Question about general cat "E" 1-5wkg

I have been racing cat D most of the time, but it seems my last performance put me up to C, so today I can no longer signup to a D race (which is sad, as I am female and no way I will be able to compete with other Cs as I am max 2.5w really…). But it also bars me from entering the general “Cat E”, which is supposed to be from 1-5wkg?? I dont understand why I cannot race in this category?

Do you have an example race?

If it’s been setup with cat enforcement then pen e is used for those riders that don’t have a recent race history enough to categories them.

There are other races that don’t use cat enforcement that do mass start all cats from e pen that you should still be able to use.

thanks.

Yes, its for today STAGE 3: RACE MAKURI— Turf N Surf
see screenshot.

So I guess if I do have enough race history (I think I have only raced 3 races in the past 6 weeks or so) then I cannot qualify.

Racing is confusing on Zwift as they now use two different categorisation systems to decide what your racing category is.

The original system (still in place) is generally called ZwiftPower categorisation (ZP). (Average of your best three races, Edit - group rides and events, in past 90 days)
The New system is Category Enforcement (CE). ( your best activity, racing or not, in past 60 days )

You are a CE cat C probably as a result of your last race.

But the good news is you are still a ZP Cat D as your last race does not take your three race average over the limit.

If you wish to continue racing in D cat all you need to do is find and enter ZP enforced races.

Picture below shows you the ‘CE categorised’ symbol ( warning sign !). You need to avoid these races and choose those without the symbol.
So some good news.
But the bad news is that the ZP system allows anyone to enter your D category race as it doesn’t force people to ride in their category.

I’m sure you are aware you can also race as a D category in Women only races.

I have also provided two links, both long but probably just top post in each link the most useful.

Race on - in Cat D :grinning:

image

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Many others find this situation very frustrating.

You have entered and raced in stages 1 & 2 and then find yourself, in the middle of a series of races, unable to complete all the race series in the same category you started.

There is a concern within Zwift racing that too many people are racing at levels below their true ability. As such as soon as anyone shows any improvement they are promoted immediately.

I have always believed that if you have the criteria to enter a category at the start of a race series then you should be able to race the whole series in that category. This would encourage riders to race hard (probably exceed category limits ) and still finish the series for themselves or their team.

They would probably then have done enough to be promoted up a category.

Obviously some will then do what they can to reduce their category over the following 60-90 days so they can race once again in the lower category next series.