Sanbagging/Cruising

I’m one of those riders! I don’t drop too much… He was upgraded to A cat though

I suspect it might not but as the op says if his HR is significant below previous max efforts i would probably agree he is just cruising for wins. So much of it going on it’s not really a rider issues. Zwift need to fix it.

1 Like

I think he knows what he’s doing, he’s level 50!!!

1 Like

Heavily edited your post for clarity, lol. I’m curious about that particular part–not saying I disagree, but I’m curious about what the specific arguments are. Obviously someone tearing a$$ off the front and blowing things up is bad. Someone entering a lower cat race and hanging off the back the whole time, all the way across the line (not even sprinting for the win at the end, maybe finishing dead last), seems less bad. I’ve never considered that someone might do that, but what would the negative effects of that be?

It’s very hard to do without effecting a race.

example. You are holding last wheel not to effect things and the rider in front starts to lose the wheel of the blob. Do you fall back with him and lose the blob for the rest of the race. unlikely

You are more likely to pass them giving them draft as you do which in turn helps them back to the blob.

Add to that it’s quite hard to be consistently be the last wheel in a group there is always churn with the smaller the group the more impact you have.

If you actually say joined a race and started 30 seconds after everyone and stayed back nobody is going to do that.

4 Likes

That makes perfect sense. I’ve been trying to think of why someone would even do that–sit on the back all the way, even at the finish. The best I could think of was some parent wanting to ride in the same race as their kid for psychological support :smiley: I could maybe imagine that person being very careful to sit way off the back and avoid what you’re talking about. But even then the chances of affecting things would be high, and who does that anyway, and best to just not have anyone do it. But that all makes sense, I wasn’t sure what precisely the negative effects would be.

1 Like

Here’s the HR data for the individual…

One anomoly is a group ride, the rest are races.

Also, his weight also went up to 80kg when he joined C.

Checking his Strava, his activity was very high throughout the summer, highly unlikely that he’s put on the weight!

One thing I must say is that this is very rare now, compared to last year… I’m especially annoyed though because of the number of people that quit.

I totally agree with what Gordon said above… A parent giving support…that’s a worthy case to consider. I would also consider people coaching others as to how to race or use the course to the greatest effect. On the inverse side of that I’d be ticked if I was going full gas in a race, doing all I can and someone is floating around changing the pack dynamics due to the simple fact they’re there.
There are other ways of doing this without having to race in anything other than your category.

Appreciate that answer :slight_smile: There probably would be other ways to do this, yeah. At least if you’re in the same room. But you could even just be on Discord, or fan viewing the race at that point.

I wasn’t thinking of people actually being in the pack to change the dynamics. If you’re a cat or two higher, you should be able to float around just behind the pack if you were to want to do this. Someone tagging on 20m behind the pack was what I was thinking of. But even then, I don’t think that sort of behavior is needed by any means.

Always worth the conversation I think. And conversations to hash stuff out are what we need to get to the bottom of things

3 Likes

This is quite common,me & my team mates passed what we thought was a dropped rider in a TTT, it turned out he also was a higher cat rider (B) who towed his C cat riders for the first two laps at 4 wk/g then quit the race before the end on purpose. Needless to say, they just beat us into second place as they struggled on the last lap without him.My team captain contacted the club that we’re holding these races with our concerns, he said there was nothing he could do as it was up to Zwift to control this. I find it pointless to ride these races now as he continues to do this…

4 Likes

Which team was it? Post their name here if they’re sandbagging. (EDIT: don’t do this.)

Contact Zwift support to complain about cheaters

1 Like

I would avoid doing that if at all possible, that just creates strife for everyone. It’s far better to go through official channels and be patient. I know this can take longer but it’s less likely to generate a bunch of negativity in the community.

1 Like

Yeah, fair point. Don’t do what I said. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Weaponising the flagging system…

Surely the club can kick out the rider or withdraw and leave that rider on their own to do solo races?

I avoid virtual racing to be honest. Reading things like that, sticky watts and similar, no motivation.

Weaponosing?

Dont you mean, “using”

1 Like

Just been reading his chat on Strava… He knows he’s cheating, he’s laughing about it. Has decided that he’s going to race B in the ZRL so will drop his weight back down so he can compete!!!

But, on that, ZRL this evening at 19:32, some bloke has put on 3 stone (20ish kg) in just 2/3 weeks!!!