When V2 seed score put me under 180, I took the opportunity to sign-up for a few Zmonthly pen E races, including 1710 GMT today.
Given my recent best 50-55mins is approx 170, less than 2W/Kg, I assure you all I will not be anywhere close to winning this race, just like last week!
This is where short interval ability evaluation really falls down for racers like me with long covid, who are vaguely ok over sub 15mins but inconsistant in energy/ability, but really poor over 30mins+.
All the comments about individual situation with complaints how their personal score is incorrect as they have to face stronger riders is quite pointless. Some people will not be competitive in a given race unless we rubberband everything. However, itâs good to be critical on how ZRS works.
ZwiftRacing.app seems to work better and quicker in updating scores. Itâs not just the seed score, which V3 has now implemented, but mostly the ELO aspect. Ideally seed score will be irrelevant and only performance in races matter except for completely new riders.
Category thinking is pointless and should not be forced. Just make one sign-on for a race and divide the people that sign-up based on their scores over x pens. Sometimes you are the hammer, sometimes the nail. When races are well attended there will always be a competition and automatically some stability in terms of competitors in your field. Leagues can pick their own cut-off points at T0 and keep selection from there. Organizers are king and will manage just fine if they have the tools.
Whatever will be made is imperfect but with both of the above it will be a huge improvement and the numerous complaints of individuals should hopefully phase out as its pointless.
More problematic than going from V1 to v2 to v3 on a whim? Seriously v2->v3 was under 48 hours after weeks of testing from v1.
They might as well just go all out and fix these issues asap than let it be an overhang. Organizers canât push forward making new series when they always put a big change data a month out.
Honestly there is no downside if they just went 100% and purely copy ZR.APP and once they phased in all components of it into Zwift then move to upgrade what ZR.app vELO. This would save so much time and be so much more effective.
Zwift figuring this out is taking too long and causing too much pain.
Cyclopathon uses this, If you donât have HRM connected you canât join the pen.
Itâs not foolproof, but itâs a start.
My definition of cheating is âbreaking the rules of the raceâ.
There clearly are people gaming ZRS to get in a lower pen, but things are being tightened up, gradually. Most races do not have a rule about sandbagging and with a pen enforcement system it should be very hard to do. Itâs a bit too easy at the moment, but getting better. So my opinion there is that it is NOT cheating, but it is not the expected sporting behaviour.
Further, regarding cheating. IMHO cheating requires âintentâ. You can be DQ from a race for reasons that were not your fault e.g. a dodgy trainer giving silly power figures. That is NOT cheating, but still a legitimate DQ.
Deliberately miscalibrating your trainer WOULD be cheating though. Intent.
If you can join A pen and be the weakest rider and still lose massive amount of points, it isnât tighten anything up. They 100% isnât sandbagging if they tried their best in the hardest one and loses. But they shouldnât lose 30 points doing that.
If they copy ZR.app, that wouldnât happen because vELO would have predicted they come in last.
Sandbagging would be the race after that when they used that -30 loss to enter a pen lower than the one they should be in. I agree that -30 shouldnât happen if you race up and I think itâll be dealt with as part of tweaking the score movement - which is the next thing now seed is much better.
This goes beyond ZRS. Why wasnât there a history or chart like Zwiftpower of win/loss for races on Zwift native site? There isnât a badge of honor or a title board. Those things ties value to an account. Something even like a ZRS high score to promote people chasing a higher score adds value.
I think it would be fun for weekly battles to see who can accumulate the most race points.
Zwift been around for 10 years? So many missed opportunities.
Yeah I think these are excellent ideas. Getting swag or things like faster wheels if youâre in a higher category. Im all for that. You lose that swag if you get downgraded.
Before they can do this they have to come up with something against sudden weight losses and gaines. Otherwise people will just change their weight and get the rewards.
I am a cat 3 (old cat C) riders at 90 kilo, but I am pretty sure if I change my weight to 65kg I will be an A or even A+ within a week.
People actually have to put their achievements on Zwiftpower Notes.
2023 FRR 22th place cat C!
Even the monthly Zwift GC winner has 0 recognitions.
Series are also missing the build up, TdF is epic because people are chasing the build up. âX needs to make up 20âs in this race vs Y on this course for a chance at the yellow jersey!â
Literally no one is known on Zwift beside the king of sandbaggers.
Then those at A or A+ will welcome you. Riding in A or A+ isnât more fun than riding in E. Even if you reverse it and have an A+ ride in E, it isnât fun for them if they drop everyone in the first 300m and ITT solo the next 30km and beat the field by 10 mins.
Painfully familiar. The anaerobic measures only took a small hit. The aerobics⌠well, they are not at all what they used to be, 25-30% down. Which is a lot if, as in my case, you sucked to begin with. Nowadays, the right half of the power curve is hard to move at all, hits a plateau quickly in a season and then stays there no matter what you do. Itâs sad. It was more fun the way it used to be, putting in an effort over a few months and getting results accordingly.
But⌠the new system shouldnât be tailored after us lepers. We are the exception and the system should be fair to the majority. Our very special complaints about unfairness canât be dealt with here. They have to be escalated to a higher authority. A much higher authority.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to ride at 65 kilo, since I will never ever reach that in real life. I love eating way too much. But being stuck at those power values I would produce for 90 days is a bit too much
Adjusted your weight since when? The last ride, or forever? If itâs just since the last ride then people would just keep shifting 1kg/ride so that number is never suspect, if itâs forever then the value is not useful because people can legitimately lose a ton of weight through a change in lifestyle.
I donât think Zwift is going to start showing peopleâs weight changes top level, that would not make most people happy.
