I’m racing in cat B, but I’m right at the bottom of the category. Frankly I am finding the racing
boring and soul destroying at the bottom.
Is there any way for me to get some enjoyment back into racing without sandbagging and dropping back down to category C?
I’m a dad of two full-time job, so really struggle to train much. I can only get on my bike couple of times a week so any kind of intense training plan is out of the question.
Any advice or tips to get back in love with racing? It was fun in Cat C, but I despise sandbaggers so I’m not doing that
There are some alternative split cat series like TFC Mad Monday is a good one. SZR i think do a race similar on Wednesday.
Also the Thursday TTT or chase style races are good to try i would suggest if you are finding not fun joining a team could be a good way to start as most the events are private that use split cats.
I thought the chase races were a good bridge between categories… unfortunately they’ve been discontinued except for a few exceptionally diligent race organizers… (Ryno)
There’s also the TT’s and team race events that could rekindle your mojo
Already mentioned by Gordon, but at TFC we have a unique split category where we have shifted the cat limits. We made this precisely for riders like yourself. In this format a very low B (like yourself) ends up in a cat with only low b’s and high c’s (cat M5 to be precise).
Is it possible to intentionally have gaps in race cat definitiions. Eg. D = 2.0-2.3, C = 2.8-3.1, etc? Or is there a requirement that full spectrum wkg must be accommodated?
If you’re an inbetweener, then that race isn’t for you (and you won’t enter, and won’t come away dissatisfied and ticked off)?
Something that came up in another thread recently–how much to you look at the parcours when you sign up for a race? Are you better at climbing, better on the flats, etc? And so maybe able to do better if you choose the right races?
It’s a good point Tom. I’m 67kg so you’d think climbing races would be best for me, but there isn’t that many of them. Zwift tends to favour heavy riders with high FTP, rather than lighter riders with the same wkg. I’m not going to win too many sprints!
You’re a bit heavier than me Alex, but don’t be too surprised if a climbing race doesn’t present similar challenges. The runner-up in “Gerard’s” TFC MM event this week (low-C cat race a.k.a. “Middle-End” C) climbed the Epic KOM in 25’26" at an average of 328 W. At your weight you would need to be putting out close to 4.9 W/kg to compete with this (which would DQ you, even if you could manage it). And after that, you’ve got the fun of staying with (a pack of) heavy riders on the descent. All good fun
I’m in the same boat, was loving racing as a top C but decided I was approaching being a sandbagger so pushed on and am now a very low B (3.27wkg).
I’ve looked around for races that are a bit different or split pens alternate ways.
I’m a big fan of zwiftracing.app and have been on their discord since it launched. They now have their own events run by various teams using their ranking and data to split pens in interesting ways.
I’m currently racing a Tuesday night series run by VirtuSlo using 5min wkg to split the pens, it’s a mix of C and B riders and the racing is super close every week.
Zwiftinsider has had a couple of articles about it
I found this - Mad Monday – Team TFC - looks like they had a race yesterday so the next event is to be scheduled soon I would think. I don’t know anymore but would also race in the series but the timezone has never worked for me so don’t know the in’s and out’s of how they do things.
The “secret” invites (not sure if that’s the correct terminolgy) are sent out by the organizer, usually via team captains. The series has both individual and team rankings, so I guess you could enter without being a member of a team? You would have to approach the organizer to discuss.
I’d second this. I find that even being small, flatter races offer me the best chance to sit in the draft. You might feel tempted to try and share the work, but if there are people pushing 4 w/kg at front I’d say try and sit in the pack and enjoy the draft. From my experience cat B races are regularly won with ave w/kg of 3.5 ish. My ftp is nearer 3.9, so easy for me to say I appreciate, but as I mentioned in another thread, Zwift decided to move me up to Cat A this week. I’ve only done the one race, short and mainly flat with a couple of very short climbs. By not showing my face at the front, and sprinting on the climbs I was able to stay in the front group. I was ripped apart in the sprint, but I was genuinely surprised and delighted to be in a position to be ripped apart
I’ve spent many years running large 5Ks and 10Ks with no chance to win, so maybe that helps explain why I don’t care much about my ultimate placement in Zwift races. I get something out of a Zwift race if there is some group I can keep with until the end (when I’m often left in the dust because my sprint is nearly non-existent). That usually means choosing larger races or races where all categories start at the same time. (Does it suck a little to look at Zwiftpower and see my “group” was racing for the bottom positions? Sure, but the enjoyment of racing lasts longer than disappointment of seeing I finished 54th, rather than 5th.)
Hey Alex, we have just started the winter season, which consists of 9 races, every Monday.
If your team is already registered in the Mad Monday Series, you can ask your Team Captain for the join event links. These are ‘secret’ links, you won’t find the join button for our events on Zwiftpower or in the Zwift app. The great part about everyone linked to a team and a team captain is that sandbagging occurs less frequently, and we, as the event admin team, can ask the team captains for certain riders to race up a category once they have won many races. This way racing stays fun for everyone.
