I’m at 641 racing score. I do not mind racing with fast people and would happy to have a 650-1000 race. BUT: They happen way too infrequently.
Zwift racing is a fun way to get a workout in. I pay for Zwift precisely for access to races that fit into my life. Zwift is supposed to fit into my life, I am not supposed to make my life fit to Zwift.
I fully understand that numbers in the high categories are low, but there should be at least one race available every hour for every person who is on Zwift. I definitely see the issue (as I have raised myself many times) of having 15 different events in the same hour each with 3 people signing up, but you have to have at least one. You can’t have none.
So now the incentive is to purposefully sandbag in races or I’m going to lose access to racing. That’s a dumb incentive to have built in. If I end up losing access to racing because the only races available are Advanced Races, Zwift will suddenly have become worthless to me. I cannot emphasize this enough: I don’t care about free riding, I don’t care about the world, I don’t care about anything other than races, and that is why I pay Zwift, so that whenever I want, I can jump on and race. As a father of four I need Zwift to be as flexible as possible and not require me to plan in advance when I’m racing. That doesn’t work with four small children.
I feel pretty much the same way. Weekends or days off are the only option. Zero races available all evening in my time zone.
Too many layers/variables to make online racing viable… at least live racing. Ability (A/B/C/D), flat vs hilly, time zone, duration, etc. Almost impossible to generate a critical mass at every level. Race event options are currently almost exclusively aimed at the widest market - entry level(s), flat, relatively short, certain time zones. Other options are too sparse to justify a membership at this time.
I would be ok with having the option to race against “historical” opponents (e.g. Rouvy). If the data exists, which it seems to, then a person could race any event at any time and compete against historical riders.
Yeah, it’s sad, because I love Zwift and use it pretty dang religiously all winter. I just did the FRR, which was awesome. But if I Zwift won’t let me race, I’m going to have to change platforms. Yes it would suck if the Advanced race only had 5 racers in it. But it sucks a heck of a lot less than having no race available at all.
I’d love for someone or a club to oragnise something similar to the old SZR(?) TT events that were on Sunday mid afternoons GMT 2+ years ago, which had ~6 short stages back to back, that were anywhere from 1-20mins long.
SZR or whichever club it was alternated between open and women only each Sunday.
It doesn’t have to be simply TT bikes, just make a no drafting race, give everyone at least in the the same pen the same frame and wheels.
Wish I’d known about this weekend’s Herd Omnium in advance, stages 4-6 start at 1800 GMT today.
It does seem especially bad for people at that level. This is not the first person who is asking for any race but faced with no race. I am not at that level but I consider a 30 minute race mostly a waste of time so I’m simply racing less now. Thankfully I can do TdZ long routes over and over but that gets dull as well. (At least I have that choice.)
Ok, but his ZRS is 641, so he has (now) the option to race each hour. If everyone wants Zwift to fit in his life, there will be some users who want a ITT, hilly race, etc… each hour - and that is imho not possible.
Right now I’m happy. I’m just worried for the future.
It is not too much to ask for Zwift to provide one race per hour. If nobody signs up it’s the same as having no race so it’s neutral. If a few people sign up then it is obviously better than having no race since those people at least got something. There is no downside here. Only upside.
Although honestly I wish Zwift would just give me the ability to race some bots like the other platforms do. Then everyone could have on demand racing for whatever race type they want.
I agree that zwift should be providing one race per hour that everyone could enter.
Splitting out the advanced pen during peak hours is great, and it makes the regular pens much more competitive. But for the hours when there is no advanced pen I think different ranges should be used to cover the whole score range.
The additional problem is that the advanced pen races are typically at the same times that are well supported by community organisers, at other times of the day zRacing is the only option for multiple hours.
People are being locked out of all racing because their score gets slightly too high. And the cut-off score for that to be happening is too low, particularly with the quirk of score movements being bigger in smaller fields.
This is a great suggestion. If there really aren’t enough 650+ to sustain a race that hours then they won’t be seriously negatively affecting the A pen race. Just let the pen be 510-1000. If the random 980 ZRS person is in there so what? At least they get to race.
Um, yeah, no. Back in the day before CE it was the Wild West on Zwift and anybody could join any race so we would have A&B riders joining C&D pens and blowing up the event from the gun so it wasn’t a race at all. Some of the C&D racers could hang with the faster racers for a bit longer than others (better 1-5 minute power and all that) and would drop the Diesels (me, in particular) so it would end up being a hour long ride in one of the grupettos. Sucked. CE changed that and V1 of ZRS made in better IMHO. Letting A+ racers into essentially B pen races isn’t going to solve that problem.
Zwift needs to do a better job of race scheduling. Take a look at the WTRL events. They have a bunch of them in the middle of the day, US west coast time, spaced out 5-15 minutes. There are no start times between 4am and 9am Pacific time. None. I like to race at 6am but there isn’t a WTRL start time so I don’t do any of their events. Makes no sense. Some of the other race series do the same thing. Zwift needs to require race schedules to support an even spread of times. It could be done…
I’ve been racing Zwift since before CE as well. Nobody is suggesting A+ racers be let in with the Cs and Ds.
But as a CE B racer myself, I’ve raced plenty of mixed category races with As pushing the pace and you do get the occasional A+. And you know what? It’s no big deal. They can sometimes make the front of the race hard, but so what?
And I just looked at the Advanced Category race this hour. A lot of people signed up there are strong Bs by CE category and with a 700-800 racing score. There are more than enough people at that level to justify for races.
Frankly, if you aren’t one of the people who is looking at possibly not having any races available, then you really shouldn’t be chiming in. You have plenty of races to choose from. I’m just asking for one per hour.
@John_Bowers Go back and read my second paragraph. Just because you have enough punch to race with an A+ Zwifter doesn’t mean every other B cat racer can and/or wants to do that. My main point here is that Zwift HQ needs to prioritize better race start times. Having 650 and up racers left with unmanageable event schedule is … not smart, IMHO…
I had my score increase recently. Always race around 8 or 9 PM CET. Never cared much for ZRacing (very short) but at least people are in those races. However, to my dismay both races excluded above 650 and 700 respectively.
As a result joined a race with just five others in cat A (of which one was actually a D rider). Only four on ZP. I end third but ZRS increased with 12 points. Probably due to podium bonus? However, that increase is enormous. Podium bonus also does not make sense as finishing higher up should result in gaining more points already.
Anyway, we now have a situation with very few races. The random races that do accomodatie higher ZRS are very poorly attended and as a result one gets a large increase. Neither makes sense. I don’t mind racing in A despite my lack of aerobic prowess but fields are dismal and all changes in recent times seem to make that worse going forward.
Racing seems to be spiralling downward rather than upwards but probably I’m biased… Anyway, selfishly it’s less fun for me. Racing kept me moving but without proper races there is no point to Zwift.
Yes, since I first posted this my racing score has gone up to around 650-660 (I forget where it is at the moment). I wanted to race tonight at 9pm, which was a standard time for me to race last winter on a Thursday night, but I can’t enter a race.
It’s very frustrating because I’ve personally sung Zwift’s praises to other people, got friends on the platform, and raced pretty religiously each winter for several years. I’ve also defended the ZRS concept (which I think is a good idea, PROVIDED you actually let people race). And Zwift is basically telling me they don’t want me on the platform. I’m not elite. Not even close. And I just want ONE race I can jump into in a given hour because other people will also join if they bother to provide it. But instead I’m no longer allowed to race at the times that work with my schedule.
I am beyond frustrated right now. I’m holding out hope that Zwift fixes this pretty much immediately, but for the first time I’m seriously looking at the Zwift rivals. Which sucks, because I’d rather be Zwifting.
Oh, and I first had my racing score go up above 650 after a race with 4 people in it. I got 3rd, and because the 4th guy was slightly higher than me, I guess, it bumped me up by +12.
I’ve increasingly had the same thought lately as a low-ranked “Advanced” racer (score 717). Not because I want to, and not because I mind being pack fodder, but because there are so few racing opportunities at typical riding times in the PST time zone since the transition. Despite complaints, Zwift has seemed unresponsive, and my activities have gone to include 2-3 races per week down to 2 over the last month. So here I am thinking about intentionally downgrading, and likely changing my racing style to include fewer sprints for the line (which I am quite good at) and more breakaway attempts (which are likely to fare poorly), all in the interest of preserving my ability to actually participate for a change.
Pretty stupid that I have to consider this. But I’ve hit level 100, I’ve unlocked most of the badges. There are few “carrots” left for a lot of us long-term users to chase other than the thrill of competition.