Hi everyone! I hope someone might be able to help.
I’ve not touched my bike for 8 months, but Zwift has decided I have the same fitness as 8 months ago ( and 6kg lighter!) and wont let me enter lower races than B/C !
Its really ruining any desire to keep cycling/using Zwift, is there a way to re-set my fitness level on Zwift?
I have done a few C races and get punted within mins, and usually quit as there is no point entering a race to ride the whole thing on my own.
Perhaps join one of the mass start races instead, so you’ll be at least likely riding with somebody around your current level.
With no data x 8 months, I think if you just do a few rides, the system will recalculate your fitness
You have to give the system some new numbers to work with.
Anything, free ride, group ride, work out or race.
It doesn’t sound like you race very much anyways so why do you care what place you get if it’s only for 1-2 races then you will get properly seeded.
…and Zwift didn’t change your weight, you or someone with access to your account did that.
Thanks, I’ll try and find something like that.
Tim, I’m sure years ago after the summer break, I had to start at the bottom and work my way up again, which seems sensible, but I have lost all my fitness and I’m being forced to race at the same level 3.3w/kg+ vs around 2w/kg now!
I only use Zwift to race, I have no interest in anything else.
I don’t care about my placing at the moment, but the C race I did yesterday, I hung on for 13mins riding around 50+% of my max the whole time and then got dropped and rode 28 mins on my own, what is the point even entering the race! FYI, I actually made myself 18kg light in hope I could hang on and actually be in the race, but no
With the new data, you will be reseeded soon.
Well, if they made themseleves 18kgs lighter they might have set a new 5min wkg PB etc no?
And you say
No more comments…
Also, if you don’t ride your bike for 8 months and have no interest in anything else, then you will race like someone who never rides their bike.
You don’t need to do workouts on Zwift but if you never ride, then you will have to learn to enjoy the view.
Mark, I did, hoping that I could actually be IN the race I am forced to ride in, but it didn’t work.
When started my sub again the other week, I updated my weight and tried a few races, but I barely lasted a min, so just quit them.
I need to know how to drop a cat, but even zwift support can’t/wont help.
I’d be happy to do a ramp test if they needed my new data to reclassify me, but nobody has said anything about that, not even Zwift!
Milan, very helpful! Maybe if you read about my issue, then you would maybe understand where I am coming from.
If you were only going 50% of max wouldn’t you expect to be dropped in a race where some folks are going all out? If you change your weight that will come into play in the calculations for what group you should be in.
That’s going to have the opposite effect of what you want. It will help make it look like you are in the correct category. Letting Zwift record accurate performance data would have had you put into the best match, but now you’ve poisoned your own data pool and need that data to age.
I read you didn’t touch your bike for 8 months and are 6 kg lighter - what is the issue?
I am 65, started in D each winter, after some races in C - bottom category, not so much fun to race…
Aaron, I meant over 50% of my max. My ftp is around 180/190w, I was having to ride 240-300 just to hang in the bunch.
My W/KG is around 2 and most of the others were doing 3.5 - 4.
I finished on my own 5 1/2 mins after the winner.
Gotcha, I misunderstood 
Yeah, if you change your weight that will then be used again in the calculations for which category you should be in, so that will mean you’d need to wait 90 days using your actual weight before that data goes away.
Mark, I know it will mess it up a bit, but I tried a few races that I am forced into and got dropped within a min, so thats why I changed it as I was frustrated.
I want to race, but not do the whole race on my own.
surely there must be a way to update my cat without making me enter cat C and do the whole race on my own?
Milan, other way around sadly! I am 6kg heavier and I want to be starting in the D races, but I am being made to do C races, which is depressing when I get dropped within the first km
I rode 28 mins on my own yesterday after getting dropped at the 13min mark.
My fitness is very poor and I think even D races would be very hard, but I would hope I can hang on a bit longer than in the C’s.
If you go to my.zwift.com and look under FITNESS on the right side, what is the 5 minute PR you see? What’s the date on it? That will determine the lowest racing score you can get to until the PR expires (after 90 days). If you enter a race you should finish it if you want your score to update appropriately. As others have mentioned, any temporary weight reduction will tend to keep you in a higher category since the seeding algorithm incorporates W/kg as one of the factors.
If racing is not fun now, I recommend doing Tour de Zwift events and treat them like races. You will not be alone because the events are so large.