four week flu in Oct '21 and ~2 weeks of once again having side effects to my third Covid vaccine jab in Dec '21, I’m trying to find the fitness and lose the excess weight gained since Feb '21. I used to be a very low end Zwiftpower B, with far better results from TTs than races.
The lunchtime sprints have been great for short z5 workouts and general improvements, but my sustained power drops massively beyond ~25mins, but I’ve been put in B having only done one legit 20min+ Zwiftpower B effort in that TT on 10th Feb.