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I think there should be a grey zone between categories to give riders like me the opportunity to get on a podium from time to time. Race down a category. Maybe have two opportunities a month (joker card) race in the lower division when within 5 points of relegation - just a suggestion 
Yes that would work.
My Sprint with Japanese rider. I was trying to lay off him to gain longer draft, when the sneaky devil went early for his sprint at 500m. I wound my sprint up, drafted into the gap, hit peak power as I came by him. 😁
Managed to catch another rider cruising into the finish too
View: https://youtu.be/jnWwpcZ02_M?t=2405
Managed to catch another rider cruising into the finish too
View: https://youtu.be/jnWwpcZ02_M?t=2405
alex_cycles
Veteran
- Location
- Oxfordshire
Haha - when you thought you'd finished and had one lap still to go
but it was only a solo lap20 laps is quite long. I prefer 10 or 15 for those. Well done.
Legs
usually riding on Zwift...
- Location
- Staffordshire
I did a race on Road To Ruins early on Saturday morning. It's one of my favourite courses because it's got the punchy climb up to the windmills early on, then the rolling jungle bits. There were only 5 Bs in the pen, of whom only three of us made it to the foot of the climb together. I put down a minute of 500W to get a gap, then extended it to 20s over a lone Japanese rider by the summit. Halfway up the Jungle drag, the gap was out to 28s, but then the tables turned and the so-and-so started to reel me in! I kind of gave up as we headed back onto the tarmac, and let him catch, so we softpedalled the last 11km together. I thought I had a reasonable chance in a one-on-one sprint, and went with 600m to go. I saw his numbers turning orange, and, although I was feeling strong, the speed he was carrying when he came past me was astonishing! But then he eased, and I was so close to recatching him... Looking back at the data afterwards, I had 40W more peak power... but he was 20kg lighter!
I still don't have the video replay facility on Zwift (I think they said it was due to roll out to PC users a couple of years ago), but this is one I'd have been interested to see again.
I think there should be a grey zone between categories to give riders like me the opportunity to get on a podium from time to time. Race down a category. Maybe have two opportunities a month (joker card) race in the lower division when within 5 points of relegation - just a suggestion
As I pointed out right at the start when ZRS was launched, what we're going to end up with is some riders, probably quite a high number, who bounce between ZRS categories on a weekly basis.
One day they'll have a ZRS of 345 (mostly as a result of a poor initial seeding). They'll come top half of a race (maybe 20th out of 50 riders), and find themselves promoted. Result is a new ZRS of 352
Next race they're with much stronger riders, dropped in the first few minutes, and having to ride solo for 30 minutes. Result, ZRS drops to 345.
And on and on.
For me, if someone is coming mid race in a cat then that's where they should be racing - their ZRS score shouldn't be changing. They shouldn't be yo-yoing between groups each week. Only those winning cat races consistently should be promoted (or those constantly dropped and finishing minutes behind should be demoted).
Personally I'll be 'managing' my ZRS so that I stay below 350 because I know that's my ability.
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Im trying my current best. My numbers, having had look aren't too far off my average. So it's not like I'm sandbagging. I'm coming up against riders who can put out into 3.5W/kg over the event -with hills means they get away as a pack and I'm left to duke it out with other stragglers, which probably are of similar ability to me. Today was great, yes I was dropped, but had a small pack to race against, then my personal victory over the Japanese rider in the sprint. I came bottom third overall, but very much an enjoyable event. The rub is my score is bang on the boundary, so will now find it tough until either, boundary adjustment or I fall safely into the lower category
Today's result had I been in the D cat <350 would have gotten me a result of around 10th. That was a good result for me when I was in the old C category. All the average power figures are more like mine in the <350 category, so I think I will end up there over the course of a few weeks
Today's result had I been in the D cat <350 would have gotten me a result of around 10th. That was a good result for me when I was in the old C category. All the average power figures are more like mine in the <350 category, so I think I will end up there over the course of a few weeks
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steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Similar here - in the (admittedly few) races I've done since the last score reset, I've pushed as hard as I ever have and typically finish around halfway on ZP, usually managing to stay with the pack until the later stages before being dropped, yet my racing score has slowly drifted down. I started with a seed score of 332 and find myself now on 321.
In good news though, whatever was planned at work for tomorrow has been cancelled so I get to work from home after all. That means I can do the final round of November's Cycleopathy up La Reine. Wait, no, that's bad news! *#$%!
In good news though, whatever was planned at work for tomorrow has been cancelled so I get to work from home after all. That means I can do the final round of November's Cycleopathy up La Reine. Wait, no, that's bad news! *#$%!
I think the 180-350 cat is where the old C cat riders should be. There may be the odd D rider in there but there should be no B riders at all. Some strong C riders, who can push as you say over 3.5 for the whole race should probably be in the 350-500 cat.
But then we're going back to the old way of categorising riders, by 20 minute power - and let's face it, this worked pretty well. Most riders had a decent race because we had a pretty good idea going into the race we could hang on because no one was going to be blasting the pack apart with 3.7+ w/kg power (like they were doing pre anti-sandbagging days).
All Zwift needed to do was to add in some logic to promote those who were winning x (number to be determined) races in a certain cat over a y (number to be determined) time period. - to stop sandbagging. Similar logic to demote riders.
Coming mid pack is fine so long as there isn't a risk that then gets you promoted up - I'm in the 320-340 range and unless I actively tank a few races I'll get promoted even though I'm barely hitting mid table. As a mid table rider I'm in the correct group, there should be no risk to being promoted and I shouldn't need to manage my ZRS or reduce my effort 'just in case'.
Oh well, at least TVP is free
I'm on the 17:10 Stage 1 (not sure stage 1 of lol) race later. I'll be letting the pack go up one of the climbs and drop through the following riders to lower my ZRS. I shouldn't need to do this, but with a score of 331 it's time I reduced it again.
But it's only a game, so it's ok
But it's only a game, so it's ok
