That's it! The first way is to head into your profile. 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. If I feel happy in my body thats the most important thing for me, and why I rarely weigh myself. Other than that, I rarely look at weight unless some results are very weird. I have heard women admit on social rides that their zwift weight is their goal weightRead more . 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. Since we know that lighter weight=higher virtual speed, this is a very easy way to cheat the system on Zwift. Why can we just all race together and the fastest person wins? indispensabile essere sinceri nel dichiarare il proprio peso , per se stessi e per il rispetto degli altri . Nailed it. Do some races have split out start times so you are only racing with those of similar ability? How does it work? As a lighter racer 136lbs it pisses me off to see cheating. Look at ZP results. Plus imagine how bigRead more . Either these racers need to calibrate the trainer or they are sandbagging big time. Current category system simply allows very fast but heavy riders to race in categories lower than their actual abilities. 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. In a race not in Zwift it is very easy for people to recongize who I am. This afternoon, Zwift posted a follow-up message on the forum. Food for thought. Now you'll have to head over to ZwiftPower.com and register there. If thats the norm, then I really dont see theRead more . Not true, at least not absolutely. But Its hard to confirm whether or not its transmitting the weight to Zwift. You should do much better at your actual weight in that case. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy Click on the Settings button and you'll find the Trainer Difficulty slider. A good portion of that weight difference is in the Hub's 10.3 . The rule set for the categories is so simple yet Id bet >99% dont understand it, to my knowledge cyclingRead more . My 3.9w/kg (a new PR!) I take issue with the weight doping is okay in none competitive events because of strava. IRL if your weight is 85kg, itll take you longer to climb the Ventoux than if your weight is 65. 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. But youre training and racing and getting stronger, and eventually your FTP improves to 260 watts, which is 3.25 w/kg. It just makes a mockery of the whole system. 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. But I get beaten by lots of other zwifters, even on flat courses. Is a very strong rider for his age and trains hard. Hopefully ZHQ will take a harder look the changes that have been proposed over the past year or so. We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices. Keep hammering the point and finding ways that Zwift can improve controls. While the benefits of being light fully kick in while climbing a mountain (as it is easier for smaller guys to achieve certain w/kg), the benefits of being a tall and strong guy dont fully apply in the flats. Would love your thoughts, please comment. 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. But since there are no clear rules on it at this time, its a bit of a self-policing thing with a fair amount of grey area. Well, its adding weight to gain an advantage. So I just bumped myself up to the B group and went faster overall simply because there were faster people to draft off of. Included with this license agreement can be the approval to show height and weight. Some big Zwift races have specific rulesets, etc. Certainly it impacts the accuracy of race performance and results. Everyone races at the same weight/height. Share your thoughts below, and you may also wish to share those thoughts on the actual forum post. Whats the cheaters solution? 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. 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). However, I do understand Kens point. In fact, the only riders at or below my w/kg were minutes off the back. Can someone answer why we need the different categories? Similar to the announcement of the European Super League in soccer, Zwift failed to read the room. You have lowered your weight and skewed your power graph so it is inaccurate. See how you can support Zwift Insider! 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. Zwift excessively rewards the athlete for being light and small. There was a problem. I havent even used my road bike outdoors since 2012. If youre a 300-pound dude who wants to go a little faster uphill as a virtual 200 pounder, have at it. 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. This is especially true if you are trying to ride with riders you possibly know locally or otherwise. LOL. also interesting about this equation are the: wattage data points and the zwift computations of W/Kg. But maybe Im just thinking like a lady its hard for me to imagine a lady voluntarily gaining weight, even virtual weight. The guy who got first weighs 106kg on strava but 45kg and only 411 on zwift. nothing less. This is real frustrating as hes a top u12 racer and wants to see his efforts recognise. are clay hart and sally flynn still married; composite chart 12th house; tupperware party points; st francis of assisi school jobs 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. My last ride I spotted 35kg lad who last week was 56kg. Two months ago he had a magic weight loss on zwift. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. Im about to end up in the same situation (last races at 3.99, 3.98 and 3.99 W/kg) and Im not really worried about being promoted to A. I have no idea. In spectacular and shocking fashion. Im sure it happens, but I would guess its pretty rare certainly less of a problem than normal weight doping. 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. Last week I did the prl full and Uber pretzel and tried to get #1 by weight on those segments. I dont think it can all be attributed to weight; it appears that some hardware tweaks can scale up the reported power output. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. A thank you to Zwift HQ for listening to the feedback from the racing community and taking action. If you gave the power, it will come out. Great article, Eric. It does not stop cheating at all. I agree with your idea. heavy riders have an advantage on flat courses.. https://zwiftinsider.com/wkg-tests/ plus 60-70kg is perferctly normal body weight for adult cyclists, nothing worth complaining about. In real life, Id dust that guy. Heres an idea: Take weigh out of the equation. However, I was able to navigate to the settings page by doing the following. 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. look at the article. If so, that makes sense to me and I can absolutely see the point of that. Is it doping though? . Please refresh the page and try again. 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. Im the opposite. My performance IRL then probably looks pale compared to when Im racing in Zwift, I use the same power meter on Zwift as I do outdoors and I only push it outdoors during FTP tests and during closed road events (i.e. 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. 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. 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 . Im in the same boat. Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Not everyone has the same HRmax. But for most riders watts per kilo rules the day, determining which category you race in Zwift. If you've already created an accountcheck out the s. Thats why there are no top 40 Cat C riders in 70-75Kg range. We remain committed to protecting the health and well being of the broader Zwift Community, and we look forward to enacting additional measures in the future. As for the weight, I weight 190lbs, (86Ks) I put in 190lbs. 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. Put simply, ZwiftPower is a community-driven website that complements the Zwift app. Racing the As resp. Taking weight out of the equation you could just make everyones avatar moving forward by holding down the up arrow on their keyboard. Just like the CEO promised us rowing years ago, right? ), So what is reverse weight doping? I wouldnt personally do it since it throws off training metrics and just isnt true. Thank you for signing up to The Pick. Its going to take a certain amount of calories for a certain person to perform a given amount of work in a given time. Thats the reason why a results category would be more interesting like Erics suggested in his topic. 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.. Check out this FAQ for some of our frequently asked questions: Q:&. Yes, there are plenty of variabies, but power is power. 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. This is why for a while I was ranked as a C even though my w/kg was higher than 3.2 since my watts werent over 200. In IRL there is a double draft. 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. What particularly annoys me is being beaten by light but moderately powerful riders doing individual time trials on flat courses. 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. Yes, but hopefully the system would be designed so, if drop a category then begin doing well, you get upgraded again! She can crank but her w/kg is low. Best turbo trainers: Smart trainers to improve your indoor cycling experience if youre on zwift and intentionally cheating to get whichever fake virtual badge or win whichever fake virtual place in a race, then youre real-life literal loser. That was my first thought when a fellow Zwifter commented on my recent race, Somehow you always get your w/kg down. The 33-pound Hub is 14 pounds lighter than the 47-pound Wahoo Kickr, even though the two trainers are almost exactly the same size. Races can use different schemes to categorise riders, but most of them use this scheme: You can, of course, progress through the ranks as you race. 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. Their hr should also correspond, which they often dont. Race them if you want, but Rides like Tour de Zwift are not based on rider category, they are based on distance. But I will, and Ill get hammered and hopefully improve. Tour de Zwift events were races? Especially for the C and D groups but even for the Bs albeit to a lesser degree. would that be cheating then ? Whether w/kg is the appropriate way to categorise races is anotherRead more , As a 92kg rider, with a w/kg FTP of 289 (or 3.14 w/kg) I wholeheartedly agree. Problem solved! Other planned changes communicated last week, including plans to improve the reporting features in Zwift will be rolled out as planned. I am currently 145kg and have not experienced any bullying so far. Too heavy watts are up but watts per kilo goes down. Someone with my FTP should be CAT B, regardless of weight. 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. On the flats and descents she crushes her w/kg field. Or weight bonuses for completing events that last for a set amount of days or even hours. Hi, very impressive w/kg at 65. 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. Maybe also add weight change limit 2kg per week? EZ and self regulating. I dont mind the low HRs but the low power and high w/kg really irk me! So I dont expect to be as competitive vs. a pure cyclist. My power is often in the top few. Thanks! At all. I once made myself much heavier so I could compete against my 11-year-old son in a head to head Zwift climbing race. Great drafting skills!, Heres the thing: I probably am a fairly efficient racer, when I want to be. How big of a problem is reverse weight doping? Its also why the Zwift Transparency Facebook group was created, where racers post videos of themselves weighing in using a particular protocol which makes it difficult to fake your numbers. Response to our post as well as Zwifts own post in their forum were resoundingly negative from members of the Zwift racing community. otherwise no way in hell hes beating you. Just from riding regularly I went from 166 FTP to 187 in 800 miles over a 2 1/2 months. But theres one problem: this puts you into the B category, and you dont want to race the Bs. The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox! The key phrase there is have the same W/kg its very easy to boost your W/kg simply tell Zwift you are lighter than you really are. triathlon). (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). All the emphasis on physical metrics makes sense for putting together how speed is calculated but not how one can race. 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. My solution would make everyones chances equal, while yours would strongly favor heavy riders. Work over time is work over time. All lists are full of 190cm lads weighting 65kgs. And one cheater leads to another and its an arms race of gaming the game. That is pretty low compared to most people on zwiftpower. Incrasing virtual weight would probaly downgrade me to B again. Find out more about how we test. 2. I wont do and will rather try my very best to compete with the As. In fact, if in a long ride your weight could change by more than 1kg over the course of that one ride!!! You only change it in Zwift and it should get picked up with regular backend processing periodically (maybe overnight). The categorization system is, like you say, fundamentally flawed. ur allowed +/- 5% weight for pro zwift races so +/- 0.5 kg is not going to make a difference :p. add weight if u want to stay in D. lower weight if u wanna move to C. up 2 u. Launch Zwift and go to the Menu. I tried racing a D race, and finished way off the front behind about 2/3 of riders after Id ridden at 2.9W/kg for the race. If I get down to 52 kilos I can climb well but my sprinting is terrible. If you were to meet meRead more . Would achieve the same thing. Im older heavier and relativily fit. Id be super interested in the timing you set your weight. He had fun laughing at fat dad, but I pipped him at the line! Not too many people actually want to see other peoples height or weight except to be able to verify race results are reasonable. People can be far to either direction im 25 and my max that I have hit is 217. With racer categories? I dont think any of my shorter (under 5ft10) running or cycling friends weights more than that. for example,Read more . Im surprised that (off wheel) smart trainers dont have the ability to weigh the rider when they get on the bike. Bob, what on earth is that all about? Daniel has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France and the spring Classics, and has interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel, Mark Cavendish, Demi Vollering, and Anna van der Breggen. You lose 10 liters of sweat during a medium long ride? This calculates that this heavy rider would take 23:14 to do the distance a justRead more , Everyone has a sweet spot for weight. I have wondered about this subject on a few occasions. Level 50. Im a heavy rider at 102kgs and 193cm tall I once reverse doped my weight at the top of the radio tower to try and achieve the 100km/HR badge It had the opposite effect in that I was actually slower than when descending at my actual weight lol I dont race other than against myself so Ive never weight doped as such My observations recently however have created an awareness of how many stick insects ride bikes on zwift . On Zwift I look suspicous. I did this because I had a particular effort level planned for my workout that day, and didnt want to exceed it. Wow, cheating !! 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." No one is going to lose or gain 5kg overnight or shrink a 1cm. This site contains affiliate links to Amazon, Wahoo, and other brands. Lucky forRead more . See how you can support Zwift Insider! Why try to force IRL parameters that can not be enforced. I put my real weight 95% of the time. Case in point: in the A race I mentioned, only one rider was heavier than my 85kg dad bod. If people want to cheat, they will and can do so in any uncontrolled situation. 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. As soon as there is a single bit of flat cheerio! You do you. 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 .