Zwift Chat

[steverob]

Yeah it does feel like this is a much cheatier cheat than the Jeffers cheat was.
Has the UCI announced anything yet? It was a UCI qualifier wasn't it?

I think it's because the rules say first offense is a six month ban, regardless of what the offense actually is, so that's why they got the same thing.

Second is one year (which seems lenient), third is permanent ban.

 

[alex_cycles]

I think it's because the rules say first offense is a six month ban, regardless of what the offense actually is, so that's why they got the same thing.

Second is one year (which seems lenient), third is permanent ban.

Yes. Makes sense. Probably their sentencing guidelines should be reviewed.

 

[CXRAndy]

Does anyone want to summarise for a lazy person? 😌

This chap used a program to intercept his ride power and enhance it by 25%, he did this for both recording power devices by the same margin. He was capable of 400W, but was reporting 500W to Zwift. He was caught by a number of factors. shjowing off in a final winning spectacularly, only using the hack for big races and Zwift were able to spot a loss of their analytic data stream when he was cheating

 

[CXRAndy]

I dont count Jeffers as a cheater, he was daft for sure. He won the races fair and square on the same setups as the other competitors. His fail was the way he went about getting his Tron bike. Why Zwift just didn't make all bikes available to these professionals is odd.

But hey, its only a game. Hoole can come and join our squad once he serves his ban

 

[mjd1988]

This chap used a program to intercept his ride power and enhance it by 25%, he did this for both recording power devices by the same margin. He was capable of 400W, but was reporting 500W to Zwift. He was caught by a number of factors. shjowing off in a final winning spectacularly, only using the hack for big races and Zwift were able to spot a loss of their analytic data stream when he was cheating

I think he had the "unexplained glitch" in all 150 plus zwiftpower races but none in any training rides

 

[alex_cycles]

I dont count Jeffers as a cheater, he was daft for sure. He won the races fair and square on the same setups as the other competitors. His fail was the way he went about getting his Tron bike.

He used an ANT+ simulator to falsely ride the elevation requirements of the Tron bike challenge.
While not explicitly forbidden at the time (it is now), that's not exactly in the spirit of fair competition, regardless of whether or not you label it cheating.

Why Zwift just didn't make all bikes available to these professionals is odd.

Agreed, but 20:20 hindsight. "The law" is always a bit behind innovative tech. FRR uses "everyone has the same bike" which top level events should also do, probably, to avoid this.

But hey, its only a game. Hoole can come and join our squad once he serves his ban

Technically he can join us now. He's only banned from higher level competition

 

[mjd1988]

Technically he can join us now. He's only banned from higher level competition

😮

 

[JuhaL]

Maybe he will change his name to John Smith, thinking that no-one recognize him.

 

[steverob]

Maybe he will change his name to John Smith, thinking that no-one recognize him.

No, someone like that would probably change it to Heddy Oole thinking no-one will ever recognise such a clever disguise. 🤔

I did like in the comments on the DCR article people were coming up with better headlines for it - winner so far is “Hoole tool ruled fool on Roule Ma Poule”

 

[alex_cycles]

https://forums.zwift.com/t/coming-soon-critical-power-information-in-zwift-profile/596058

The information Zwift uses for CE will soon be visible on the web in our profiles

 

[<Tommy>]

https://forums.zwift.com/t/coming-soon-critical-power-information-in-zwift-profile/596058

The information Zwift uses for CE will soon be visible on the web in our profiles

From reading the comments:

It’ll be visible to the individual but not everyone else

It will be visible in zwift companion app but not ZP

They’re not using it to enforce category boundaries at this time other than races that already have it enabled.

 

[alex_cycles]

From reading the comments:

It’ll be visible to the individual but not everyone else

It will be visible in zwift companion app but not ZP

They’re not using it to enforce category boundaries at this time other than races that already have it enabled.

pretty much. That thread is a ‘masterclass’ in communicating technical information to users

 

[bridgy]

I belive in elite races now they all have the same bike effectively (they can choose any bike/wheels so they match sponsors etc but whatever we see them riding on screen, they all have the same performance dynamics) so I guess this takes away the incentive to do what Jeffers did.

That "Nowhere Fast" podcast that @mjd1988 linked to was a good listen - I looked at their feed and they did a podcast on cheating on Zwift 2 years ago (episode 9) which I'm halfway through listening to, and they called out the exact way Eddie Hoole cheated as a viable possibility back then, so it's been known about for ages (typical Zwift!)

They also made the good point in the recent podcast that had he not done that ridiculous and impossible last 5 minutes or so at over 8w/kg, and instead stayed at the front and just edged out the win he may well have got away with it - as he has been for quite some time it seems.

Did anyone hear about the "hack" to get higher watts out of a Kickr bike that a friend of one of the guys on the podcast accidentally discovered? 🤦‍♂️

 

[Norry1]

Did anyone hear about the "hack" to get higher watts out of a Kickr bike that a friend of one of the guys on the podcast accidentally discovered? 🤦‍♂️

No..... but do you know any for the Tacx NEO? Asking for a friend 😊

 

[alex_cycles]

No..... but do you know any for the Tacx NEO? Asking for a friend 😊

Put a deregulated ebike on it