While that is true of course, it is still hard to comment without the rider and race information.
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So with reverse calculation he is 62kg if that 471 is correct.
But looking at the screenshot he isnt putting out that much watts in compaired to the others in the race. And Scotland is still a map where you can power your way up those short bumps in the road and where w/kg dont matter much.
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I did that course yesterday in lower range Cat D and came 1st and that rider is nearly 4 minutes quicker, he is only 3 seconds slower than the winner of the Cat A pen in my race.
ITT specialist I guess!?!?
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I was 10 seconds slower than the winning A rider in my timeslot in my C race.
But now I am curious as … so what race was this ? Just give the timeslot it was and I have a look myself.
My race was 1510 yesterday.
I meant the one from the screenshot David posted.
Here’s a (new?) tactic to try, if you think someone is joining a race/TT to drop their score enough to drop to a lower pen for an upcoming event…
Sign up to their pen. Get your mates to do the same. Maybe even sign up to their pen with some burner accounts.
More signups, who don’t have to take part in event or even finish, reduce the score changes for those that take part.
How bonkers is that? 
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You just created the spam all race sign in! If we start seeing 1000 riders per pen and 5 riders racing, we will call it the Steve!
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No idea when that was.
Yesterday I did a TT to warm up(tank score) and there were riders parked up at the side of the road half way into the TT so I stopped as well, I ended up only putting out an average 150 watts and my score stayed the same even though I was 2nd last, will join a higher cat next time.
Perhaps Zwift should program that everyone who joins a cat higher can not drop in ZRS.
I dont think preventing people from actually joining a higher cat is the solution, but preventing them from tanking their score might be a good alternative.
That is if Zwift is actually improving ZRS still. Havent heard from them at all concerning ZRS in 2025 I believe.
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If we had a vELO system, you would be expected to come last if racing in a higher pen, so your score wouldn’t change, unless you beat people you shouldn’t have and then you would get an increase.
All this get a Racing Score increase for simply finishing in the top ~55% regardless of their relative ability is such a poor, bonkers system… That took almost a year from the diabolical original results system proposed in summer '23!
The bonkersness of Racing Score gets worse when result score changes can happen with just two racers in a pen finishing and smaller fields give bigger score changes!!
And then people who signup to a pen but don’t actually take part are added to the field size to calculate score changes!!!
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18:10 yesterday uk time. Not that you will find winner details on ZP as he hasn’t bothered signing up to ZP this time and is now V Watopian in Review.
Zwift now quite quick to pick up this particular racer but would be useful if Zwift also moved quickly to ensure new 5 min pb resulted in a move to Seed.
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what was the Group size of the A group vs the Group size of C.?
Only 9 in the A group but the rider matching the time was in Cat D not C.
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Yeah, that looks a bit fishy to say the least.
He didnt have a HRM
Level 25 with only 137km total
Following 0, Followers 0
Pace group B
Only thing that is noticable is that it is a new acount which is most likely causing his ZRS to be way off since Zwift really hasent found a way to deal with that since his/her first activity is only 5 days ago and by the looks of it he/she didnt have to really push in earlier activities. So this ‘wrong’ score is caused by Zwift just didnt have acurate data.
Why he/she only moved up from 294 to 303 after this performance is a mystery to me though.
But if I had to guess he/she is either young and/or lightweight since the watts being put out arent that impressive and the ZRS calculation only acounts the watts and not w/kg.
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Why does 65 get used a lot in that equation, I wonder, given 75Kg is surely closer to the typical weight of a rider?
Interestingly, plugging 240 and 75Kg into that calculator gives 260 (Tiny Races pen E theoretical limit), which is 3.2W/Kg for 5mins.
The problem is, because your Racing Score can drop 15% below your seed score, a similar 75Kg rider with a seed score of 305 could tank their Racing Score to just under 260… Which would be from doing 260W for 5mins (3.47W/Kg).
Similarly, a 240W 75Kg (3.2W/Kg for 5mins) rider can drop their Racing Score to 221.
@Eric_Schlange_ZwftIn , IMO Tiny Races pen ranges need tweaking more, reducing pen E to approx 225.
sorry, no idea. I just found the formula in that websites source.
The racing score does not relate meaningfully to “racing” craft.
Three key failures;
- There is limited motivation to hit 700+ ZRS because racing will become very hard to find/enter.
- The gain from a win or podium is not meaningful.
- If you are initially seeded low you will stay there, with no need to hit peak power to win.
Since I was locked out of racing, I created a second account with a 5kg weight penalty. I was seeded at 430 zrs. 6 races, 3 wins, 6 top 5’s (top 20%). I went up to 540 zrs.
I don’t reach close to my peak power because I can chill in the draft better than most riders. I assumed winning would upgrade me… it barely nudged the score. There is no connection between “Racecraft” and score.
The other thing I have noticed is that I’m not alone, the lower cats are full of second accounts or weight penalties/sandbaggers. If you make an attack they will follow easily, but will otherwise sit in. Anyway, it’s not fun, and I decided to start racing on other platforms instead while we wait for Zwift to realize they killed racing.
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