All of the current categories, for men and for women, are too wide. A “D” rider at 2.50 w/kg moving into “C” stands no chance of competing against riders at 3.19 w/kg. Even worse for a “C” rider moving into “B” and trying to hold onto riders capable of maintaining 3.99 w/kg. 0.79 w/kg is a massive jump.
Hopefully tools are coming that will allow race organizers to define their own category metrics, and everybody can find a race where they can be competitive.
alice is spot on though… the 20 min baseline doesn’t do women any favours because the real difference between male and female physiology is anaerobic capacity. it starts to become really obvious at the top of B because the fastest B riders can do a 9wkg minute (not unheard of in women’s cycling, but very rare at the elite level) yet are only capable of an FTP in the low 4s. and of course with a higher anaerobic ceiling comes the ability to repeat efforts at a high intensity more often too
with that said, most male cyclists are allergic to barbells, and the ones that aren’t are generally allergic to long climbs, so i think unless you want to or are forced to race as cat A mixed as a woman then you can do just fine
This is now an old chat but I just found it… I don’t really care if it’s mixed- actually I like the challenge of it being a mixed race. I totally feel what was said above- that on a hill the women will be the same but if there’s a flat of 10km before the hill starts, then men will arrive at the hill faster. I tend to choose races based on higher elevation. As soon as it goes uphill, I’m leaving most people behind. As soon as it gets flat or downhill I stand no chance against the male riders. I only weigh 52kg but o have a FTP of 3,3. What I think would encourage females to race more in mixed races, if the final ranking would actually be split into males and females. I raced today and was 25th from 40. But it doesn’t mean anything to me, because I know I have no chance on the flat against a man with the same FTP. So, yeah, I don’t even need more categories- but have a ranking for women separately in each race. I mean when I race outdoors, we all race mixed and the ranking is split by gender in the end. Why can’t Zwift do that?