Zwifters racing while sanctioned

It happens right at the finish. He basically completes the entire race before it kicks in.

Look at the racer’s history from last year on zwiftracing.app, it appears to be the same account with a modified name. The older events have results with the previous name. Looks like history was purged on ZwiftPower but zwiftracing.app remembers. The name “R H” was also used in some events.

That’s kind of awkward, for a few reasons…

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Why does it take 15 min for this to pop up?
Zwift should have a variable observation time and if a rider is exceeding normal physiological parameters, end their race and show the warning
This guy was obvious in 3-5 min.
Warning pops up and he should have gone invisible and have no placing.

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If you go through his history on the Companion app, he didn’t post extraterrestrial power immediately, but he had enough of a paper trail where he should have been immediately stopped.

His first race looks like March 27, 2023, shortly after joining Zwift. He won the E cat (albeit only rider in the cat), and he reported 5.0 W/kg. It’s a short race, 8 minutes. That number is very high, but not extraterrestrial. I can understand why he wasn’t immediately flagged. March 28, he did another short race, similar power. This time he raced the Bs, but he doesn’t appear to be on the results sheet. Perhaps that means he got removed in-game?

However, on April 26, 2023, he won the A race at 6.6 W/kg for 26 minutes - that’s EPO-era power. On May 5, 2023, where he won the C race (what happened to cat enforcement?). He’s on the results sheet in game for both. However, on May 3 and May 11, A race for both, he appears to have entered but he wasn’t on the in-game results sheet. So, is something working inconsistently? He’s also done a bunch of solo rides and group workouts at extraterrestrial power since May 11. So he is still out there.

There was a paper trail for this guy starting April 26, but it appears to have worked inconsistently.

Given the issues with the SB20 and Stages crank arms in general I would not say that strain gauges are inherently more accurate.

This thread was very timely and raises the question of “why are world-record performances not auto-flagged by Zwift in real-time?”

It’s not a recently created account, you just can’t see the history presumably because Zwift purged it or he deleted the activities or marked it private. September 7, 2022 is the oldest data on zwiftracing.app but since that’s a relatively new service, it can’t show us all of his history either. In Companion riders don’t show up in results if they don’t finish. If the same race is available in ZwiftPower you may find non-finishers on the Live tab.

Is there any chance yourself and @Weiwen_Ng are discussing two different riders. This thread has become quite hard to follow.

I think Weiwen is discussing rider in Dejan’s video (post 15 with excessive power over 600w throughout races) and you are discussing rider raised in post 21 (possibly questioning who the rider is and should they be racing?)

I might be completely wrong though.

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Quite possible! I think I’m done with this thread. There are some good ideas in it, but ideas are free and what’s needed now is investment in the integrity of races, and some visible signs of that work.

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I was testing some video recording and clicked “just watch” and randomly landed on a guy doing exactly 450w at exactly 72rpm with zero variation and apparently he’s been doing it for over an hour and a half. Wish I had that kind of fitness and consistency.

EDIT: Removed image!

Please refrain from name and shame images.

It’s a bot, not a human. Have you considered taking the problem seriously instead of defending them?

I’m not defending him. If you have something to report please use the proper channels.

Posting and accusing others of cheating is against the forum rules. You have been warned before.

The post you edited did not have any accusation of cheating.

And what exactly are the ‘proper channels’ to report suspicious riders and cheater nowadays? Because all of the current ones seem to be actively ignored. It’s obviously not this method:

https://forums.zwift.com/t/reporting-suspicious-riders-july-2021

Numerous people have reported bogus riders, even creating dummy accounts with ridiculous power numbers and guess what, nothing happened. It’s funny how quickly action is taken here in the forums when someone names and shames but the person being named just gets to continue ruining races for everyone else in the game with no action taken.

This is the link.

Very different case. We moderate the channel to a set of rules and and when it is clear that a rule is broken we act.
Dealing with people in game is a lot harder.
I have the easy job.

That link verifiably results in zero action against egregious cheaters. Can you provide a link where reports of cheaters are taken seriously?

That is the very form I referenced in the forum post I linked to. That form has proven to be a dead end by multiple people including myself even when power numbers like these below are submitted (yes, this account was reported by someone and nothing happened):

That form also asks for the rider in question’s zwiftpower profile, which most don’t have, and at least 3 races where you have witnessed the person’s behavior. That is a ridiculous request.

Quit attacking Gerrie or find yourself unable to post in these forums.

Enough is enough.

He is an unpaid volunteer that spends an awful lot of time on here for everyone’s benefit.

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Ok.

In all seriousness, is there any action taken against cheaters? The report I suggested would go a long way with credibility.