Did my first race and had a message that I should move to next group level, despite doing poorly

Racing
#1

Hi there,

I just under 2 weeks into Zwift and I have been loving doing daily rides.

Yesterday, I decided to try a race for the first time and signed up for group D. I finished 15 out of 19 racers and about 3.5 minutes behind the lead riders in a 22 minute race. But at the end of the race I got a message that I was in the top 22% and should move up to group C. (The message was brief and I was exhausted, so I don’t remember the exact wording).

I am confused and don’t understand the context here. My average watts/kilo were 2.2 for the race, so I am clearly in the D group.

I am a little discouraged by the race experience both doing poorly in the race but at the same time being prompted to move up a level. Can anyone give me some context to understand what is going on here?

For context: I am 52 years old, 100 kg, 183 cm tall, and I am using a Elite fluid trainer (dumb trainer). I did sprint at the end of the race and did more than 400 watts, but it was less than a minute (and I was exhausted afterward).

#2

From what you said here, I would say ignore the message and continue on with what you are doing.

#3

Do you know what your 20min avg power was? Zwift doesnt really care about the overall race avg (nor a short sprint), just 20min avg and FTP.

If you want a better idea of your stats, make sure you are calibrated, and signup to Zwiftpower which will very quickly allocate your Cat based on recent performances going forward.

Do note however that some people do not signup to Zwiftpower or are happy to race in Cat D even though they should be in higher Cats - entirely up to you how you want to use Zwift.

EDIT: If you did a Crit race that was quite short, then yeah, a few people get pinged for highpower based on their 5min avg being too high. Just avoid those ones I’d suggest.

#4

My watts for the race is listed as 222w - I assume that is the average watts over the 22 minutes.

But I see that in the last minute I was doing between 500w and 640w. So, if the software was evaluating my last 5 minutes, my average watts would have been closer to 300w. That would account for message, despite my poor showing overall.

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Cheers,

Blair

#5

You should stay in Cat D until you can finish over 2.5 w/kg. Whoever sent that message is an idiot.