Watts per mile 2

Racing
#1

Continuing the discussion from Watts per mile:

Yeah it’s a British Cycling weekly event.
I’ve changed it now to his real weight. It’s only our 3rd race and the first two were reading wrong as our smart rollers weren’t calibrated properly- Plus we found riding smart rollers against turbo and DD was killing him… brilliant work out but terrible for the conference.
I’ve added a stand to his elite Nero smart rollers now so he can concrete on putting the power down… 4th time lucky :joy::facepunch:t4::heart:
Thanks for your help.

Last point why aren’t people disqualified in zpower when over watts and w/kg??

#2

People are disqualified in zwiftpower if they go too far over the limits. They allow some wiggle room in the limits. However, I found the race you are referring to https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=857102 and the winner of D was at 4.4w/g which is weird BUT then I remembered that in zwiftpower the categories aren’t just on w/kg they are more complicated. https://www.zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=5372
I read this to mean to get pushed up to C, a cat D racer needs to have a 95% of 20 minute power of 150+ W, as well as 2.5w/kg (or maybe it is 2.6w/kg). So with the juniors having such low FTPs it would appear that zwiftpower isn’t very useful!

So to me it looks like he is in the wrong grade based on zwift but maybe in the correct grade based on zwiftpower? Looks like they may be aware of the problem and are working on making cat D better for the juniors https://www.zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=10576

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#3

If British Cycling are publishing the results on their website or using the results for a league table or something then I would be concerned, but it looks like they have just made a series of zwift events without worrying about the results.

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#4

It has a league but It’s not a real competition as such. I think mental health is really important and this can be affected by unrealistic results.
Personally I think racing is a fundamental part of cycling- that’s why strava exists and Zwift. Who hasn’t raced their mate to the lamp post.
The platform could be so much more.
We understand it’s a training tool that’s why my son has managed to return after some horrible results to start with. We were happy about this one but placing is everything to these kids so personally until Zwift fixes the race cat issue it is like having a race to the nearest lamppost when your mate is half way there. :rofl:
It’s all an education.
I believe BC is looking to use Zwift more in the future but may need to be very harsh on FTP and averages before they think of a race league.
This is just for fun but lots of the kids are feeling disappointed.

#5

Kids should be riding for fun. Competition can be fun but if kids aren’t wanting to ride because they are getting upset then maybe there is too much pressure on them or they have put too much pressure on themselves. Alex Dowsett did a recent YouTube video on his thoughts on what kids should be doing to go pro, I didn’t watch all of it (I’m not a kid, I’m never going pro and my kids aren’t interested) but he did seem to be pushing kids should be riding for fun not results mantra.

I’ve heard that a lot of kids burn out and lose a love for cycling during their teen/junior years.

Any organisation that wants to use zwift for a league or whatever should be looking at enforcing their own rules as well as zwiftpower’s/zwift’s.

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#6

Totally agree that’s why I’m trying to get rid of the disparity as much as possible. If we still have an unhappy racer once I’ve Exhausted All the adjustments I can do Zwift will go in the bin as it only equates to 10-15% of our rides… everything else is mtb, pump track and rides together. My aim is to get him use to using the tool without feeling demoralised so then it will become a useful tool in the winter.
Thanks again. Nice to chat to people about it that aren’t in the same boat as A new perspective offers a reassuring point of view.

#7

Honestly I would try to change expectations to see if he can actually start to enjoy zwift racing. Don’t view it as real racing view it as a potential to get higher quality training in while trying to cycle as fast as the pack you land yourself in. Try not to look at the overall results (really don’t compare outside results with inside results), it’s okay to end middle of the pack, if you got your workout in and you tried your best and you’re getting faster that’s all that matters - and please try to highlight this as much as possible as you’ve already mentioned being worried about mental health). Think about smaller goals like trying to beat the people who are near you the entire race, or trying to beat your own time, or get better at drafting.

By the time you get all the external factors sorted and he is riding faster he may even be bumped up to a new CAT (which is great!) but then all of the above applies all over again.

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