A useful article from Zwift Insider on ZRS changes, as referenced in the recent “This Season On Zwift”:
Still nothing about it they’ve sorted out points scoring based on the size of the race
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still no mention of viewable history …
Well at least new power PBs can reset your seed and ZRS score rather than it sit 15% below.
In the article it seems to indicate one of the big issues solved here is ratings squatting:
“Discourages Rating Squatting: Built-in decay means riders can’t climb to a higher score and stay there without racing. It keeps rankings fresh.”
Is this actually a problem? I kinda feel the opposite is true at least for anyone not in the A+ category already.
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doesn’t seem to be an issue from my perspective. I was worried about it at first, since I rarely do races that count for ZRS, but thankfully the changes to seed score and ZRS if you have a power PB should take care of any concerns.
A high ZRS followed by a break harms nobody. You return to racing, if you don’t finish in the top ~50%, your score decreases.
A high ZRS from good results, that’s decayed due to a summer break, risks dropping more racers into a weaker pen (like those who throw in the odd bad race to lower their score before magically getting podiums again).
It’s a pathetic effort at improving ZRS, for a garbage system that’s been around since summer ‘24.
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In the parallel universe in Long Beach.. Marketing & engagement for those users who drop in & out of subscription is a greater priority than the experience of those users who are on the platform and using it.
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I only race well attended ‘hard’ A races, and I usually finish towards the back of the main group. My score just hovers between 744 and 747. It never changes by more than 2 points.
I often finish ahead of riders with far higher scores.
If I look at their race results, they ride races more often, and those racer are ‘smaller’ with lower power numbers across the board.
It seems clear that if you want to have a highers ZRS, find less well attended races and do lots of them.
If you only race ‘primetime’ and aren’t already a 900+ watt monster, your score will be pretty average.
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Any news on when the 30-day highest ZRS pen allocation becomes available to race organisers?
Let’s hope this custom option is used by organisers, including all those ZwiftHQ ones that dominate the schedule these days (and didn’t do a single custom Category Enforcement event iirc)!
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Word on the street is Zwift will not use it for their race series..
ZwiftHQ will be on the Xmas card list for all those who blatently manipulate their ZRS, if that’s the case.
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Gaming the system has always been prioritised over those using it as intended. Thats the whole zwift playbook.
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How difficult can it be to factor in how hard the race was using the average score of the finishing riders and the average power? And adjust the score accordingly?
Current system is like having a domestic pro who rides lots of crits and gets top tens and podiums outranking a world tour pro who finishes an average of 30th in the hardest races in the world.
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Fair question. I don’t know how hard it is, but I do know they are thinking about that problem.
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But does it really matter how high your score is when you are in Advanced.
There is no scoreboard or anything and I doubt anyone ever looks at the score the riders have on that level. They all monsters.
Some are just smarter than others in how to inflate their score even more.
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This is true.
It’s just odd that there are enough riders I know that regularly get dropped when the ‘elite’ advanced riders really go full gas, whereas I can hang on, who have significantly higher scores than I do.
If your FTP is above 4w/kg and you have a decent sprint, pick the the right races and quit the race if you get dropped, you can get an 800+ score fairly easily.
It also depends on the routes and since Zwift and most orher organizers prefer the more flat or rolling routes since they attrack more participants the ones with a sprint have it way more easy.
I reckon Cavendish would have a higher ZRS than Pogi and Jonas if they would race on Zwift.
There is not much to win on Zwift for people who can ride hard for hours.
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live example just now.
Coach wanted me to do a full gas effort up Alpe du Zwift, I got halfway up and nearly died of boredom, so quit.
I then decided, with sore legs, to do a race.
Jumped into the Enve Jurassic Coast Advanced race, 10 riders, came 4th. Gained 4 ZRS points.
This race was almost 10% easier in terms of average watts than the race I did on Friday, where I lost one point.
Just checked on zwiftracing app to see what that algorithm thought: There you lost 10 vELO points for this race (Jurassic Coast), and you gained a fraction of a vELO point for the Friday race (Zeal).
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