If the idea is to push people towards zwift.com to view race results & race score +|- please please can someone review the user experience on that page…
So many clicks to see information and wasted space, it’s absolutely shocking.
Atleast zwiftpower lets you see everything in a single window.
I get this. There are two cohorts on Zwift. The first is genuinely interested in fair racing and would like to see their results ranked according to their efforts. The second wants to massage their results for the sake of occasional, but false, glory.
Yes, but this is why I’d like to see an answer to my question upthread – are the racing score ranges fixed per category, or any organizer can move the range cutoff scores any time they feel like it? Or again, like for CE, to do custom categories there is a required full intervention by the Zwift events team to do so?
If organizers can move the goal posts any way they want, this would go a long way to stop gaming one’s placement precisely at the top of a category, since that ‘top’ could and would constantly get redefined.
Hopefully race organisers can also use a rolling window maximum score, like the ZRapp 30 day maximum vELO, for enforcement. This would make it much harder for someone to manipulate their race results to drop into a lower category for their targeted race.
We’ve built the category ranges to be customizable per event. We’re using this test period to gather data and determine our long term plan for how we approach the category ranges.
I sometimes quit races intentionally as part of my training strategy. After taking a break, I use races to get back into shape. My approach is to push hard with the front group until I can’t keep up anymore, often resulting in not finishing the race. It typically takes a few events before I can complete an entire race as I rebuild my fitness.
There are also times when personal factors come into play. Bad sleep, cold, long work hours, or other stressors can affect my performance. Despite these challenges, I still want to exercise, and racing motivates me to do so. On days when the pace feels too intense, I might quit to avoid putting excessive stress on my body. It’s worth noting that some of us race on Zwift frequently, even daily, which naturally leads to some off days.
These DNFs results shouldn’t impact my standing as a racer. Specifically, my ZRS score shouldn’t decrease because of them. If I were demoted to a lower category due to these DNFs, I’d simply end up in races with easier competition. I would likely quickly return to the ZRS level that matches my actual abilities, making the whole process pointless.
This raises the question: why should DNFs matter in the scoring system? In my opinion, they shouldn’t count towards the ZRS. The same argument applies to DNFs caused by disconnections. A racer’s abilities haven’t changed just because they dropped out, regardless of whether it was intentional or due to technical issues.
Race till your die as they say then soft peddle home no DNF needed DNF are like throwing your teddy. But that how I look at it.
Thanks for the comments on the DNF concerns. We’ve designed the system to be configurable in handling DNFs, allowing us to make adjustments based on our findings from testing. We also have a great benchmark with ZRA (Thanks @TimHanson !!) There will definitely be some tweaking as we learn more.
My point is that a DNF in Zwift is not the same as a DNF in a race outside. There is nothing at stake. You are just a NN in the crowd that is doing your thing because of your reasons.
@Philip_Procter That is your take on it. I guess my take on it is just as valid.
I don’t think the negative attitude some people have to people who DNF is fair.
If you get dropped in a Zwift race what incentive is there to ride around an unpopulated world by yourself?
There are lots of more attractive options (pace partners, group ride, new race, work out) that would be a more enjoyable use of your time, so why wouldn’t you hop onto one of those?
Saying that, I do think a DNF should count towards your score, ranking you behind all those who finish.
That’s good news! How will the community race organizers access this data as well when they want to set their own ranges? Maybe something like a published percentage of zwifters at each racing score number?
If you want to quit intentionally, there are many robopacers you can do that to.
That doesn’t sound like racing
Its not very fair to people who are light enough to be better climbers than roullers, as you would end up getting 0 increase, when all the dropped people DNF, while you end up losing the same amount on your score in a flat race regardless of whether you were dropped or just finished 0.01 seconds behind a sprinter (i.e hypothetically if I was to race on Zwift using ZRS, my policy in flat races might change to DNFing if I don’t have a hope in a flat sprint on a flat route)
Maybe they can put some UI to indicate folks who DNF a lot (whether it’s bad connection, likely to be interrupted, or just give up etc) to let folks know they might not be there the whole race. Not wanting that UI on yourself might be incentive to not DNF a race maybe?
@SeattleSauve i think you mean HUD not the ui, not the same same.
You can call it what you want. It doesn’t change anything. I call it racing since it is a race.
An alternative approach to addressing frequent DNFs within a certain period could be to impose a temporary ban on riders from participating in races. This measure could prove to be effective.
The thing with that is that Zwift don’t like to ban as a ban could lose them £17.99pm
Yeah that wouldn’t kick up any negative press would it