Help understanding w/kg in a race (Event ID 2771206)

Racing
21

Not firmly. Barely.

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22

Yeah it looks like you are right in the ■■■■ spot of only just over 250 and only just over 4 as well (well a little more than just, but not hugely). Looks like you were already doing 4.5 on the flat and had nothing left for the climb, cos 5.5 for a minute would seem implausibly weak as a true maximum.

With your physical profile, you are unlikely to ever be a strong A cat, that’s just the physics of the situation (unless you get substantially stronger). However, despite the faults of the cat system, zwift racing does get easier with practice, I promise! It’s all about short term efforts and you have to learn to recover in the bunch.

23

You have the highest 20min power of the top 10 racers. That is why you are in A

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24

Ah yes, the 250 watt floor, he is just barely over that.

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25

John,

Welcome to the delightful area that is very, very low A! I hope you enjoy it here! :slight_smile:

Seriously speaking, good luck and work on your 1-5 minute power (I really should follow my own advice).

26

surely 4.3 is middle area for A as 4.6 is A+

27

Not when considering raw watts, the minimum for A cat is 250 and he is averaging 254.

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28

Great to wake up and see this thread John … like I said, loads of people to enthusiastically help fellow riders out. Everyday is a school day in Zwiftland.

29

I can’t ever look up other riders on ZP unless they were in a race with me.
How do you look up riders in the pen?

30

@Tim_Camden_C, find the race you are in and click on the “signups” tab at the top:

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31

It used to be possible to search for and find any rider on ZP. They quietly pulled the feature a few months ago.

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32

If I remember it was because the search function downloaded the entire database before it would return any values. I thought @James_Zwift mentioned it was being re-worked so it was a better process?

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33

something along the lines that everytime a user is searched for it downloads 110mb of data

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34

Haha, yeah I can see why that would be problematic. :rofl:

35

It’s a terribly frustrating and often lonely place to be. I’m still trying to figure out if/how to change it and if it’s worth the effort. Long climbing races are a good place to look for a win, even if it’s because no one else is in the race/cat.

36

As a further comment to this I would say that John was doing exceptionally high power even compared to other lighter riders, so experience of sitting in the draft will help a lot. You have to do minimum work when in a bunch on flattish terrain, just enough to not be dropped out the back. Takes a bit of practice.

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37

When you’re at the bottom of the cat, while drafting is useful it doesn’t help that much overall. Believe me, I’ve been trying for months. When the surge comes - whether it’s a hill or the leaders simply want to punch it - you get dropped. I simply don’t have that kind of power or endurance. Then your options are to ride alone or fall back to the next group. The consensus seems to be the latter option. In the bigger picture, strength training is required for higher short-term power.

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