Hello! I’ve been labelled as a C group. I’m not sure how this happened! I’ve only been cycling for 2 years. All my friends, even some very experienced riders are in the D group. Anyway I can go down? I’d especially like to ride or race with other women in the D group rather then compete against mostly men in the C (no offence!) Thanks!
The question is why you were upgraded. Look at the PRs on my.zwift.com and post screenshots here if you want advice about it (this is private information so it’s up to you if you want to share it).
A common reason for unexpected upgrades is lowering your weight in any ride or sharing your account with a stronger rider. But perhaps you are simply strong enough to earn the upgrade.
There is a table in this document that shows the power required to reach higher categories.
https://support.zwift.com/en_us/pace-group-category-enforcement-rkhtvQuqT
Thank you so much for your advice. Here’s some screenshots. I am training for triathlons so I did’t expect to be upgraded to higher Pacer groups!
If we take the average of your weights at the various PRs (66.93kg) and divide zMAP and zFTP by that number, it gives us W/kg of roughly 2.76 for zFTP and 3.17 for zMAP. You reach category C with a zFTP of 2.63W/kg or zMAP of 3.2W/kg. This is really good news for your triathlon training because you earned an upgrade by getting fitter.
Now I cannot swear that the weight they are using is an average of your weight at every single PR because they haven’t said so, but we do know they are averaging weights from PRs and your weight has not changed very much, so close enough I guess. Since you are quite close to the zMAP threshold as well (good all-around cyclist) it’s also possible that your zMAP is 3.2W/kg and not 3.17W/kg depending on the weight they used. 66.25kg would be enough to achieve that, which is quite possible given that you just got an upgrade and Feb 14 has a PR.
You’ve referred to Pacer Groups a couple times. Your “C” category only means something for Race events. You can ride with any Robopacer you want. You can pretty much enter any group ride event as well. If your friends are doing Robopacer or group ride events, you can ride with them. Only in races will you be separated usually, though there are some races that show all categories and have the same start times for all categories.
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Thank you for the analysis! My weight is usually around 67kg. It went up over Christmas (70kg, whoops travel and fun) and I’m trying to get it down now but the PR today would have been around 69kg.
Well, I will just continue with the C group! Ive still been enjoying the races! Just have to keep working hard!
Yeah there are a few options still available… group rides, women only races, team races such as 5v5 club ladder or WTRL team time trial (probably great for triathlon training), other team events that use the zwiftracing.app vELO scoring system such as Dirt Racing Series. Team races can be great for the riders lower in the category power range since the team tries to keep them connected as long as possible.
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Well it’s not so nice being in the higher category racing groups but well done on those power figures, looks like you are doing everything right for your training!