I have to say I weigh myself most mornings in the buff (just my glasses on so I can see the numbers)! I have climbed well and I have suffered on climbs but also sprinted well. Other than that, I rarely look at weight unless some results are very weird. Bob, what on earth is that all about? I have heard women admit on social rides that their zwift weight is their goal weightRead more . Youd think theyd be the same but when Zwift and Strava dont even agree on stats for the same ride, Ill take any other comparisons with a big pinch of salt. Thank you for signing up to The Pick. Zwift now allows for hiding Zwift automatically connects If you don't own power meter pedals, Zwift's non-contract pricing for a Zwift cycling membership is $15 . How do you actually update your weight on ZP?? As a low to mid-cat rider, ImRead more . Why can we just all race together and the fastest person wins? You lose 10 liters of sweat during a medium long ride? Racing on the Zwift virtual platform has only increased, with the professionals getting in on the act, too, via the Zwift Tour for All, the Virtual Tour of the Gila, and e-races organised by Team Ineos. 1 - Manually Set Your FTP Let's say you already know your FTP, then you can go into Zwift and manually change it to whatever you'd like. w/kg is partially based on real world physics. Either these racers need to calibrate the trainer or they are sandbagging big time. Ive lost 2.2kg over a 6 hour ride due to carb loading before, and burning that and hence losing a lot of water weight during the ride. Click on the Settings button and you'll find the Trainer Difficulty slider. I dont think it can all be attributed to weight; it appears that some hardware tweaks can scale up the reported power output. If it still doesn't work email zwiftpower@zwift.com and they should be able to sort. You make a good pointthere isnt a published race ruleset that clearly states that riders are 1) required to use accurate weight and 2) enter the correct race category. As a relatively light 69kg rider, I often feel at a disadvantage in the flatter races, of which there are many more than hilly ones. My 3 race FTP is at 4.07w/kg (248w @ 61kg), but Im still in Cat B. All the emphasis on physical metrics makes sense for putting together how speed is calculated but not how one can race. Zwift power usually looks at numbers vs the category race he entered. Or theyll ride races 1-2 categories below their actual W/kg so they can still win and feel like that theyre legends. I think the Zwift algorithm is quite relevant because it implies a good workout in any race for any kind of rider (and thats what we are looking for). I completely agree with the last paragraph here. Zwif: your ultimate guide This is pretty timely for me as my FTP is 283 and my weight is currently 71.2kg. Additionally, well be moving forward on hiding height and weight from Zwift Companion and Web. What is that!?! I mean I never lied about my weight, I am a very light rider working and eating hard to get some extra pounds. Hopefully when it comes time to hide height and weight from public view on ZwiftPower, Zwift will have some really useful tools in place which help race organizers do their jobs more quickly and effectively, while promoting wellness in the racing community. If its a big hill, well then w/kg has us equalised. Honest and goal driven. First, it shows that theyre listening to the community. I hope they learn from this and are more careful with things like that in the future. It is obviously a stupid thing ( weight doping) and why a rider would do this is beyond me but pride and quasi Strava bragging or Zwift Power bragging is a thing. Though our intent is to protect potentially vulnerable users by removing labels that can trigger unhealthy behaviour What are they trying to protect? would that be cheating then ? ), So what is reverse weight doping? On the flats and descents she crushes her w/kg field. Among the communicated changes were plans to hide the visibility of height and weight from ZwiftPower in an effort to encourage individual health and wellness. Then weigh yourself, and open Zwift, and see if it reflects the change. It just makes a mockery of the whole system. Yet the lesson is clear if you want to win, even on flat courses, have or claim a very low weight. I am racing in the Cs finishing in the 40-50s but there are 30 + racers ahead of me posting watt/kilo of A, and strong B racers. Noob question though, whats the etiquette around weighing with kit on or off. Its only a bit of fun at my level (solid B with the odd podium). USA Cycling has categories that are based on experience and performance. Just from riding regularly I went from 166 FTP to 187 in 800 miles over a 2 1/2 months. But maybe Im just thinking like a lady its hard for me to imagine a lady voluntarily gaining weight, even virtual weight. In IRL there is a double draft. Choose a Zwift workout, but before you start riding look at the workout breakdown on the left side of the screen. Im surprised that (off wheel) smart trainers dont have the ability to weigh the rider when they get on the bike. The categories are power to weight divisions. One question I have struggled to answer though which maybe is not a consideration is that on the flat watts is what is required and I also have to push high wkg to stay with groups. for example,Read more . And as well as your race results, you can check your distance ridden, total metres climbed, power peaks from one second up to 75 minutes, and more besides. But it highlights a bigger problem, and that is the fundamental flaw of using watts per kilo for race categorization. Privacy Policy, How to Race on Zwift (Setup, Strategy, and More). Obviously, these are generally accepted rules in the Zwift Community. 2.5w/kg (215Watts) is hard for me to hold for extended periods but I keep trying. Im in the same boat. Level 50. I wouldnt personally do it since it throws off training metrics and just isnt true. People with eating disorders, or a proclivity toward extreme dieting. In the 2 months Ive been on Zwift Ive become a stronger rider than ever, because Zwift encourages me to push myself harder than I do in real life. the lighter rider has to ride much harder to stay in the groups with a few big guys cruising along. As well as original reporting, news and feature writing, and production work, Daniel also runs The Leadout newsletter and oversees How to Watch guides throughout the season. Would achieve the same thing. Zwift excessively rewards the athlete for being light and small. Your voice is important to us. Take one of our four FTP tests to determine your FTP. Doing this will bring up a box at the bottom of the browser showing a web address something similar to: https://s3-fit-prd-uswest2-zwift.s3.amazonaws.com/prod/000000/a2e1b7f8-27610843. If I feel happy in my body thats the most important thing for me, and why I rarely weigh myself. I know Ive done it! The only way for complete cheat free racing is in the zwift Pro race which is all done in a single room with all riders together. Daniel Ostanek is production editor at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired as staff writer. The Tour de Zwift events this year were much moreRead more , Wait. Im not sure Id say the algorithms help heavier riders in descents. Threshold HR is around 151 bpm. This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. Ive done multiple races where my main goal was to keep the watts as low as possible while hanging with the front group. 5x5min, 4x8min but definitely never longer than 8 minutes. Last week I did the prl full and Uber pretzel and tried to get #1 by weight on those segments. It doesnt appear that people are abiding by the categories. Here it is in its entirety: Last week we outlined a number of planned changes to address harassment and further safeguard the health and wellbeing of the Zwift Community. .Personally I one of the outliers on height and weight. They CANNOT win. Current category system simply allows very fast but heavy riders to race in categories lower than their actual abilities. Thats a good thing. The algorithms very much help heavier riders in descents, which gets forgotten when all we discuss is climbing. Im older heavier and relativily fit. Keep writing this sort of thing. Whilst this might be the case, as Eric implies in flat races light weight riders have to work harder to stay in touch with the heavier riders in the bunch. Shame I cant edit my post for the horrendous spelling and autocorrect gaffes. We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices. Simply put, the system cannot measure weight it can only measure power, so for racing, peoples weight should be disregarded by that I mean, just as everyone in a zwift academy race has the same bike, they should be given the same weight , then it is a race based on FTP banded categories with point based promotion. I may of course be wrong, and these are all true weights, but Id be very surprised if that were the case, in the races where this matters, riders have to submit a private youtube weigh-in video <2 hrs before the race. If you were to meet meRead more . We may call it sandbagging or reversed weight doping but its legal . Im new to Zwift and its racing and what I like notice is how well I do compared to theRead more , This is not just about cheating. its only cheating myself, instead I would prefer to spend that 2 painful hours doing something honestly and feel proud of it than zooming through it in sub 60m and not reap the same benefits (or in my case, pain). Keep hammering the point and finding ways that Zwift can improve controls. As a Triathlete, I have a different perspective when racing and riding on Zwift because the vast majority of Zwifters (according to Zwift and Strava) are only cycling; whereas Im also training by Running and Swimming. Racing the As resp. It this fair? I have been cycling since I was a kid and now close to 50. The bottom line is that in any competition there will always be someone who wants to cheat to win.Read more . Im sure it happens, but I would guess its pretty rare certainly less of a problem than normal weight doping. You should do much better at your actual weight in that case. There's a forum, too, so that users can discuss ongoing race series, find out about upcoming events and have any queries answered and problems solved. If Zwift can be seen to be doing that then very little need toRead more . people need to stop taking Zwift racing so seriously. Withings scale that automatically updates your Zwift weight, a month ago in the final post of my race category series, https://smartscalesync.com/?utm_source=tr, https://zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=5528, https://zwiftinsider.com/how-does-zwift-calculate-my-speed/, Zwift x UCI To Host Cycling Events for the Olympic Esports Series 2023, Race London ZRacing March Series Details, Notable Zwift Events for the Weekend of March 4-5. angels stadium covid rules. On one occasion I entered a flat race (Laguardia Loop) following my ZP category (class C), finished almost three minutes down (though since it was a small field I still got third place), and then was disqualified for averaging 3.6 w/kg and 206 watts. At least I can be best in one thing on zwiftpower. Hes had to up his weight as he is only 35kg ( upped time 45kg) he but puts out 220watt so his ftp is 5.5-6w/kg in a race. Bath Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy Tie that together with not letting people race in a lower (but letting them race in a higher) cat, and youll have fixed a number of the issues. But It doesnt mean that that person is going to be the person riding the bike on the trainer during the race does it. Ill remain skeptical until I see some actual changes. Whats the cheaters solution? (ignoring that it evens out and you have the advantage on the hills but lets ignore that because its all about you and you should always podium in every race in your life, because mommy told you that you were special and big mean Zwift is making you work so hard on the flats). No race Chester worth their salt pops in and changed weight ahead of a race, what they do is post the wrong weight and leave it there. Great article, Eric. I think with a results based system would help as it would the sandbaggers, but it wont eliminate the weight cheats entirely, those that just want to gain a little more w/kg by losing a few virtual pounds. If I lose 1 more pound Ill go to 4.0 and its a daunting thing to think of going to As when I am often cruddy in the Bs. My power is often in the top few. I am 65 kg with FTP of 270 W, which equlas 4,15 w/kg. Heavy riders not only have a huge advantage on down slopes (the steeper the more advantage); they also have an advantage on the flats; its only when it gets to above 5%+ you can start to break a heavier rider. either a) ur starting ur sprint way too late or b) ur leading him out. The winners are almost always people with recorded weights sub 70kgs, more typically 65kgs, even 59! Last week I jumped into my first race and it was at the last minute on a whim because I was getting tired of my training ride. plain and simple. On a flat ride I would beat every sub 60kg cat B rider too. My W/Kg has gone from 3.76 to 3.97 without me really improving my FTP. I was going flat out the whole race, and by no means cruising along watching my watts. How big of a problem is reverse weight doping? Someone sandbagging will get promoted out of category and will not be allowed to reg for lower categories. EZ and self regulating. You will receive a verification email shortly. I recently won a C race, but it didnt feel like winning as I knew there were 2 categories faster. Now head back to ZwiftPower, click 'Connect' at the top of the page, then enter your Zwift ID in the box when prompted. Zwift essentially encourages people to be less than truthful about their weight. Frankly I struggle to believe these are real. Well Eric, my weight is plummeting, and Ill probably be taking a break from Zwift over the summer, so Im sure the upgrade is coming very soon!!! Just short of my 68th birthday I still dont see any point in cheating. I love reading it. I am always passed by everyone on the way up but can usually catch up on the way down (190cm/93kg). points based), riders can win by any margin any number of times and remain in their category so long as they do not exceed category limits. Please refresh the page and try again. The license would be needed to participate in ranked races, however if you dont have a license, other races would be available to participate in. She can crank but her w/kg is low. Do some races have split out start times so you are only racing with those of similar ability? Keep answering that question and youll keep most people on side. My weight is showing orange everytime. I just we had a better system than category limits, racing license anybody? That is pretty low compared to most people on zwiftpower. Thats why there are no top 40 Cat C riders in 70-75Kg range. Introducing a horrible measure that addresses a problem that doesnt exist, and subsequently retracting it following mass protest is not exactly what I would call revolutionary change. below this level you just have to take people's word for it. Good heavens man, the sentence before You do you says If its not done during a competitive Zwift event, I dont see it as a problem. Obviously weight doping in races is cheating and not acceptable. But the vast majority do not. How many cyclists do you see in real life who are 65kgs, but they are ten a penny on Zwift. We would like to thank the community for your passion and feedback. I averaged between 300 and 310 watts for all segments and my heart sat pretty consistently between 140 and 144.Read more , saying x number of watts per kg at xxx hr is flawed anyways max and resting hr can vary alot. IRead more , Aaron, do you know what is the wattage requirement for Cat A? As Zwift racer James Eastwood so aptly put it, The community dont want to see peoples weight they want fair racing.. thanks for the help with the graphs. Yes, smaller riders have less frontal area, but the difference in CdA isnt that much. Certainly it impacts the accuracy of race performance and results. Since strava is all that matters of course. And besides, my main goal on Zwift is to not get dropped in the hills during Team Cryo-Gens more hardcore Saturday rides! Well, its adding weight to gain an advantage. Totally agree with you. Im glad our collective voice was heard on this one, In the future, well continue to bring potential product ideas and changes to members of the Zwift Racing Community, with the hope that youll embrace this as a collaborative effort to help shape the experience.. Goodness. Heres an idea: Take weigh out of the equation. Hopefully ZHQ will take a harder look the changes that have been proposed over the past year or so. It impacts the Group Rides and as you said the performance statistics individually. I think the main problem with women and weight on zwift is regular weightdoping, magnified probably by all the wonderful social stigmas and judgment surrounding womens bodies. How about simply showing a percentage variance. Best turbo trainers: Smart trainers to improve your indoor cycling experience Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. His favourite races are Strade Bianche and the Volta a Portugal, and he rides a Colnago C40. If someone on zwift holds an avg power at a given heart rate, then goes out on the road and holds that same heart rate but cannot sustain even close to that power, I am sorry, but that isnt physiology; that is hardware. True, but not necessarily in the way you think. Using your Mac or PC, you can do it online on the Zwift website. I currently use the Garmin Smart Scale so I may invest in the Withings scale. Secondly, Zwifts statement says they agree there is a need for tools that deliver greater transparency to Zwift racing. Thats good to see, and we completely agree! My solution would make everyones chances equal, while yours would strongly favor heavy riders. Its going to take a certain amount of calories for a certain person to perform a given amount of work in a given time. (a is tough and im struggling at max h/r for most of the race).Ive gone from 87kgs to 80 kgs in this time and feel fitter than ever. The book Fast After 50 is a good read on how masters athletes can train more effectively. Good question. LOL. Hide the weight who cares let them upgrade all the way to As where you have strict reporting requirements. As long as the button to enter a lower cat is active, riders will Press It. ZwiftPower - Login Please update your Zwift ID on the connection page to complete registration. First up, you'll have to head to Zwift.com and log in, then click on Settings > Profile > Connections and choose 'opt-in' under the ZwiftPower logo. ), You say at the end..you do you, it doesnt affect anyone. Next up is the most finicky part of the process finding your Zwift ID in order to connect your accounts. Even some of the regulated weight rides will give 2kg leeway. But then you could have someone in the same age group who maxes out at 170. I once made myself much heavier so I could compete against my 11-year-old son in a head to head Zwift climbing race. Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Im curious to see this summer if I can do the numbers outdoors as I push out on Zwift but I cant even think of a road to use for 30 mins without stop signs, pot holes, lots of traffic, etc. However, I was able to navigate to the settings page by doing the following. His 150 or 160 is not comparable at all to what mine would be, I have been Zwifting for a couple of years now I can honestly say I am completely addicted to Zwift. However, insecure Freds jumpingRead more , I am new to Zwift, but I do wonder how it is youll see a bunch of people finish at the front of a D race at 4-5 W/kg. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. I dont mind the low HRs but the low power and high w/kg really irk me! Check out this FAQ for some of our frequently asked questions: Q:&. And one cheater leads to another and its an arms race of gaming the game. For example, if a rider has an FTP of 210 watts and weighs 75 kilograms, that means the rider's FTP is 2.8 w/kg. also interesting about this equation are the: wattage data points and the zwift computations of W/Kg. Most of the time, this will be what you use to figure out your race category. Many riders is talking about cheating, when someone enters a lower category but it's not, in my opinion. I am in the 5 percentile of height and weight at 52 and 130lb with my lowest weight of 118 lbs in my racing career. I have no idea. Their hr should also correspond, which they often dont. 1 second per 1 km on the AdZ dowhill (after losing minutes going up it) is literally the only place in the game its beneficial and the IRL advantages on the flats over light riders is excessivelyRead more . Some Zwifters go so far as to social-stalk other riders, comparing their photos to their Zwift weight and calling them out for weight doping. High intensity: 30/30 and 40/20sec Rnnestad intervals like 3x (10x40/20sec). Frustrating to someone who tries so hard to compete in my weight class to get beat by cheaters. Response to our post as well as Zwifts own post in their forum were resoundingly negative from members of the Zwift racing community. I climbed the Alpe last night for Stage 3 of the Tour of Watopia, missing my target of going under an hour by just over 12 seconds (Aargh!!). That was my first thought when a fellow Zwifter commented on my recent race, Somehow you always get your w/kg down. I got my 100kph badge on the Bologna course. I think you can force it with the Refresh Profile button in your ZP Profile but again, not sure if that triggers it immediately or overnight. If the categories are split using purely w/kg a lighter rider doesnt have any advantage up the climbs at all. Sandbagging is pointless if winning means youre going to move up (unless you want to take 3 months off after your win. Taking weight out of the equation you could just make everyones avatar moving forward by holding down the up arrow on their keyboard. Yes, there are plenty of variabies, but power is power. As Ive posted elsewhere, I like having weight available at my fingertips so I can use it to plan the TTT rotation (I like going heavy/light/heavy/light to avoid the big guys pulling away on flats/descents or the little guys pulling away on climbs, plus one category of rider tends to get exhausted on any given route if I plan my pull times incorrectly, so its nice not having 2 people in a row suddenly need to skip a pull). Find out more about how we test. Share your thoughts below! Once I hit 185 its either sit up and catch my breath of fall of the bike. You can record your weight n height n have it verified by experts etc up to five minutes before an event. There are two ways to do this. I hopeRead more . Hes not looking for a trophy every race. At all. Also a really frustrating thing is why doesnt Zwift autoRead more , is he riding in the right category? I have long ago earned all of the challenges and levels. if someone is entering a fake weight on their Zwift profile, the only person they're cheating is themselves, cos they're going to get destroyed out on the roads where it really matters. (I dont recommend this approach, but it proves the point that weight doping is an issue that concerns many Zwift racers. We like this move from Zwift. They do? Which brings me to todays topic: reverse weight doping. As soon as I start pedaling Im pretty much into threshold (around 170bpm). In fact, the only riders at or below my w/kg were minutes off the back. Whatever your answer, some people will never like it, but there has to be a clear, credible answer for the majority to support. I use Zwift to get in shape and prepare for outside riding. Theyre only cheating themselves and it all comes out in the wash eventually. I was wondering is it possible to get the graph at the bottom of the screen that shows youre power and other stuff on a normal ride and not doing a FTP test or workout. But theres one problem: this puts you into the B category, and you dont want to race the Bs. Im 170cm and currently 61kg with an ideal triathlon racing weight of 59kg. Im 70 inches tall and 156 pounds right now vs 166lb on Jan 1. Are you efficient, or just heavy? I dont really race so I am OK and any workouts are harder this way. Not sure why its hard for you to believe that there are a lot of riders under 70kgs. I think he is referring to the 2021 Haute Route GC (or lack thereof), Sorry, thats right, it was the Haute Route 2021 events. On the other hand, I am extremely anti-weight doping and agree with the post pointing out there is no incentive or even reason to be heavier. We can name and shame these few. The race I did had all categories racing together with a mass start, so the categories felt arbitrary as my place was not within my chosen category but across the whole field anyway. Connecting to ZwiftPower Before you can start using ZwiftPower, you'll need to create an account. Maybe they should display and categorise HR as a %age? I think Im just heavier than my competition. I havent even used my road bike outdoors since 2012. But for most riders watts per kilo rules the day, determining which category you race in Zwift. If it is.. someone must be able to point me to the rule where it says that it is forbidden..? Fact ! Mate youre a legend. Finally, just head back to ZwiftPower and click 'Connect to my Account'. Not true, at least not absolutely. IfRead more . I think it would be best if there was a separate cat system for flat routes (based on watts) and for hilly routes (based on w/kg), My understanding is that Zwift still applies real world physics to this situation, and maybe the article doesnt allude to it, in that on the flat Zwift wont use w/kg to drive speed but your pure watts. I use my average weight but I feel; guilty because my weight tends to fluctuate by 0.5K or more during the week depending on how much I eat during the day really interested to learn that there is a scale that auto updates Zwift. I am about to hit the four year mark on Zwift. This afternoon, Zwift posted a follow-up message on the forum. this is how it is in real life , big ian stannard putting in hard fast miles on the front for (was) team sky , while all the small guys tuck in the peloton getting drafted along saving energy for later on in the race , because they can`t compete on the flat with the big boys . Enforce race category entry and youll fix much of the problems with Zwift racing. Or theyll ignore leaders instructions and ride off the front of a group (flyers). As a lighter racer 136lbs it pisses me off to see cheating. Someone with my FTP should be CAT B, regardless of weight. As soon as there is a single bit of flat cheerio! Zwift can wipe your Zwift Power profile and give you a clean slate to start over if you want, but I think you will lose all past data. Manually change your weight in Zwift by adding 10 pounds. He argues hes not gaining an advantage. I have just accepted that at my height I will always be heavier than the average cyclist. Incrasing virtual weight would probaly downgrade me to B again. I said if its not done during a competitive Zwift event, its not a problem. I would include chasing Strava Zwift KOMs as a competitive event (but I could see how what I said could be interpreted otherwise. You weigh 80kg and have an FTP of 248 watts, which works out to 3.1 w/kg. I started zwifting about 2 1/2 months ago.I did the ftp test and put in the correct weight.Ive no idea how precise my trainer is tho.what i do know is,Ive managed to go from cat c to a.
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