[quote=“brianp [Cycladat.cc], post:20, topic:625462, username:avgdadcyclist”]
Virtuslo doesn’t have their next series posted
[/quote]
It’s coming this week for Wacky Wednesday March edition.
As the topic where you adviced me to look at your series is locked, i answer here ! 
I was on wacky Wednesdays yesterday, in fact I was there after a crit race. A category was perfect for me, the race was fun as we were all riding with different styles and strengths (one was pushing hard on flats, one always sucking wheels, we were three trying to push on any incline)… the only problem is as usual : not enough people in A category…
It is not easy to find good quality races (not flat with the bunch sprint finish but races with the possibility for breakaways to form and be caught, alternating flat and hills, with hard finish) with many riders (except on weekends) in upper cats.
But thanks for your homemade cats it was nice !
2 Likes
After see Dejan posting here I too decided to give the wacky races a try, it was later than I would normally race on Zwift, but it was an enjoyable and different experience to most of the races I do.
1 Like
Hi there Lee. I was interested in your comment that you can stay within Cat C CE at 3.6 WKG for 20 minutes. Is that definitely right - I thought it was around 3.3, maybe 3.4?
I’m at 3.48W/kg 20 min, still in C, and I have seen some above 3.5. These people are very close to the category border and also have high zMAP numbers, which reduce zFTP.
1 Like
With a strong zMAP 3.9/4/4.1wkg I’ve seen riders get as high as 3.6wkg for 20mins…
I think beyond 3.65 will pretty much put you in B via a 3.32zFTP (nothing official to confirm that)
1 Like
My zFTP is 3.31w/kg (so under the 3.36w/kg limit for cat B) but my 20 minute power is 3.65w/kg, 30 min at 3.26w/kg and 40 min at 3.21w/kg.
I am, however, in B cat thanks to my zMAP being 4.45w/kg (4.1w/kg min for B cat) which is pretty much equal to my 5 minute power of 4.46w/kg.
Don’t forget, that with the B cat limit for zFTP being 3.36w/kg this would be equivalent to 20 minute power of 3.53w/kg under the old “FTP = 95% of the average of 3 best 20 minute power” system used on ZwiftPower.
When Zwift bumped up the W/kg limits for CE a while ago not only did it move a lot of people from the bottom of A cat down to the top of B but also a lot from B to C and C to D.
3 Likes
Thanks for that.
I appreciate I’m oversimplifying, but is the zmap cat B threshold approximately 3.9?
I suspect it probably depends on your metrics in other criteria…
zMAP is 4.1wkg…
I’m pretty much the same, 3.3wkg zFTP but my zMAP is 4.7wkg on a good day with fresh legs but nowhere near that number in a race due to being in z3/4 for the majority to get to a climb
I have just found myself bumped up from Cat C to Cat B. From my perspective this is far from a good thing. I’m age 66, disadvantage No. 1! Now a bottom end Cat B, I stand no chance of being even remotely competitive, just ‘canon fodder’! In the Zwift Games today I had mentally cracked before i’d even started!! Oh well, I thought hand on until the C’s catch, jump on & at least enjoy the ride (started one min later). No sign of any C riders being visible (despite Zwift claiming they would be). I’m put off entering Zwift races and now think I’ll have to make a conscious effort to throttle back during rides so I can drop back to Cat C. It should not be like this! I could of course weight dope to more rapidly change my cat, but I don’t want to go down the cheating road. I guess I just liked being an upper C cat & could be competitive, now I’m a bottom B cat it sucks!
1 Like
Yup, totally understand. Zwift’s A/B/C/D wkg based cats are very broad, mostly static, half of the people in the cat must be the bottom half by definition, and many folks at the very bottom have a much different race experience than those at the top and pretty much get dropped every single time they race no matter how hard they try. This is why sandbagging, weight/height manipulation, and power conservation to stay at the top of a cat is a thing.
Hopefully when they release race ranking that will help, but as long as there are 4 very clear categories that are used in 99% of the races we will still see people find ways to not get promoted to the very bottom of whatever the next category is, perpetuating the same problem for some folks who are playing by the rules at the bottom of their cat.
Anyhow, until they solve this problem the advice given in other category enhancement threads holds true: Look for events where all cats are visible, mass start events, or events with different cat boundaries like VirtuSlo events etc.
Thanks for the sensible & pragmatic advice. Appreciate it.
TFC Mad Monday also does split categories. Check if their race time works for you.
https://teamtfc.com/mad-monday/
The Virtual L’Etape du Tour is also coming up (not a race, but should be race-like at the front)
Races that use the zwiftracing.app category system should also work for you. Most are team races, like Dirt Racing Series and the 5v5 Club Ladder. You would need to find a team that does these events at a race time you prefer, with room on a squad at your level.
https://www.dirtracingseries.com/
https://ladder.cycleracing.club/summary
You can also search ZwiftHacks for all races that have “all categories visible” and “same time starts” to find the mass-start races. There are many of them. See the Rules tab to see the buttons I pressed to generate these results.
1 Like
Are you sure about that? I originally thought it was not a race (just a group ride with coffee stop turned off), but the L’Etape Fondo was set up as a race with GC etc, and shows up in Zwift Power as a race.
2 Likes
Looks like you’re right, it’s another mass-start race with no categories, so a possible good choice for Richard.
1 Like
I wouldn’t recommend you slack off just to get back into C.
Look for a different type of event.
You should “race” group rides until your form improves.
There are a few split cat events.
When everybody in the world is divided into 4 cats, there will always be a big difference between the top and bottom of the cat.
I’d personally also add Category Enforcement as a rule, but the above is a good suggestion.
According to Zwifthacks, the Zwift Games races have the rule set to include “See only Event Category Riders” – which means you only see your own category.
A bit Off topic… but why bother having staggered starts while only being able to see your own category anyway?
I assume this is just a legacy from when you couldn’t hide the other categories.
Maybe, and I don’t know how the main race events setup and configuration menus look or work, but someone is intentionally clicking boxes for all the preferences they want?