I’m a high C, but can’t hang on in B’s tried last year and it about killed me (I’m 57 and not getting faster). After last race I was bumped to a B. 3.01 avg. w/kg and 2.94 in “category” w/kg. I’ve had previous races with number just above this and didn’t seem to have such a move. The first 20 were a bit hard as I tried to hang on to a group I had no business being with, and payed for it later in the ride. Would that have done it? I’d hate to quit racing because I have zero business racing B’s.
a) Thanks Gerrie, good explanation of how it is worked out.
b) I’m 57 and have every plan of going faster.
c) I suspect that’s life. Whatever category you’re in (except A+), if you want to win then you’ll always heading towards the top limit of the category.to do that. Garmin, Wahoo or whoever could make them themselves popular with Zwifters by introducing a rolling 20min power threshold alarm so you get a warning when you need to power back.
Isn’t that built in sand bagging?
I did a TDZ ride yest with a friend.
We started strong with a front group but I was overexerting and had to drop back to the second group.
Soon my friend also dropped from the front group and we caught up with him and he joined the second group.
We continue racing but the second half of the race our power was lower than the first half of the race.
Racing is racing and you should try hard.
It’s ok to ease up to save it for a sprint but easing up to stay in cat is sand bagging.
You can do this quite easily with Garmin head unit today - they dont have a standard data field but at least one person has developed a custom program available on the Connect IQ store that does just that (well, not sure about an alarm). But the question is - do you really want to be labelled as a sandbagger/cruiser?
I get how you feel - I’m in a similar power band and lost a lot of motivation to race when I moved up to B, but I want to keep pushing myself.
One good answer to stopping this is auto seeding, or “match making”, where the boundaries between groups would change every race. I can’t wait until Zwift (or a competitor) brings that in.
After some digging, I rode way over limit trying to stay with people entered as C, but are actually B’s most of them quit the race I assume because they weren’t in the unfiltered results. but they left me to die the last half of the ride. I really wish people weren’t even allowed to race down category. As in my case I thought I was trying to hang onto C’s. I don’t really pay much attention to my numbers and am actually shocked I was able to go over. Bummer as this will make racing much less fun being dropped in the B’s. Can I blame it on calibration and get a do over? Please!
Racing in B’s is zero fun for me, I had to have a great 20 min. to barely go over. Now I guess I just won’t race for 90 days. That, and as I said in another reply B’s shouldn’t be able to race down Cat. I thought I was racing other C’s and blew myself up, however not after spending all my juice in the first 20 min. and then bumped up.
Well, there is more than 1 reason to keep an eye on your power.
I go very hard at the start but I know I can’t hold that power for the whole race.
I know I can hold my ftp for at least 20 min but I don’t think I can for an hour ,dispite it’s definition.
I know my 5&10 min power and how much I have to back off to recover.
I will back off to recover to be able to attack or respond to an attack.
That’s fun and that’s racing.
I don’t understand how out of cat riders or caring up affects this at all.
You either can hold a power or you can’t.
If you know your limits you’re ok.
You’re just betting the other guy is going to slow down but if they don’t, you gotta let them go.
I know the definition.
My FTP’s have all been 95% of my 20 max.
I’ve not done a formal 1 hour test.
I think for me, 95% of my 20 min max is more than I can hold for an hour.
I’m not sure why we don’t just use the raw 20 min value for most uses on Zwift.
Same here. As a younger man I could hold numbers like that, however with age I’ve noticed I run off a cliff like I did in the above mentioned race. For example (and I haven’t done a true FTP test for years), I can hold right around 2.9 - 3.0 wkg for an 1.5 hrs. but to try and hold 3.2 is a huge jump and I would blow up. Strange but 2.9 to 3.0 really doesn’t feel that tough but the jump to 3.2 feels massive. Which is why I get crushed in B.
To continue ( accidentally hit send). With age my range has really shrunk as has my HR, my max has dropped and distance from low to high is getting smaller. Same deal as my power on a bike, or run. It’s a bummer because I will have to find another way to enjoy Zwift without “racing” getting just hammered is not fun at all.
Just looked and it had 3.26! no way I can hold that. there should be an old man adjustment, or maybe I needed to calibrate my Kickr after moving it from my house to a location out of town. Sorry to not let this go, I’m just super bummed and surprised.
Well, what does old man mean for you? I am 61 (62 in April).
Rode a TT, 1.5years ago - and yes, I could hold my 95% of 20 minutes for an hour. I believe you all can do it, too - it is not in the muscles, it is in your head!
Give me a F’n break are you seriously dense enough to think just because you can do something everyone else can? Back in my younger days when I qualified for the Boston marathon, I didn’t go around telling everyone they could do it. We are all a little different.
