Hoping I can get some insight here.
I placed 6th in my first race in Cat D. Shortly after I was moved to Cat C.
After going back and comparing my stats to other racers who finished ahead of me my numbers were essentially the same or less than those who placed above me and yet they are and have been in Cat D.
Was looking forward to being able to at least hit a few top 10 finishes in D but now am expecting to get smoked in C.
Any idea why I would have been bumped up?
Thanks
Basically because your performance is akin to Cat C.
You cannot rely on power numbers alone to dictate your Cat. Other demographics such as weight, age etc… all play a part. Your FTP also.
It’s designed to try and level out the racing categories and stop people sandbagging.
Be happy that you are better than you thought you were and try and push for promotion to Cat B.
Ride On!
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Thanks everyone…going to suck it up and see how I make out in C! Should be interesting! haha
What about the otger riders that are Cat D but producing the same outputs as you?
Yeah…no idea about that one.
they might be lightweight riders which means they don’t get promoted up a category until they breach the raw FTP wattage limit (D->C = at least 150w FTP)
Zwiftpower.com assigns Cat based on best 3 avg 95% of 20min wkg performances in races. It does not factor in age, height, FTP, etc just to be clear here.
What I don’t get is that if your W/kg means that you are only just within a category (e.g. your average power is 3.3W/kg and the Cat B range is 3.2-3.9), then assuming the power meter data is accurate, you will consistently finish towards the back of the field in every race you do. This will be very demoralising and you will never have the opportunity to move up a category on the basis of a good performance as you would in the real world and you won’t move down a category either after a series of low finishing positions. It makes bunch racing effectively the same as a time trial.