Remove Z-Power from leaderboards…

Feature Requests
1

Remove Z-Power riders from leaderboards, jerseys, climbs, KOM/QOMs and segment rankings

I would like to suggest that Z-Power riders should be excluded from all relevant competitive rankings: leaderboards, sprint and mountain jerseys, climbs, KOM/QOM standings, segments and similar competition-based formats.

Z-Power used to be a reasonable temporary solution when smart trainers and power meters were less common. Today, however, this form of estimated power is no longer appropriate for competitive or publicly visible rankings. Anyone appearing in official or visible rankings should record their power with a power meter or an accurately measuring smart trainer.

The issue is especially visible with jersey hunters and segment chasers. Z-Power riders sometimes achieve power numbers, gaps or times that are far beyond what the following riders with measured power can produce. This distorts leaderboards, blocks jerseys and makes fair comparisons impossible. For riders using power-meter-based data, this is frustrating because they are competing against values that are not based on real power measurement.

This is not about excluding Z-Power users from Zwift entirely. They should still be able to ride, train and take part in suitable events. But for competitive or publicly visible rankings, only verifiable power data should count.

A reasonable approach would be:

Z-Power remains allowed for free riding and training
Z-Power is removed from all leaderboards
Z-Power cannot win sprint, mountain or leader jerseys
Z-Power does not count for KOM/QOM, climb or segment rankings
Events and competitions with a ranking component require a power meter or smart trainer

This would make rankings fairer, more credible and more up to date. Zwift has evolved technically, and the rules for visible performance should reflect that.

2

not really, plenty of people out there are cheating using power meters and smart trainers… the focus should be on unusual power/performance/speed regardless of the trainer or equipment used.

3

Should also remove QZ App users from them as well then. And height changes and weight changes and so on and so forth

4

I’m not saying that Z-Power values or users are cheating. Most of them probably don’t even know that their values are inaccurate.

Many years ago, when I tried Zwift with a Tacx Flow rear-wheel trainer, it was possible to overdrive the trainer so much that the watt values climbed almost endlessly, while the trainer was no longer providing any real resistance.

I think situations like that are exactly what this should help prevent. People who want to cheat will always exist. I don’t think there is a final solution for that.

Every year or every two years, requests appear in the forum for a separate leaderboard for Z-Power. Unfortunately, nothing seems to happen from Zwift’s side. So, roughly two years after the last post on this topic, here is another small nudge.

5

A separate leaderboard would be okay.

But dealing with dubious performances doesn’t seem to be a priority. It just gets a typical “investigating” comment but the reported riders keep doing the same thing daily.

At the moment there is a runner on ADZ daily doing total 900km per week running at 3:20/km or better pace. it has been reported numerous times and it is still there. Second lap today was going 2:43/km at the top.

It isn’t though. Unless everyone starts making an enormous fuss about it then it’s unlikely anything will ever get done. It will take races being wrecked before people start making noise to get this fixed. And then probably only for racing and “let them ruin leaderboards and KOMs/QOMs”.