Anyone else notiving the podiums of A cat races seem to be regularly stacked with riders who weigh 50 something kilograms?
Just seen a guy win an A race with just 237 watts average, but as he (yeah, sure you do) weighs 50kg, it was a massive 4.7 w/kg.
His heart rate was only 150, because 4.7 w/kg is really easy if it’s actually 3.0
The third place rider in this race claims to be 60kg, yet the upper body muscle mass in his profile photo would strongly suggest he would need to be about a metre tall to weigh 60kg. He’s also 59, and regularly winning A races. It’s a joke!
The average female pro cyclist weighs 61kg, yet the Zwift male A category is full of adult men who weigh significantly less than this.
I know this is impossible to police, but how can this be fun? And do these guys think they are credible? Are they satisfied with their victories?
This is where we need more cats.
Have a super hero A+++ cat and as those people win, they will be moved up to the top cheaters division.
A big issue with A is there is no where to move people.
ZRS may improve that.
(A) When something is broken by design people will obviously correct the mistake. Others will cheat. I’ll say it again it only makes sense to give your actual weight if zwift physics were accurate. If putting in a few kg lighter means you win then it’s broken. It’d be like putting your real weight into Namco’s pole position in the vain hope that the racing would be realistic as a result.
(B) Find some other motivation to race other than winning because if winning is the only thing that makes something fun then only 1 person can have fun.
(C) The number of people who care about who wins a virtual cycling race is less than the number of people in a virtual cycling race.
Take a few rides up Alpe du Zwift on most days and take a look at the very quick riders. A few of them are genuine A grade riders who are properly fast, but a lot of them are not.
It’s like facing the Borg, resistance is futile. Those and the impossibly fast Zpower people.
If I’m doing 4.2w/kg average on ADZ my average heart rate is is certainly not 150bpm or less. But I have a heart rate all the time and you can see it spike when I’m putting in a big effort.
Not every country belong to the giant Scandinavian group.
Filipinos are tiny.
“The mean height is 150 ern (4’ 11"), with a standard deviation of 5 cm., while the mean weight is 45 kg (99 lbs) with a standard deviation of 7 kg. This means that about 68%of the Filipino women have heights between 145-155 cm (4 '9"- 5 '1 ") and about the same proportion have weights between 38~52 kg (84-114Ibs).”
Been racing for years and have shifted from B to A, back to B, and now (for some reason) am an A again. I get destroyed in A. I’m 68kg and will openly admit I’ve considered RAISING my weight so I can race in B (where I finish middle of the pack).
I’m interested in this topic, but am little confused… how does lowering your weight = winning? W/kg is just an output used to group riders. So, if these riders are indeed heavier than they indicate, wouldn’t those artificially light riders destroy the B categories if they entered B cat? Am I missing something?
They probably have too high a power output to be in B, or will be stuck in A for 90 days no matter what they do with their weight due to Zwift’s averaging of PBs for CE. (Edit: I forget how it works, but Zwift averages your weight across PBs to avoid someone being able to just shift your weight to drop a category immediately if it’s just within a 90 day window)
So once you’re in A at that point lowering your weight to get an advantage on climbs becomes a way to be competitive within A. Those same folks might be able to increase their weight to get to the top of B eventually once the CE averaging kicks out, but perhaps it feels better to be competitive in A by sandbagging your weight down vs. being competitive in B by sandbagging your weight up? Then you can look all fancy and be an A rider maybe?
Well, if your FTP is 320 watts and you weigh 80kg, that might be enough to get you promoted to A.
But you will get your a*se kicked by guys who legit have a 5 w/kg FTP.
So, some riders obviously reduce their weight to 60kg, so they have an effective FTP of 5.3 w/kg.
Considering lots of Zwift races are basically 20-40 minute efforts averaging FTP, this makes a massive difference - especially on climbs.
But lowering your weight will make a difference across the board - if there is a 40 second climb and the best A riders go full gas up it, they’re probably doing around 9.5 w/kg.
If the 70kg rider has entered his weight as 60kg, he can match them, while actually doing around 8 w/kg.
I think I agree with you for the most part. My reaction is…
I’m 68.5kg (and are we using naked weight or weight+kit+bike?) and Zwift seems to think my FTP is 303. TrainingPeaks says it’s 274, so there’s that.
I’m currently forced into Cat A and getting my a*se kicked (so fun!). So if I lower my weight, I’ll be more competitive in A?
I don’t believe there are very many 40 second climbs in races. In fact, my impression is people hate climbing and actively avoid races with any appreciable climbing. I’ll admit I finish higher in climbing races because that’s the type of rider I am - or maybe it’s because there are fewer racers, not sure. But since there are VERY few climbing races (especially ones that are convenient in my time zone), I end up in flat races.
So in the type of races that seem to prevail, a lower weight is more beneficial than the inertia benefit associated with a higher weight?