First and foremost, I am still very new to Zwift and the Zwift racing community. So apologize in advance if I am missing something.
I have been racing in D class for a few months and have not seen much improvement in my pace compared to others… Especially when i go up hill.
I just completed a Zwift official race and was hanging with the lead pack for 3/4 of the race. Final 1/4 of the race was a long stretch up hill. Literally everyone around me dropped me except a select few. During the battle to stay within reach i was at my MAX, and was still dropped. When i look at the stats of the race, I was putting out the largest Wattage than the top 10 people that pulled away on the hill.
I was basically pumping 20-30 Watts better than anyone else in the race for the last 30 min. Am I getting dropped because im using my actual weight of 240lb’s?? When I look at the Watt to Weight ratio, im the worst of the top 10. So I’m assuming its my weight?
The frustrating part about this is if I was goign that hard in any racing event in my local area, I could typically keep up with most average riders… Which isn’t group D supposed to be average?
This past race made me want to quit my subscription because I dont feel like I am competing with other people who are using their actual weight. Should I just say Im 120LBs?
Please someone let me know if this is an actual problem within Zwift, and is Zwift doing anything to mitigate this type of cheating?
There’s a difference between “cheating” and “using your correct weight”. What makes you think these other riders are using an incorrect weight? I don’t race but I’d be in Cat D if I did and I weigh around 165lbs. There are lots of riders lighter than me. W/kg will make a huge difference when climbing.
Sure some people adjust their weight inappropriately, but in the lower categories it’s probably more common to increase the weight to remain in a lower category, and then race on flat routes where weight is not very important. I just don’t think about it much. When I want an ego boost, I pick a route that suits me well.
But I want to say that at 240 pounds getting a top 10 in an uphill finish is fantastic. You should look at that as a big win for you. Not every route favors every rider, and you chose to race on a route that didn’t suit you at all, and yet you still did quite well. Imagine what you would do to some lighter riders on a flat route.
I recommend signing up for Zwift Power, if you haven’t already, so you can see more details about your performance vs the other riders. Riders who don’t use Zwift Power may not appear in those results, but you’ll still get some idea of what you were up against. I look at that and tell myself that I am a winner because I’m the oldest rider at the top of the leaderboard, or the heaviest rider in an uphill finish, or that I drafted well and used less power compared to other riders of my weight who placed worse, or any other thing I can think of to consider my performance a good one for me.
Only asking because if my weight makes such a big difference in my speed in zwift… Then why isn’t it policed, or is it policed?
Im not saying everyone in top 10 was cheating, but when I look at my watts im beating everyone for the last 30 min. If my weight makes me the slowest of the group then I want to have confidence that others ion Zwift are also being honest about their weight. Especially if I am paying a monthly subscription and Zwift is supposed to be the leader in Sim Cycling. I would just like to have confidence that I am being beat by non-cheaters, it would give me more motivation rather than frustration.
Is it normal in the community to just drop your weight to know you are on equal ground becasue Zwift doesn’t know how to enforce weight confirmations? I would rather be racing on equal ground than being an honest racer if anything.
Here are my stats from the race… I went from staying in the group to completely dropped sprinting up a hill. Like literally nothing I could do… I wasn’t even exhausted, but was putting everything I had into going up the hill.
Last point… I can also tell my Zwift avatar is typically much bigger than everyone else i race against… So you are telling me in bottom splits that I am the fatest person??? I highly doubt that since im tall and not fat IRL.
At 240 pounds you are probably among the more massive riders in any race. Check out the profiles of the riders you raced against and see. It’s not about fat, it’s just weight. Not being overweight means there’s probably significant upside to your future potential for increased power. You can also see in their race history if they have a tendency to drop 20kg suddenly (though intelligent cheaters won’t sign up for ZwiftPower so you won’t see their data there). Uphill finishes are also self-selecting - most 240 pound riders would take one look at that and run away from the race.
How fast you shoot out the back of the group on a climb depends on how steep it is, and also how fast you’re going when you hit the climb. The last hundred meters before the climb starts is not a time when you should back off - you’ll need to ramp your effort to hit the climb with good speed. I would avoid leading the group into the climb, though, since it will inspire others to start harder. Ideally you’ll be accelerating from the back of the pack toward the front as the climb starts.
The other thing to think about is your training - if you want to do well on finishing climbs you’ll need to train for that and practice the pacing over the expected duration. If you want to crush flat sprints that will probably come easier for you but it still helps to train for the short intensity and practice the timing and mechanics of doing sprints.
Unfortunately that isnt possible. Zwift staff have admitted very recently that even in the elite races where video confirmation of weight is required by the racers, Zwift is not watching the videos and are not policing it (and this is for the top elite races)!
Now try to imagine them having the man hours to verify 1,000s of community racers every single day (even on Christmas). It will never happen.
For uphills, W/KG is much more important than total watts. Lighter riders will have the advantage.
To understand, do an experiment…pick a hill…ride up at best effort and note the time, watts, w/kg. 2nd try drop 15 kg from your weight…repeat.
then if you plan to race, put your weight back to proper. Not sure how they monitor for racing but might want to setup a throwaway account for the experiment or race in non-CE for a bit to the weight change clears.
weight is the issue. You are never going to do well on hill climbs at 240 Ib. In the tdF the sprinters generate the most power, but are the first ones out the back when the road turns up because they weigh the most. Vindegarrd who won weighs just 132 lb. Stick to the flats and you should do well.
Welcome and don’t despair. Weight per se isn’t necessarily a big disadvantage for Zwift racing (in the lower categories, at least), so long as your raw power is sufficient. Many of the courses used for racing can best be described as “rolling” or hilly rather than mountainous (choose wisely!) and very few have summit finishes on Alpe du Zwift or Ven-Top. Where your weight can sometimes be a disadvatage going up, it can also be used to your advantage on the descent.
If you have no (little) cycling background, it could take some time to build up your fitness to a competitive level, so be patient and systematic in your approach to training and racing (work on both your short-duration and longer-duration power outputs e.g. 1’, 5’ and 20’).
There are many people with 90+ kg weights who do very well in Zwift races that are not pan-flat. A friend of mine who weighs 100 kg (220 lbs) has placed top 10, or thereabouts, in many recent C-cat races (and he only moved-up from D-cat this season).
Edit, with additional info.
Calan, take a look a this rider’s Zwift Power palmares in C-cat (he weighs 110 kg, 243 lbs). The TFC Mad Monday series and the Zwift Racing League (ZRL) are very competitive leagues run over a diverse set of flat/rolling/hilly courses. I’m not saying that he’s represenative, but it gives you some idea of what can be achieved with high weight and decent fitness ZwiftPower - Login
Yes, Zwift is the industry leader.
It is able to monitor a users wt as much as any other program.
Unfortunately, none of the programs can really verify a users wt.
I don’t want them to.
It would be a high drain of resources.
They can check and prevent excessive weight variations.
Unlike local events, in Zwift one has to face the entire World. Average in Zwift is quite a bit tougher than anything local. Demography racing in Zwift is not a run of the mill racer either. Many strong irl riders had a shellshock here. Hang in there and you will get much better.
Hi mate, fair play for even getting on a bike and trying. Im 270 pounds (122kg) ftp at 206 and climbing. Lost 10kg in 6 weeks and on a mission to 100 kg l. Only advice i can try and give is enjoy the zwift, do races etc but have fun doing the whole thing. Dont get caught up in worrying about the cheaters take care mate looks like your doing great
I’m kind of in the same boat … 115kg and hopefully falling
Ran my first race a couple of days ago (London 4a) and got completely obliterated… However, I set realistic expectations for myself and beat my goal of not being dead last (19/21 finishers)
I realise most zwifters will be better than me so the way I look at it is to try and hook up with said better zwifters to better myself… For me anyway, the improvement I see in myself from previous ride(s) is my motivation… Not winning an imaginary trophy
On a side note, I did notice in the race results the top 5 or more riders really could have or should have been racing in C
D pen riders in Category Enforcement can have a zFTP (what ZwiftHQ predicts they can do for over 40mins) up to 2.625W/Kg (or a zMAP up to 3.3W/Kg, a prediction of what they can do for ~6mins*).
So in a short race like Race London 4A, a rider in the D pen can finish with an average of approx 3W/Kg for approx 10mins of racing (higher if they weigh under approx 60Kg) and not be promoted to C after the race, providing they didn’t exceed the zMAP threshold.
zMAP is ignored if zFTP is <150W, W/Kg zFTP is ignored if pure Watts is <150W.
Also, I can attest that while Zwift physics aren’t perfect, they’re very reasonable in this regard. I’m a heavier rider with a power meter on my outdoor bike, and some of the other folks in my riding club have them too; a skinny fast guy will finish a hilly club 100k hours before me at a lower average power.
On flat rides I’m in the middle of finishers; hilly rides I’m one of the last. Uphill is all about power to weight ratio. (Especially since outdoors, unlike on Zwift, you can’t go full tilt down curvy potholed downhills, so the one place we have an advantage is nerfed a little.)
All you can do is keep working at it. Train hard and smart and eventually the improvement will happen.
I’m one of those lightweight folk who zooms up hill, but I can sympathise because I had a crash and serious injury that took a year to partially recover (with little to no riding) so I have stuff all power and badly off balance. It’s a long road to improve.
I don’t even race since with a max power now of 515w everyone goes past in a sprint. That’s less than half what I used to have.
I think you missed my point. Its more about cheating rather than physics. There is nothing in the game that stops people from setting their weight super low.
I think you missed my point. Its more about cheating rather than physics. There is nothing in the game that stops people from setting their weight super low.
take care mate looks like your doing great 