What is totally missed in this discussion is the intent of 95% of 20min was to have people race according to their FTP. So everyone would do a FTP test and then race in that category.
But it has become a sandbagger competition where racers avoid upgrades or FTP detection.
It was a lot more fun when honest racers would just join the pen according to their FTP.
Now we need all kinds of checks to try and detect the racer FTP.
Oh please… The assertion that sub 20 racing does not exist IRL was made… and is patently wrong.
Sandbagging and cruising have never been illegal practices IRL. It is normal to the highest levels of competition.
The assertion that the riders are somehow being dishonest is also wrong. It is the system, ie Zwift that is (still) broken.
That might be the initial intent, but from what I can see the way people actually use it is they look at the letter next to their name and go into that category regardless of FTP tests or not. Then they complain when CE puts them in a cat above. They don’t say “oh I should ignore this average of 3 because my FTP test put me at x w/kg” and then self select into B. The FTP test doesn’t even show up on average in ZP even if they did one in Zwift so I understand why folks just go by the letter on ZP.
Why if a rider manipulate his power to stay at the top of the category then it’s unsporting and ruins it for everyone else.
Now they just race so they don’t get caught and get upgraded.
The good thing with CE is it use more than just just 20min power.
Yes I’m pointing out what the intent was.
If I know my FTP put me in B then I will enter B even if ZP doesn’t have enough data and think I am a C.
Now that is a prime example of dishonest behaviour. You cherry picked my post and changed the context of that statement. The reason was there in the original.
If using your FTP actually was the intent, why did they go for an average of 3, and not 95% of your best 20mins? Surely if you hit 20min PB in any race that wasn’t specifically an exactly 20min TT effort your FTP is likely more than 95% of that singular 20min effort anyhow.
I answered that part of your post, no I’ll intent.
ZP gave riders a bit of leeway, that is how ZP evolved from up lining up at a pre determined spot in watopia and someone would count down from 3 and off we went.
The thing I think a lot of people miss is that, sure, yes it’s unsporting if they regularly destroy the field and pick up podiums or majorly affect how the race is ridden. But…
There’s a whole load of mid-table people who don’t happen to have a convenient super-heavy or super-light weight, whose 95% W/kg puts them right at the top of category without them being in any danger of spoiling other people’s races or getting a top 10. It really isn’t as black and white as people make out.
Call someone a sandbagger when they’re spoiling other people’s races by obviously racing below Cat. Not when their arbitrarily chosen inappropriately crappy number gets close to a particular limit.
Yes there is lots of honest racers, but there is just as many that use many creative ways to stay at the top.
FTP, taken as 95% of 20min was used because pretty much every cyclist understands FTP and there is thousands and thousands of blog posts, podcasts, and literature on the concept. that’s pretty much it. i do remember the developer working on some kind of compound score type category system involving 1, 5 and 20min at the time it was taken over by zwift, that’s probably disappeared into the ether by now though.
Yes that is true too. I think more should be made of heart rate data. There was a guy in C cat ZRL (in a different division) this week who took gold with an average HR of 71% of his recent Max. That’s Zone 2 
Top 20 average in our division was 86.6% Z4 and the minimum was 82% (high Z3) which is more like what you’d expect.
And so when I clarify that I was talking about road racing, you’d just rather demand that I was talking about track instead, and you’d rather get into a fight about it and ‘prove me wrong’ rather than paying attention to what my point is. Okay. Have fun, I’m out.
Oh wait. Lol. You’re the one who launched some bizarre personal attack against me when I was talking about tire pressure before. Lol. This is just a tantrum, okay. Understood.
I’ve never made a personal attack against you. Now I only see you deflecting when your assertion is challenged.
Okay 
.
You don’t have to spend long on the forums to realise there are lots of ways of cheating…
Zwift could be better but the levels of integrity of the participants is poor.