45 kg was early 2021. How time flies.
Ah. It’a 2023 now 
. Could you send a link to the Zwift Power Profile?
I do not know about ultra light riders but there is a clear pack descending problem. Lighter riders are getting bamboozled by even a meter of gap. Take a look at this, I am 65kg and was chasing at 6wkg for 2 mins. Still gapped by 30 riders averaging half that:
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this is very well known and actively being worked on with pack dynamics 4
I’m not the only one then clearly there’s something majorly wrong
I don’t really like to talk about individuals- but as someone who has worked in sport and seen the obsession some people have with excessive exercise to lose excessive unnecessary weight I would say very worrying and not hilarious.
I really not am having a go at you but I am concerned that we are talking about a young adult with little or no regard for his well-being.
Zwift may have an issue, or not, with their lightweight rider calculations but I do wish we could move the topic away from a specific, possibly vulnerable, individual.
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Point well taken, thanks. Comment edited. Surely it is a false weight? It’s physically impossible for that size person to produce that type of power for that duration so hopefully there is no true health/life threatening problem going on.
I live in Pacific Northwest. These are XC races. A typical race lap will have 2-300 meters of elevation gain on 6-7km loop, usually blue and black trails and a small section of fire road to spread out the pack. Even in the expert level there are U14’s placing in the top 10 of 50 riders. The kids around here are pretty impressive, Enduro and XC.
We have only really been biking since 2020 (Covid bikers). But even with 2 years of biking it is amazing what kids can do. He completed a 12 hour race this summer and placed 3rd in U19 category. Completing 107 km and 2316 m elevation gain, nearly an Uber Pretzel on blue/black trails.
Lets remember, it is just a game, useful for staying in shape in training when the weather is crap or you don’t have time.
If we are going to complain about unrealistic performance/game physics of light riders, what about taking corners down the alp doing 90km/hr?
So spot on? 
But it look like you got dropped on the climb, you were 1second behind before the downhill section started. You had zero draft going down, not even a 100kg guy would be able to hold on to a big bunch like that without draft.
You were 10 seconds faster downhill that Howell (90kg).
You did impressive work going downhill, if you did that work over the top you could have soft pedaled downhill in the bunch.
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I hope the Midwest gets there someday.
Your son definitely has the exposure and background to be an excellent cyclist.
Since I’m almost 60, I wish there were more kids besting me but MTB in that age group are few.
I agree, Zwift needs to address light wt rides in a realistic fashion.
I got that 1 sec gap on top fair and square. Problem is bunch opened up 8 more seconds despite supertucking/softpedaling against my 6wkg. We all agree on this problem so I am not making any point other than look at that bugger go.
Also my sympathies to very light riders who get spit out despite being in the bunch!!
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Downhill w/kg mean nothing even less than on a flat road. You could not see the front of the big bunch they could be alternating efforts of 300w. Being in a big bunch is the key to survival.
On the previous downhill you were able to close the gap because you had a bunch of riders with you.
Look at Miller 88kg on that first downhill (5:10 in the vid) he goes to the front 4.9w/kg (430w) about the same power as what you were doing but then he super tuck and you pass him doing 305w. So 23kg weight difference is still not enough so that he can supertuck downhill.
I am excited that Zwift are working on pack dynamics as I think there is room for improvement.
Not really 150W vs 179W 
Ramping up to a high sustained power level alone won’t get you there. Next time try spiking your power with an all out 5-60 second effort - whatever you need - to get into the tail end of the group draft. Then you can settle in for your sustained effort and make the catch. For relatively light riders it’s a harder effort in Zwift than in real life but it’s still doable but you need to get into the tail of the draft right away with whatever sprint you got or you’re toast. I’m anywhere from 61kg-64kg so best thing effort management wise is leading or staying with the pack instead of getting gapped. More so for lighter riders for sure. The hoped for PD4 churn reduction should help.
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181w v 179w?
Oh, yes. The calculators are about the same in this case. It is still a 30W increase from what is required to ride at that speed in Zwift.
Gang - a reminder that cheating accusations on this forum are not allowed to protect both the accused and the accuser. As such, posts in this thread that point the finger at suspects have been removed.
The OP of this thread has been left up because this thread has worthwhile discussion that’s in bounds of the rules. Please refrain from calling out cheating suspects on this forum and do it instead offline. Here’s the how-to.
I wasn’t calling out the rider. I was merely using the unrealistic performance to demonstrate the child weight/performance issue.
I think you’ll find that many will agree, that following your how to directions will lead to no action.
As a perfect example, has the rider in this very discussion been contacted?
We have a CS team that looks at every report and takes appropriate action. What we DON’T do is communicate what those actions are to the accuser.
We know it would be satisfying to hear that we took X action as a result of your report - we are obliged to protect the privacy of the accused and the accuser. So we get that this appears as “no action” on the accuser’s end, but it’s not that way for the accused.