Hi, this morning I did the ZA race 2, the cobbled one, Finished 5 with a 2,4 W/kg on average.
On Zwiftpower I was the only one in top 7 under the cat D mark of 2,5 W/kg, winner has 2,9 W/kg and according to Zwiftpower his FTP is 269, wich is definetely Cat C.
Is there any control on this?
And how many races has he done in the past with those high numbers?
If you want to race in events where people get disqualified for going over the category power limit, you’ll have to choose community races where the organizers do that (not all do). Events operated by Zwift never do. Their intent is to let the result stand and upgrade the rider if they went over the limits defined here:
https://support.zwift.com/category-enforcement-faq-rJ5CQrpvc
I don’t know how many but with a FTP of 269 and a weight if 100 kg I thought you would be Cat C.
Didn’t realise there was no categorie enforced, thanx Paul
Category Enforcement looks at what you have done in the 90 days prior to the race. If this power by w/kg allows you to race in Cat D you may then put out whatever power you like in the race and not be disqualified - but hopefully promoted to another category if you have exceeded the category limits.
Under the old system the D cat limit was 2.5 w/kg but now under the new CE limits it is 2.63. Unfortunately Zwift never updated the old category limits on the entry information so it is easy to see why you think it is still 2.5.
The rider who won now shows a zFTP of 261 and weighs 100kg. If his zFTP doesn’t change/get updated to at or above 263 he may well remain as a D cat racer.
Have a look at this CE information it may help.
https://support.zwift.com/category-enforcement-faq-rJ5CQrpvc
There’s no such thing as a Cat D 2.5 w/kg mark for Category Enforcement. There is a 2.63 w/kg mark, but that’s based on approximately 40min+ power. The ZA race you are referring to only lasted about 17 minutes.
Thanx for Explaning Ian!
It brings up a question for me, what if I exceed the 2,63 w/kg and do only easy exercises (on Zwift)the following 90 days then I would stay on cat D I suppose or when I add 1 kilo every time I surpass the 2,63 would also result in cat D. But it would still be cheating in my opinion!
If you exceed the 2.63 you should remain there for 90 days. *1
Adding weight after you have exceeded 2.63 doesn’t work as the w/kg uses the weight at the time you exceeded the 2.63. (It is a bit more complicated than just one weight being used)
*1 - it has been known for zFTP to reduce within 90 days as other power numbers for various other time intervals affect the zFTP calculation curve.
EDIT : hopefully Zwift’s new Racing Score categorisation system based on results not power will arrive early in 2024 and put an end to power based categories.
I didn’t know about the 2,63 w/kg limit, sorry for that!
I had a fine real hard race, enjoyed it very much!
Thanx all for responding.
Topic closed!!
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