@Andrew_Nuse how about spending a few weeks doing a training plan, building your strength, endurance, and sprinting. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll see improvements and being dead last won’t be an issue anymore.
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I raced a category enforcement race last night. Category B on the Watopia Figure 8. It was great. I race a lot (125 entries on zwiftpower and I mostly do races). I’m top of the B category but do a lot of KISS mixed category races where I try to hang in with and/or beat the A’s. In those races on this course, the typical thing that happens is that the A group goes hard enough on the first KOM to drop all but a handful of the strongest B’s, and there’s typically a small group of about 6 or 7 A’s and 3 or 4 B’s that get over the top of the first KOM. The B’s then get dropped on the second KOM when the A’s are really going hard. So if the category enforcement wasn’t working well and someone who should be an A was in the race, I’d expect something like this.
But the race wasn’t like that at all. Instead a front group of about 26 riders or so made it over the first KOM. Some people (me) tried a few attacks to make things hard, and got shut down. On the second KOM attacks went flying and we were able to split the front group, but instead of 3 or 4 getting away and the rest in tatters, the group split nearly in half, with G1 having 10ish riders, and G2 and G3 splitting the difference, and then G3 was able to close a 7 second gap to G2 so there were two groups on the road (this is notable, since its rare a group dropped on a climb is able to catch the group in front over a 7" gap). Those two resulting groups lasted to the finish, but only finished about 40 seconds apart.
It felt a lot more like a race where you weren’t doomed if you dropped off the back slightly, you could also try to go off the front if your legs were good, and the level was such that lots of competitors seemed to be at about the same level and willing to race hard rather than just try to sit in. I raced it with two friends who I regularly race with and they also had good experiences. My buddy said a lot of races feel like just a time trial to try not to get dropped at the end, but this actually felt like a race, where he could recover in the bunch and then be ready for efforts when they came.
So, all in all, it seems to be going well. [[But we still need results based categorization. Because there were some riders insta-dropped at the start, who I’d imagine were C/almost B racers on zp that couldn’t put out the 1 minute power needed to stay with the bunch early. Having fixed categories means when you are on the border between categories, but just slightly over, you always have a crappy experience, which shouldn’t be the case. Zwift is a training tool, not a real life race, so it should be made fun and competitive for everyone.]]
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the new system uses 60 days of data from ALL your rides not 90 days that ZP does
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Good write up @John_Bowers. I had the same experience that it felt like a real race.
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My FTP has gone up over 20w in the past 60 days, I guarantee I cannot keep up that pace when I’m still averaging 80w below this previous race.
That said, what I am doing, seems to be working for me.
As last training plan I did, it took 6 months to go from 160w to 174w
But again, yall are ignoring what I’m saying.
Say you bump into someone that’s at the top of a Cat, and you see them win and win and win, but for whatever reason, they’re still in the lower cat.
What if I wasn’t the bottom 1% of my cat now?
What if I was the top 1% of my cat?
The exact same issue is still right there.
I can win and win and win and win.
And until my I cross some barrier…
I’ll continue to sit at the top of the cat, and win and win and win.
The system, does not, take into account that someone can win/be bottom all day every day, and say “hey, maybe this person should go somewhere else for a change and we’ll see what happens”
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Wow. That’s a sweeping generalisation, which doesn’t take into account physiological reasons why some people actually might not be able to significantly improve.
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Not during the test events. But if you’ve been reading, then the cat cutoffs will seemingly differ all over as organizers customize their events, and you will be somewhere else as you’re asking.
I guess I’m incapable of understanding this because I’ve not seen what this means.
I’ve seen events like TDZ where ABCD are different distances.
Are you saying for example Cat A in whatever series is … for simplicity sake, 2-3w/kg and not… whatever the default is?
How do I know this; by going into every single event and hoping it’s written out clearly in the text box?
I think you’re not hearing what everybody is sayin’ back. You have a potentially strong rider inside yourself. If you follow some of the tips people are taking time to give you, you won’t be at the bottom of B much longer. Several well-known Zwifters have patiently explained what you need to do. Yes, it’s not easy but if you put the work in you’ll get there.
If you were at the top of C, you’d be at the pointy end of the field until you went over the line and then you’d be right where you are now: The bottom of B…
I know about being at the bottom of B and getting shelled every race. From April to November of last year this was my Zwift life. As hard as I ever work, I’ll never get beyond that because I’m old and not naturally talented.
You on the other hand can be more than that. This should be something of an epiphany: You have more athletic talent than you thought you had. Build on that and become all you can be. And stop whining about it… 
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Yes, you need to check the fine detail of the events.
From events I 've entered myself, I know the Clydesdale/Athena races (just Saturday at 1600 GMT these days?) split categories according to weight rather than power, as do the Masters events for those of us aged 40+ (where you join the right age group regardless of power and these categories are further split by admins after the race).
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We all understand that a ranking system or points system, whatever you want to call it, is very badly needed. We’ve been saying that for years, but you need to start by enforcing the pens.
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well if you read the event then yes it will show what category is what and distance of the race, i think you are too entrenched in the Zwiftpower categories of A-D and that every race uses them when they dont
For events like TDZ etc the categories are based on off distance/elevation NOT the Zwiftpower category
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So you’re saying that we should cater this system around people who don’t even bother to warmup when racing and literally do not have the ability to get stronger?
I thought this entire discussion was centered around competitive racing.
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Okay so, to make sure I’m on the same page. Are yall saying, in agreeing that there needs to be some sort of background points system…
That it perhaps should be a separate, say API in this case; aka, its own unique system from the enforcement testing they’re doing?
AKA, these are two separate systems (that are both dearly needed I will agree on).
I did not suggest anything of the sort. Please re-read what I actually said.
If race organisers split by power, or split by ranking, you still have the potential to be at the bottom of the pen. And then you’ll come here complaining that your rank should be lower. If you put half the effort in to racecraft as you did in to complaining, you’d probably already be able to hold a B pack. You shouldn’t get anything handed to you on a platter, especially if you can’t even be bothered to warm up.
This is one boring moan. I hate myself for replying.
Repetez S’il Vous Plait:
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Quoted for posterity…
If getting a solid warm up means you can’t finish the race, then you need to do more endurance work. Not a huge amount but more.
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So after finding my Direto was massively inflating my power last night compared to the 4iiii crank meter I usually use, I’m having another try at 1800 GMT using the 4iiii tonight.
A couple of top looking Bs in this race, the winner of Saturday’s 1400ish Wobble Sprint and the racer who won Monday 1800 GMT and yesterday’s 1700 test events.
Five Laps of Seaside Sprint is going to be nasty on tired legs, I’ll be very happy to finish under 55mins!
Andrew
You have reached out for help and you have already received good information from others.
In one of your posts, I have not read all I’m sorry, you ask something along the lines, how do I find out, where do I find, do I have to read……
Yes - so may I point you in the direction of the following links which I hope you will find interesting and informative.
I have sent you direct to the Race Rankings article as you appear to have an interest in that area. Once in the website you will soon see they have something new to read almost every day.
I noticed this on the forum today - good information from Zwift along one the lines you mentioned in a post
I suspect they may send this direct to every user on Zwift by email as long as you have you notifications set up correctly. Others will need to help you in this area as I can’t.
And finally I have found that if I just google Zwift and find things like ZwiftInsider, ZwiftHacks, etc then they are probably all websites with information on Zwift. Look at them all and see which ones you like.
Oh and a final finally - Others have mentioned TFC, FRR etc and you ask how to find. When you are looking at upcoming events in ZwiftPower for group rides etc there is a search section middle right of the screen. Simply type in TFC or FRR and generally only their events will come up. My suggestion is that you also type in LOW as this will give you a few races each week which are only available to the low half of your B category. (No surprise TOP also have their own races)
Hope this helps
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