Yes I get that point too. There are very few mountain finishes, and hilly courses as opposed to mountain top finishes, still do not suite super lightweight riders - so when I take a step back and look at the big picture of all Zwift races, I think a conservative raw watts floor is a reasonable thing to have implemented.
Maybe it could even be 10w lower, but we may as well start with the same limits that were in ZP.
I’m not a scientist or a statistician, but one thing that occurred to me is that generally for testing to be instructive one needs to consider multiple data points. Right now most of us, myself included, are drawing conclusions about the efficacy of this system and the validity of the this test series based on one data point. We have done one single race of a specific course type and have drawn conclusions from a single experience about the proposal— it’s great, it’s terrible, it’s no different. I would encourage everyone to temper the instinct to reach a final conclusion about this without adding more data sets to their experience. I personally would recommend that we all try to do additional races that are part of this test series and specifically include ones on courses that do and do not suit our strengths and/or body types, and ones that have fewer or greater numbers of participants and see how each of those feels before drawing our final conclusions. I think it would provide more useful and insightful feedback for this testing.
The figure 8 we did today is hilly enough to test. It does not need to be a hill top finish. Anything over 3% will do.
How many lightweights had issues on the figure 8?
You did very well in it, it finished in a sprint finish, and you should have been a part of that sprint finish with some better tactical choices - at 95kg. So I think it certainly doesn’t ‘suit’ the lightweight riders, although the weight distribution throughout the results seems pretty even.
I think with a choice between not implementing a raw watt floor, and implementing one, I think it is still a better (fairer) environment for all rider types to have one - even though it would be a good thing to analyse and tweak further down the road.
Seems you don’t read very well. You may not agree with me but the system I propose would be worse for me than the old one or the one we tried : it would put me in a higher category in all the courses I would be able to win in my normal category, so I would never win. BUT it would give me a fait opposition.
Should have tried but with the zrl ttt after, not a good idea!
I trained as a lawyer and worked in drafting UN Treaties, yet I still bypass the diatribe because no effort is made to engage with the reader; it’s more like a lecture for which nobody asked.
In the same vein, I switch off when politicians starting babbling instead of answering a simple question… 
What I want to draw attention to is we need to be careful.
Lets look at one data point:
The person that finished 4th in my race 55kg is very close to being a A 3.96w/kg. But he is far from 250w if he was in the A cat today he would have been 3rd. But he will probably never have to race A so with a bit of improvement he will always be #1 in B non flat races.
The speed on a flat between A and B is not a lot, but the climbing time is hugely different.
You don’t know he would have been 3rd in the A cat. That’s impossible to know.
I understand the concern, I’m just trying to work out the solution, as no floor at all has some obvious flaws. Maybe the floor just needs to be a bit lower.
I am trying to help with the solution. Pointing at things I see.
With the current watt floor 250w you help riders <62kg.
If you make B limit 230w it will go up to <57kg
If you make B limit 220w it will go up to <54kg
so the question is up to what weight is “Light weight” impacted?
It is not the way I would think it.
In a B group, you need to put 200w to stay with the main group ON THE FLAT except in the attack phases
In a A group usually 225w are enough.
For a small rider (usually if you are lightweight you are not tall…).
So I would say 200w gets you in B
225w in A
250w in A+
And yes, that would make me a A. Not reasoning about me but about fairness
Indeed this is the question. I think if we run the existing floors for a while, it should be possible to do some analysis to help inform any change.
We can’t do analysis if you start at the highest possible wattage. If you want to analyze then you start at the bottom and slowly move up.
How is that the highest possible? It could be 260w, or 270w, or 280w.
I always have 
They’re the people that stand to gain the most from improvements like this, even though everyone can benefit in reality.
Yes it could be higher but it is the same as what we have currently and we don’t know if those are to high to start with, all we know is that people are used to it.
In C, 200w will get you shelled out the back in the first 5Km.
A & B may race smarter but that’s not the limit of their true potential. In C, the front pack (minus sandbaggers) will generally be pushing 250W before any attacks.
Lucky the lightweights who can hang with the Bs with a mere 200W…
As someone who purely uses these races as interval sessions this new change is great
The best thing about this is people are going to have to improve to win races and move up like real life. Previously people would at the detriment of others go down a Cat instead of training to compete in their correct category. Overall, what the vision of the platform should have been in the first place.
As someone who has volunteered as a club handicapper you hear it all, Just ignore it and stick to the process, don’t try and please the people who cannot be pleased. They aren’t who they want to be and aren’t willing to work for it.
Love it all, keep up the great work!
On the flat, for short riders like me 200w are enough to suck wheels in standard B race. Not in zrl b1 or high level B races.
I gave up on worrying about “winning” Zwift races about 1100 races ago 
Actually several hundreds of track and road races before that even.
I’m classed as an A but would have a tough time winning in B’s because I have no sprint.
Hence the interest in a good ranking system. Gives some incentive to race and see where and how you compare over time to other people who (also mostly) can’t win most of the time either.
And at least in A’s, with the current ZwiftPower ranking, you are rewarded for doing moderately well.