My guess about this one is different privacy laws in different countries. The only way for Zwift to check this is a copy of a passport or any other officical document.
Every company says the data is save with them but we all know it isnt. How much trouble would you think it gives when Zwift gets hacked and all our passport details are out in the open ?
But have you also aksed SZR to DQ him from the race ?
Ha ha, no. I can’t be bothered and can’t type or flag people when doing 350w
But dont you think that might be a bit more helpfull than complaining on a forum where probably no one from Zwift ever reads it ?
Community organizers are often more responsive to a constructive report of suspected cheating than Zwift are, and they can request to keep that rider out of their future events. It does not require flagging them in-game, you can contact them afterwards.
gave
they gave a big event to mywhoosh. temporarily
it’s a community race, so in the absence of auto flagging measures or people manually flagging a rider out of a race (still possible btw, though you do need to do it through the companion app), contacting the organiser is the best way forward
You have to report them at least, take a screenshot, report afterwards. If nobody does that then nothing will change.
It’s no use everyone not being bothered or saying “it’s just a game” - nothing will change otherwise.
I get that you cannot type or flag riders when you are going flat out, but you can take a screenshot and the follow up later with as many details that you remember.
Actually you are not allowed to call out people during events. One can only use sarcasm, respectful sarcasm.
I call out sticky watts/sprint coasting riders when I see it, they need to be called out on it
Just curious, do you ever get a reply from one of them ?
Never get a reply.. shocking I know
You might find that not everyone whose power fluctuates is actually cheating.
for a start, sticky watts isn’t possible without certain power meters or trainers, and the sprint - coast thing has pretty much been debunked as ‘cheating’:
The tests above clearly show that microbursting results in higher speeds than steady-state power on flat ground. But is the speed increase enough to conclusively say microbursting gives riders an unfair advantage?
I say no.
Modulating your power in microbursts increases the perceived difficulty of a ride, at least for most riders. The physical and mental “cost” of microbursting seems to far outweigh any speed advantage it delivers.
Microbursting AND sticky watts is dubious, however.
Some authentic racers tend to modulate their power output more than others, who are more ‘steady state’. It’s generally just the different ways that riders approach maintaining high speed / power.
If I’m seeing orange numbers then 0 then orange again in the space of a few seconds and happening on a regular basis I’m calling it out for what it is
I’d agree with that.
This isn’t the same as hitting 450 for a few seconds to move to the front, then recovering for a few seconds at 150, then up to 320 etc
I’m not an A racer so I can’t say what exactly happens there but in C , and on legitimate YouTube videos, not many riders do that
There is no reason to put out 450 for a few seconds, move to front, drop to 150 then jump back to 300+.
Haven’t seen anyone do that for a legitimate purpose.
But I’m just C.
People pedal in different ways. Some hold a near constant cadance and power output and hold the same position in the bunch. Two different riders in the bunch, one might pedal for 60 seconds of every minute at a more steady Z4 wattage, the other might pedal for 10s in Z6, 30s in Z4, 5s in Z5, 5s in Z1 and even stop pedalling for a few seconds. Both achieve the same average output.
Others move around more, and fluctuate their power. It’s pretty normal for a struggling rider fighting hard not to get dropped to have to push hard in zones 5 and 6 for a few seconds to get back in the tail of the bunch, then have to ease off for a few seconds due to pushing into to the red, only to drop off the back again and need to repeat.
The example above is completely plausible - you increase your power, hit the very front, then don’t want to power the bunch with you taking the draft, so you ease off. Normal.
Zwift racing is rather different to real life racing in that it’s actually possible to hold fairly constant power if you are that way inclined. It’s especially easy to do this if you use that third party tool that records the draft effect.
IRL your power goes up and down all the time. The bunch speed is fluctuating, sometimes you even need to brake, you might accelerate up to the front around the edge, in the wind, then coast for a while when you get into the draft.
You are also constantly looking to save energy, so you are actually trying to soft pedal and coast wherever possible, but you are also trying to stay near to the front, so you’ll sometimes be in cycles of pushing hard for a few seconds, then coasting.
I have noticed on Zwift, that the higher the level, the more the tempo changes. There are moments of extreme ‘violence’, then the speed drops, then it kicks off again. Here are some power files from elite outdoor racing, a classic and a crit: https://panache.bike/trainen-met-een-vermogensmeter-deel-2/
There isn’t really anything suspicious about this.
Racing isn’t ‘who can hold the highest consistent average power for the duration of the race’ it’s about staying at the front, and there are different ways to power the bicycle with this in mind.
Sure, zwift has flaws that can be exploited, especially if you have an event based power meter, or a trainer that holds the watts for a few seconds if you stop pedalling.
As Zwift Insider has shown, there aren’t really any benefits to ‘microbursting’ unless you also have such a PM or trainer. Without this. your efficiency is lower and your NP and effort is actually higher for the same speed.
IRL also has ‘exploitable flaws’ - there are places in the bunch where the airflow resistance is far lower and you can take corners without braking, there are ways to move up without blasting through the wind, there are places to shelter from crosswinds and teammates can keep you in these ‘easy’ positions.
Honestly, this ‘spiky’ power profile = cheating is generally nonsense.
That does seem unusual, especially to do it continuously for 30 minutes or more in a very methodical way as I’ve seen some people do in Zwift. However you might see someone battling to try and stay with a group having power spikes to try and stay with them, then easing off, then maybe finally expiring.
But hey, I avoid races in Zwift so what would I know (and no amount of IRL riding counts for anything). 
Oh I agree, it’s suspicious when a rider seems to be following a ‘formula’ of repeating certain outputs for regular intervals, then it looks like a bot or something not human or tech assisted / manipulated in some way.
But it’s equally dubious when you see someone racing at a constant 6w/kg, as happened recently for a week or two in the A races.
I feel you may have just described me… 