So any word on if/when there will be more categories?
It doesn’t make much sense to me to go from one 5 cat system to the other. The difference between the top half and bottom half will be .5 w/kg easily and that’s guaranteed pack filler.
If it leads to too few sign ups add bots to get to a min. amount or something.
What we really need is more start pens, or a different and more flexible starting system for events including races.
The biggest problem is there is so much code in zwift that is limited to the 5 pen setup.
it would be nice though if they could make it more dynamic but whos knows if that is in the planning. i suspect not.
I wouldn’t state that as fact
Does anything stop organizers from doing separate High and Low cat groupings for a race?
Eg. 3 in each, you have 6 cats total; 4 in each you have a total of 8, etc
Otherwise, it seems Zwift itself is the only one who took the suggestion to NOT try and do ZRS races with only 5 cats but which include everybody (0-1000 covered). This was the idea that a race could/should be designated eg. Novice, Enthusiast, or Expert, and would have a narrower overall ZRS range based on which tier the organizer wants the race to focus on. From a quick perusal of upcoming (non-Zwift) ZRS races on the calendar, everyone else is attempting to cover the entire 0-1000 range.
Anyway, Zwift has an “Advanced” category, but also staggered brackets for their Unlocked races that alternate every other hour which is a actually a somewhat clever solution as well, but this only works if you’re Zwift and have events every hour.
Same thing that stops organizers from consistently doing challenging routes, or longer races - Zwift will cull race slots if you don’t have enough riders - so to do that you’d need to be pulling 80 racers consistently in every time slot to split them and be reasonably sure of getting your 30 in both events. And you have to talk Zwift into giving you the extra events.
Community race organizers subsist on the crumbs left over after ZHQ is done eating the whole cake.
some organisers yes, likes of tfc mad monday which does work quite well but it is a rather clunky user experience with two events. its not uncommon for riders to signup for the wrong pen (harder than they need to be in)
It also leaves you having to manage two events, update two events, request changes from zhq for two events.
Herd Beginner races: Categories for this event are 0-125, 125-225, 225-300, 300-425
Yes. I’m going to propose splitting that top category out into two again, we combined it over the summer because of low numbers.
Apologies Craig my reply was intended for John but clicked on your post in error.
That, or just narrow focus of a single event to a narrower ZRS range.
Random example, but it happens to be Rhino’s. And maybe completely unnecessary, but theoretically using the example entrant base from this event (ID# 5155969) you could make your Short Crit event setup as a 100-600 ZRS score range “Enthusiast” level race, and the 5 cats would have to cover half as much territory.
It’d be nice if auto rules could also be enabled by organizers that when there are too few entrants (eg. less than 5?) in a cat, that that cat gets rolled into mass start with a contiguous cat, or alternatively the whole race becomes mass start (but still with Cats).
There are effectively 10 Cats. The ‘Range’ system allows you to select races that are more appropriate to your level of ability. Each hour the Range switches. So compare the zRS thresholds for a 09:10 to 10:10 start, you’ll see the difference.