Am I the only one who thinks that the category really have no point at all?
I was looking at the race results of a race today and the winner in category d is pushing 3,6 watts/kg at 290 watts average.
The winner in category b was pushing around the same watts/kg, so what’s the point then?
Why doesn’t zwift puts you in a category based on your ftp? You shouldn’t be able to choose a category. That’s why I don’t do races, I see no point of pushing myself to the limit in the d category to finish almost last…
What I would do:
First time you use zwift you should do an ftp test and you shouldn’t be able to manual adjust that.
And for the rest they should upgrade your ftp automatically as u make progress like they do now.
So if u want to join a race, you tap on join event and you should be put into the category that fits ur watts/kg based on ur weight and ftp.
This has been discussed so many times. And I don’t understand why we don’t have auto race categories.
I don’t think locking FTP, people’s fitness change, but Zwift can monitor your “FTP” in races and in workouts, to check that people are not just changing FTP for races.
I would prefer a points system instead of W/kg, but for starters auto Categories based on w/kg will make racing great again .
I don’t think people would quit because of sandbaggers, but they will stop racing and not encourage other to race, they will also be less prone to watch E-sport.
Zwift hosts the races, but if you want real results, that’s where zwiftpower.com comes in. Zwiftpower filters results and keeps track of categories to keep things more fair. You just have to link you account over there. It doesn’t prevent people from messing with jumping into the D category and putting up B category results within the actual race, but it will filter those people out of the true results.
Zwiftpower does an awesome job, but the problem is that it is after the race. there is ZERO fun in burning all your matches chasing other “C” riders only to find out it is A and B riders entering the wrong race category.
The whole point of racing is strategy and tactics, planning when to burn your matches what breaks to follow.
Watching the A+ guys race is so much fun, you can see the tactics. But in C and D it is a mess.
To me the real thrill of winning a race is crossing the finish line as the first one after giving all you got. Not finishing 10th and have the first place on a data sheet.
Yeah, I agree - it’d be great if Zwift could just integrate those features or even come up with a category structure based on points and power that just puts yeveryone into the right category automatically
Now thar Zwift is going to get involved with E-sports I hope they figure something out and not just for the upper classes but for all categories.
Getting this sorted out can really help it grow
I think it’d have to be power based, there is so much churn in new users that if it was points based the slower riders would just continuously get pounded by new riders and never have a chance at a competitive race
Yes if you don’t have a rider score then you have to do a FTP test and Zwift Guess where you should fit in, or there should be beginner races so zwift can determine your correct starting score. Or your first race you are invisible to all racers so that zwift can find your starting score.
I think its time Zwift ditched the made up arbitrary power group system.
I think a points based system would be far more meaningful.
Zwift racing is fantastic as a really hard (enjoyable?) workout, but the results
are a bit meaningless as the watts/power system is often “played”.
I would enjoy starting in the bottom of points based Cat system and seeing
which higher Cat I might be able to get to.
All races need Zwift to auto assign Zwifters based on previous results. That may
help with some of the problems.
This idea could run along side any other Zwift racing as a trial maybe?
“Ride On”
