Just did the weekly cheat party of the Zeal Japan race, and a rider spent most of the race well off the front alone, despite the bunch absolutely flying, at an average of over 47. I mean, orange tick pros and 990+ riders were hitting over 6w/kg for 5 mins, and still couldn’t catch him.
This rider has set his height to 140cm, weight at 68 and ‘only’ averaged 330 for the race, which is the same wattage that I (179cm) had to hold to get dropped with 5km to go (entirely due to the speed ramping up to try and catch this guy)
So, in an entirely flat race, a difference of 40cm in height, is the difference between soloing off the front for most of the race, and winning, and getting dropped.
Incidentally with a height of 140cm and a weight of 68kg, this rider (ZRS 966) is ‘Obese Class I’ on the BMI scale. Yet, he did a 15km solo ride to victory in Zwift’s fastest race.
Zwift has always favoured lighter riders, but now it’s formula is massively favouring smaller riders, in a phenomenally unrealistic and ludicrous manner.
If a downwards adjustment of 40cm is the difference between a solo victory against one of the fastest pelotons in the ‘game’ and getting dropped, it’s easy to see why genuine shorter riders are absolutely flying on the flat, despite average wattage.
Second place in this race only did 214w - I assume his height must also be around that of a child.
There were riders finishing 10+s behind these two vertically challenged individuals doing 400w+ for the duration of the race, which was pancake flat.
Zwift has made a massive error as far as the effect height has on rider speed, which is destroying racing.