How Zwift category work's

Guys i have one question that right now my profile says i am on c category and i want to up my category to b so for that i don’t know how it works but i have done my ftp and it is more than 270Watts so does Doing ftp test and having more watts will increase my category form c to b? Or how it works? What i have to do to up my category? Please guide me it will be helpful

Actually i have checked it already but i am having difficulty to understand can you please tell me in simple words. please guide me in short and simple words if you can i will helped me alot

Ride more.

Ride harder.

Recover.

Eat.

Sleep.

Get stronger.

Be able to produce more power for longer.

Do that, then a few months later rest up for a bit then smash a 6 minute PR and a 20 minute PR. Maybe in a race. Maybe not. Doesn’t matter.

That should do it. If not - repeat.

:+1:

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What do you mean by pr? Means ftp test don’t matter in categories? If i increase ftp number for example 280 to 300 so doesn’t increase my category to c to b?

These are the category boundaries. One thing you should understand is that steepening your power curve around the 6 minute time period (zMAP) will tend to lower your zFTP value. But you can be upgraded based on either zFTP or zMAP

https://support.zwift.com/en_us/pace-group-category-enforcement-rkhtvQuqT

What is zmap zftp does it is different than normal ftp test?

Yes. zMAP is derived from roughly 6 minute power. zFTP is derived from your entire power curve up to around 50 minutes and typically describes roughly your 40 minute power. Don’t confuse zFTP with FTP - they are not the same. (Yes this is confusing that they named it that way.) Any ride can provide data for the power curve used for racing categorization, so an FTP test is just another ride. If you do the long FTP test then you’ve provided something like 20 minute power as an input. If you do a ramp test it will contribute to shorter term power on the curve because it is a shorter effort. The result of an FTP test (the number it gives you as your FTP) has nothing to do with zFTP. All that matters is the power your produced for various periods of time.

Okay so i am starting to understanding it so thats why my category is not ranking up form C to B because i am actually doing the ramp test again and again so the last time i did was around 260 and after some weeks i did again it was around 300 but my category didn’t increase so this was the reason means i need to keep on working out and than after 90 days or something zwift will check my data and than give me the result that will my category Increased or not please correct me if i am wrong. And so for example changing the ftp number on your profile will not change my category right like for ex i have set my ftp 350 something on my profile but i don’t make any difference to the category it will not increase right ?

Right, whatever you set the FTP number to on your profile primarliy affects how hard your workouts will be. It doesn’t affect racing category. If you want to see the numbers used to categorize you, go to my.zwift.com and look at the Fitness section on the right side. There you will find your zFTP, zMAP, and underneath that will be a list of your best power at different durations. If you beat those records your category might go up. Any category change will happen almost immediately. The records expire after 90 days so if you do a huge effort and get into a higher category, 90 days later your category might go back down if you haven’t done similar efforts since.

If you want to post screenshots of that data I can probably tell you what would be necessary to move up, but basically you need to get zFTP up to 3.36W/kg or zMAP up to 4.1W/kg.

Also note that you can still race in B if you are cat C, just in case that is the reason you’re trying to increase your cat.

Okay thanks paul for replying and helping me i was actually very confused because i was changing my ftp number on my profile my my category was at same level c now i understand that changing ftp number doesn’t change your category. But know i got it thanks man

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