I was in the ZHQ steering race today and two strange things happened.
I started off by peddling way harder than I could maintain because I’ve read about these starts and you need to be flat out. A notice came up and said I’m in the wrong category and it’s slowing me down - I went from 2nd/3rd to tenth because- it seemed like it limited what I could do. My average is 2.4 so I’m most certainly cat D
I was happy just getting on with my first ever race and not coming last so I was happy in 11th after my time penalty, had a good race with 9th/10th for about 6 or 7 laps. Then on lap 12 , when the first person finished, my TT and my HR monitor both lost connection to Zwift so my avatar just sat there as others cycled past me - on the last lap Has anyone had zwift disconnect all your devices during a race? If it was one device I’d put it down to connection but both devices, that’s certainly the software.
The record of your race on ZwiftPower has your twenty minute power at 228 watts, 2.88 watts per kilogram. Taking 95% of that to get the FTP figure used in Zwift places your FTP at 2.75 w/kg, which is in the C category.
Hi Ewan,
Zwift racing takes a little while to adapt to and the ZHQ crits are some of the hardest and most competitive races. Why not try a few road races with multiple groups showing and you’ll be able to slot yourself in with a group doing about the same wkg as you are and still have a good race on your hands. Your results in Zwift power will show up in the group you registered with but you are allowed to race with any group you want.
Likely a major factor in your D category ZwiftHQ event today was triggered by your exceeding the D category power limit. Per ZwiftInsider:
When riders select a race category at signup, their 1-minute and 5-minute power will be used to decide if Zwift pops up a warning indicating that they risk being flagged. At least initially, Zwift will not prevent the actual signup. But they will present a warning.
If the trigger is hit during the race three things will happen:
The Zwifter will get a new green “cone of shame”.
They’ll be given a message suggesting they move up a category, indicated by an arrow.
The racer’s power will be throttled, slowing them down but not bringing them to a standstill. As Jordan says: ”If you want to race in the Ds, that’s fine, we’ll just make you a D racer.”
Racers will, however, stay in the race and they will remain in the results.
So if your power got throttled enough to take you out of the draft, that has a big effect on keeping up with the front. In a Zwift HQ category C race, you shouldn’t get the penalty if your power is indeed category C.
Ewan, if you really think that things got messed up you can post in the Zwift Power forums and Sticky will take a look and adjust if required. Maybe title your post something like “race data correction required”.
However, if you still received an upgrade even after a power restriction maybe C category is going to be ok for you.
Has anyone had zwift disconnect all your devices during a race? If it was one device I’d put it down to connection but both devices, that’s certainly the software.