Herd runs them, just not now - Herd Winter Racing. Last one I raced I got a ZRS increase despite being a mid-to-good C rider. (was 430-ish then, 444 now)
I think this is a problem with ZRS score adjustment behavior, not with the race format.
I’ve no idea if racers are simply being honest and joining pen D of the Tiny Races after their Racing Score has gone above the pen E threshold of 230…
Or has the longstanding problem of Racing Score adjustments and consequent pen exclusion before the next Tiny Race finally been fixed?
For example, Andy Willis won pen E Tiny Race 1 at 1600 BST (at least from Zwiftpower registered racers) and his score increased to 237. He’s currently racing pen D Tiny Race 2.
Incidentally, ZWIFT ZRS v3 by VirtuSlo says after his performance a few days ago of 270W at 83Kg for 5mins, his 100% seed score is 281.
It’s been written so many times, that the Zwift software should simply disallow significant height and weight changes.
I’d limit height decreases to approx 1cm per year for anyone over approx 21 years old (I discovered I was no longer 178cm and I’m now 177cm aged 51).
As for weight changes, for men I’d limit changes to 1Kg at a time every 24+ hours.
For riders doing extreme changes like your example, I hope any power records that would lower their seed score are ignored by this diabolical Racing Score system.
I like the ZRS. For me it’s a bit like a golf handicapping system, it’s a good measure of where your at. Far better than just using average watts/kg categories which are such a blunt instrument. Agree that a bit of transparency over changes over time might be good but not super essential, people would just move on to critiquing the calculation. For me I know when I’ve raced well or badly and this nearly always gets reflected in a RS change.
Score history trending might be nice but then I track this sort of stuff in a spreadsheet.
PS Not related to RS but I don’t think height should be a factor in determining speed. Weight and power I can do something to improve, I can’t influence my height.
With Racing Score, you could have the best performance race of the week or your life, but still get a Racing Score decrease because you finished in the lower half of your pen even though everyone who finished above you were always stronger racers that should finish ahead of you.
Yes, your seed score might increase in above example by setting a new 5min best which might maintain or even increase your Racing Score, but equally in a race with only a few in your pen you might still get a net Racing Score decrease because of your finish position.
Racing Score is nothing like a golf handicap system IMO, because Racing Score is affected by where you finish in your start pen regardless of relative ability, while your golf handicap is simply based on how many shots it takes you to complete the course (what others do has no affect as far as I’m aware).
There are so many racers racing at least one pen below their true ability in Racing Score, because ZRS can drop 15% below their ability seed score metric (5mins effort at a given weight) through results, rather than using 100% seed score as the minimum possible ZRS.
With a 5min effort of 260W at 96Kg, ZWIFT ZRS v3 by VirtuSlo says my 100% seed score should be 207, which puts me just 3 points under the threshold for “range 2” pen E Zmonthly races if I ever did one.
But my ZRS has been approx 170-182 for months, while competing almost exclusively in Tiny Races pen E, which has a threshold ZRS of 230… Where I’m potentially and often competing against others who have a 100% seed score of up to 270, so on a 5min climb I’m doing 2.7W/Kg against others who can do ~3.25W/Kg (eg. 244W at 75Kg).
Under Category Enforcement (usually a 4 pen system), doing 3.25W/Kg for 5mins in pen D would seriously risk a ZMAP promotion to pen C, but under ZRS they can do this with no risk in pen E of a 5 pen system because of the 85% seed score ZRS floor.
Purely as an example, Andy Willis came 2nd in pen E Tiny Race 1 in zone 2 on Saturday and then got a pen promotion. He did 270W at 83Kg last week, so his 100% seed score is 281 (solid Tiny Races pen D). He was then solidly mid pack of the zwiftpower finishers in pen D for races 2-4 inclusive.