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 . My 3.9w/kg (a new PR!) When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. People still rode at B level pace in a C group. You lose 10 liters of sweat during a medium long ride? As Zwift racer James Eastwood so aptly put it, The community dont want to see peoples weight they want fair racing.. If I get down to 52 kilos I can climb well but my sprinting is terrible. I am a long time racer in NorCal and cheating is cheating. It does not stop cheating at all. 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.. Theres also fitnesssyncer.com that is free up to 4 sync services. Taking that info away further depersonalizes the platform, and and may be fine in group rides, but it is a step closer to racing against bots. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy My 3 race FTP is at 4.07w/kg (248w @ 61kg), but Im still in Cat B. Response to our post as well as Zwifts own post in their forum were resoundingly negative from members of the Zwift racing community. Im 170cm and currently 61kg with an ideal triathlon racing weight of 59kg. Find some hilly races As a result your suggestion of the watts vs w/kg different systems is already baked into the game physics in a way. People with eating disorders, or a proclivity toward extreme dieting. You should do much better at your actual weight in that case. The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox! Noob question though, whats the etiquette around weighing with kit on or off. Thats not what I recall at all, everything is a race, even if you werent aware . are clay hart and sally flynn still married; composite chart 12th house; tupperware party points; st francis of assisi school jobs See how you can support Zwift Insider! In spectacular and shocking fashion. And besides, my main goal on Zwift is to not get dropped in the hills during Team Cryo-Gens more hardcore Saturday rides! I am always passed by everyone on the way up but can usually catch up on the way down (190cm/93kg). Although does WTRL encourage reverse weight doping? So I dont expect to be as competitive vs. a pure cyclist. I dont think any of my shorter (under 5ft10) running or cycling friends weights more than that. Yes us heavier riders have the downhill advantage definitely. EDIT Found my answer: 250w, Theres a chart about halfway down this page: https://zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=5528. IMHO, enforcing in-category entry for races will be a quick, easy and effective change. That guy who weighs 300lbs and gets 1st place in Cs for a month straight should be automatically upgraded to Bs and Bs to As. (Its not the only part, of course! Some weight dopers are obvious and blatant other times its much less egregious. What you see a lot are riders who are (claiming) to be really light with decent but not exceptional watts. Well, imagine youre a strong C racer. Hide the weight who cares let them upgrade all the way to As where you have strict reporting requirements. i was just having a similar discussion with my old lady about watts and weights, etc. Id be super interested in the timing you set your weight. A thank you to Zwift HQ for listening to the feedback from the racing community and taking action. (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). In IRL there is a double draft. I have climbed well and I have suffered on climbs but also sprinted well. The bottom line is that in any competition there will always be someone who wants to cheat to win.Read more . (Example: if your FTP is 300 watts and you weigh 75kg, your FTP w/kg would be 300/75, or 4 w/kg.) Someone sandbagging will get promoted out of category and will not be allowed to reg for lower categories. We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices. Manually change your weight in Zwift by adding 10 pounds. 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. Hes asking for a fair race. Great drafting skills!, Heres the thing: I probably am a fairly efficient racer, when I want to be. The categories are the cycling equivalent to weight classes in boxing. My power to weight is decent at about 4w/kg. This is done by separating riders based on their FTP (functional threshold power) a wattage test you can take part in on Zwift over a 20-minute, 45-minute or 1-hour period. I have tended to notice that a significant number of powerful zwifters real world Strava performances pale in comparison to their online achievements. 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. Hardly true Say you train and commit yourself to being honest to achieve better fitness,and also better results, albeit virtually..then someone finishes better than you solely because of the BS numbers they entered. However, I was able to navigate to the settings page by doing the following. It would be easy to deny it was intentional. Using your Mac or PC, you can do it online on the Zwift website. Or are you looking for a participation trophy on every race as well? If I wanted to win I just drop my weight to 65kgs 350w/65kgs is a lot better than 350w/85kgs, of course 350w/65kg is better than 350w/85kg, its a massive increase in w/kg. With Zwift control is difficult (in getting Zwifters to enter their accurate) wait. Tour de Zwift events were races? Share your thoughts below! As far as my weight goes the only thing I care about is being as accurate as I can to get accurate results. There is no reason I should be gettingRead more , Sounds like its time to start racing the Bs, @guest_35522! 240W 50kg riders (4.8W/kg) beat 380W 95kg riders in B category Tempus Fugit time trials. Racing the As resp. So am I a super-drafter, the king of indoor efficiency? 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. As a 96kg, 51 year old with an FTP of 317 and a resting HR of about 48 (and a theoretical maximum HR of 174) Im not sure why my lower HR during an event should seen as suspicious. Remember - Zwift is a trainingplatform.. and if a rider feels his/hers motivation to ride, is higher when entering 'wrong' it's ok with me..AND obviously with Zwift too. In some cases this even happens unfairly. Some of the reasons Ive never pushed as hard on a real ride include: Stopping / slowing for junctions Traffic / pedestrians / other hazards Appreciating the view No watt meter on my real bike I dont race in real life I dont do workouts in real life Changing wind Threat of a headwind on my home journey And the biggest: WantingRead more , Agree with the above. There is enough variation in power profile to make it interesting without weight, what makes racing fun is trying to create tactics that favour yourRead more , Interesting & well reasoned article which answers a lot of things which were puzzling me. Login Required The Zwift Engineering team is focused on improving security for ZwiftPower users. But youre not affecting anyone elses experience. ), So what is reverse weight doping? The six-digit number highlighted in bold will be your Zwift ID. Zwift Insider makes a small commission on purchases made from these links, so please shop through them to support our efforts. Fluctuations of a few percent would be tolerated and percent change would be displayed on ZP. Most of the time, this will be what you use to figure out your race category. She can crank but her w/kg is low. Since strava is all that matters of course. 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. ThatRead more . ZwiftPower FAQ We're sure you have several questions about ZwiftPower and what it is. Its ridiculous. I know Ive done it! ZwiftPower - Login Please update your Zwift ID on the connection page to complete registration. This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. Nice work! Why not only require weight and height for entry to A and B races? Either these racers need to calibrate the trainer or they are sandbagging big time. I am not saying that everyone with a low weight on zwift is cheating, but I am suggesting that there are many who are because zwift favours light riders, and people do like to win. The Forerunner 265 series watches have become Garmin's lowest-priced AMOLED display endurance sports-focused watch, coming in at roughly half the price of the Garmin Epix series launched a year ago - but here with full multiband GNSS support on all Forerunner 265 units, while also adding in Training Readiness - a major Garmin endurance sports focused feature. Zwift Insider is independent of Zwift corporate (www.zwift.com), although Zwift does provide funding to help defray site costs. The only place where being heavy helps is on the decent, which are almost all short (except Ventoux and Alpe de Zwift), and as a heavy guy (85kgs) I need to recover on the decent. Im more concerned about the guy who finished 5th with 144bpm. 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. Tough to recover after attacks in a race when youre always near maxing out. Share your thoughts below, and you may also wish to share those thoughts on the actual forum post. 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. My power to weight ratio would be the same, but Id get the benefits you get from being a heavier rider. Same reason there are categories and age group races outdoors! 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. Keep it on. How does it work? Once you have a number for your FTP in watts, divide it by your weight in kilograms. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, I completely agree with the last paragraph here. Stick a few more kgs on to stop you getting upgraded, would that get you a ban? What particularly annoys me is being beaten by light but moderately powerful riders doing individual time trials on flat courses. Maybe with a KICKR Climb it might be possible. As long as the button to enter a lower cat is active, riders will Press It. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Im not too concerned about weight doping really. Now I know it is a thing. Or theyll ride races 1-2 categories below their actual W/kg so they can still win and feel like that theyre legends. Do some races have split out start times so you are only racing with those of similar ability? I have been light and I have been heavy. A good rule we follow is to take our FTP divide it by 3 and then put that in as our weight (in Kilograms). Case in point: in the A race I mentioned, only one rider was heavier than my 85kg dad bod. What is that!?! I think Im just heavier than my competition. Joining ZwiftPower isn't the most straightforward series of steps, but we've broken it down so you can get started as soon as possible. As we said in the first post, Assuming race organizers can access the data via ZwiftPower, and the site includes simple tools for spotting potential weight or height dopers (perhaps flagging those who made dramatic changes recently), then hiding weight and height data from the public should work swimmingly.. I have to say I weigh myself most mornings in the buff (just my glasses on so I can see the numbers)! Take one of our four FTP tests to determine your FTP. As soon as there is a single bit of flat cheerio! Work over time is work over time. Is a very strong rider for his age and trains hard. Is it doping though? This can be seen by comparing Zwift physics with real life physics (calculated by websites likeRead more . Similar to the announcement of the European Super League in soccer, Zwift failed to read the room. In fact, you can change a workout on Zwift about as fast as you can U-turn a bicycle on a real hill. why because of weight, not power. I hope they learn from this and are more careful with things like that in the future. The guy who got first weighs 106kg on strava but 45kg and only 411 on zwift. Yes, there are plenty of variabies, but power is power. I dont mind the low HRs but the low power and high w/kg really irk me! Ive connected my garmin scale with this app https://smartscalesync.com/?utm_source=tr Zwif: your ultimate guide Some races (many, in fact) on Zwift work exactly like that. 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 for the weight, I weight 190lbs, (86Ks) I put in 190lbs. 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. Bikecalculator suggests not Go to http://bikecalculator.com/ enter an 85kg rider, riding on the drops for 16.2kms (ie an ITT) leaving all else unchanged. 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. A good portion of that weight difference is in the Hub's 10.3 . Any thoughts on verifying? 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 . the lighter rider has to ride much harder to stay in the groups with a few big guys cruising along. I dont care anyway. Im in the same boat. however 2 riders at the same w/kg, heavier riders have the advantage on flats & descents: https://zwiftinsider.com/wkg-tests/. hanging with the front group is very though for me because i am exactly at the bridge between A and B. I am 65 kg with FTP of 270 W, which equlas 4,15 w/kg. Taking weight out of the equation you could just make everyones avatar moving forward by holding down the up arrow on their keyboard. You only change it in Zwift and it should get picked up with regular backend processing periodically (maybe overnight). Finally, just head back to ZwiftPower and click 'Connect to my Account'. If you've already created an accountcheck out the s. Zwift posted a follow-up message on the forum, 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. Thanks 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). It all has to do with the way Zwifts racing categories work. How does being heavier help a cyclist? you may ask. I have no idea. nothing more. Exactly. Zwift should offer a Validated Racer package for a slight premium over normal membership. How about simply showing a percentage variance. Zwift should take accountability for what matters most to start with and thats the cheaters. You'll receive a four-digit code, which you'll then have to add to your. Kudos to Zwift for listening to their customers and admitting they made a mistake. IRead more , Aaron, do you know what is the wattage requirement for Cat A? Now in A i get dropped all the time. If it is.. someone must be able to point me to the rule where it says that it is forbidden..? I understand if someone has a banner day or just bumped up out of upper C to lower B. My weight is showing orange everytime. But I also did it because I knew it was great practice! Threshold HR is around 151 bpm. What anyone wants in any game or competition is to feel its fair, and as they look to make changes going forward, I hope people at Zwift always keep asking themselves this question: How can Zwifters see these races are fair?. As others have said, your higher weight helps on flat courses. Zwift power usually looks at numbers vs the category race he entered. Youve got people putting out 5+ watts/kilo atRead more . (Same effect in a sprint, just harder to isolate). I agree with what you say Eric but the weight doping does negatively impact the casual rider if they are following other riders in a casual/social ride. If thats not something that needs fixing then why run any races? At least I can be best in one thing on zwiftpower. Just short of my 68th birthday I still dont see any point in cheating. Im assuming you should weigh just before getting on the bike with all kit including shoes and not just before stepping into the post-ride shower (shorn of all kit and approx 1kg of sweat). Nekkid and I only update my weight in zwift if it moves more than a KG. And this is why reverse weight doping is a thing. Its more fun and engaging that way, for me at least. Why no monitoring on this? Blaming Zwift for eating disorders is not sensible. I never thought i should weigh myself with my kit on. If its a big hill, well then w/kg has us equalised. Ive done multiple races where my main goal was to keep the watts as low as possible while hanging with the front group. w/kg is partially based on real world physics. I currently use the Garmin Smart Scale so I may invest in the Withings scale. Food for thought. Keep hammering the point and finding ways that Zwift can improve controls. I was going flat out the whole race, and by no means cruising along watching my watts. The categories currently used in most Zwift events are based on your FTP watts per kilo- that is, your FTP in watts, divided by your weight in kilograms. 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. The key phrase is assuming both riding at the same W/kg, so for the same watts, if I claim to be 10kgs lighter than I really am my W/kg will increase considerably. Race them if you want, but Rides like Tour de Zwift are not based on rider category, they are based on distance. It lets Zwift racers and race organisers track results and check out all the details of the races they've participated in, as well as monitoring and analysing their data. He had fun laughing at fat dad, but I pipped him at the line! But I will, and Ill get hammered and hopefully improve. IRL if your weight is 85kg, itll take you longer to climb the Ventoux than if your weight is 65. Yes, smaller riders have less frontal area, but the difference in CdA isnt that much. All rights reserved. Too light and watts go down as does watts per kilo. Congratulations John on your retirement and Zwift is a great retirement present. Or theyll ignore leaders instructions and ride off the front of a group (flyers). Current category system simply allows very fast but heavy riders to race in categories lower than their actual abilities. Why we are treating this differently from actual racing? yea but realistically is it worth it for them to dedicate the resources to that $$$$$$$, Well, thats good news. Then everyone would know who is legit or at least somewhat legit. There is no progression from lower to higher categories through placement. In fact, if in a long ride your weight could change by more than 1kg over the course of that one ride!!! Too heavy watts are up but watts per kilo goes down. 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). Dont worry about your weight fluctuating through the week and remember you gain 0.5kg by drinking a half-litre bidon and lose it again through sweat (and by going to the toilet). My solution would make everyones chances equal, while yours would strongly favor heavy riders. (I dont recommend this approach, but it proves the point that weight doping is an issue that concerns many Zwift racers. 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. This clearly shows the power of the Zwift blob it impacts more than just drafting. Knowing when to go hard and having the fitness to do so are also vital skills.). If you set your weight high enough that you fail to do well you will drop in the categories. Im the opposite. Or weight bonuses for completing events that last for a set amount of days or even hours. 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 don't think you can do it from the game itself. Good question. Would depend entirely upon the bike geometry, how much weight is over the front wheel and how much over the back. 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. Why try to force IRL parameters that can not be enforced. While most Zwifters seemed to understand and even appreciate the intent behind the change, there was concern that removing this information would result in increased height/weight doping. Otherwise I stand by my comment. Have you considered drinking during a race? Not everyone has the same HRmax. Im older heavier and relativily fit. 1. As an ambitioned A Racer with no smart scale, I stick to the higher end of the spectrum when setting my Zwift weight once a week. But your point is correct, if someone has a good string of results, upg them regardless of cat limits, and zwift needs to lock them out of cat in-game for it to be effective. Updating Your Privacy Settings in Zwift Companion To update your default privacy settings, sign in to the Zwift Companion (ZC) app on your iOS or Andro.