I just started training again after a multi-year hiatus and 20lb weight gain. Wasn’t ever an even decent cyclist in terms of power, but I held my own at local tria, running always moved me up in the races.

Started Zwift last week and it opened my eyes to how bad I actually am on the bike. But, it is an amazing training tool. I work harder in the ~hour long races than I ever have in training, and I know this sounds crazy, but I’m seeing results after two weeks.

It is shocking to see the power some folks put out.

This thread makes me feel a little better. At 2.4-5 w/kg, at 88kg, the hills are destroying me.

My question: should I wait to upgrade gear, or upgrade as quickly as possible? It seems like using all my points for a marginal upgrade seems, well, marginal. Any advice on this?

https://zwiftinsider.com/...at-each-zwift-level/

Think zwift is great and from their POV as long as people are using and paying they are not going to ban anyone. Loved the London race the other day watching Brownlee and Co and thought these guys are putting out the same numbers as many of the normal zwift races.

So Zwift racers in the main don't have credibility, but it doesn't impact Zwift Business and Zwift don't value credible and honest performance.

IM in its VR2 had and let stand people in their late 40's and 50's doing almost 60 Kph even allowing for the resistance less world of zwift, these legends then ran 45 minutes for 10 K.

When local nobodies claim to be credible but have numbers better than glowing Ullrich they should juts hang thier heads in shame, but they defend it.

https://sportsscientists.com/...009-power-estimates/

https://cyclingtips.com/...indicator-of-doping/

As the top zwifters are probably not doping but many are putting out w/kg that raise concerns for some of the very best that have ever ridden per old Le Mond would have to race B in Zwift.

What do we think they are doing

Somebody linked to the insider article, but Chris Pritchard has done some work in terms of most efficient combo. You can search him on YouTube. As far as I can recall:

Rolling course - tron bike. You start the Everest challenge and climb to 50000 meters to get that one.

Hill: Specialized Tarmac Pro/mielenstein wheels. You can buy the tarmac early-ish, but the mielenstein you get randomly after you climb Alpe de Zwift. I believe you can buy Enve 3.4 early though. They are pretty close.

Flat: s-works venge/808-super 9. I think you need a high-ish level to get the venge, but most can get the 808/super 9.

Honestly though, the time differences between wheels and frames don’t make a huge difference as long as you pick an aero frame for flat and a light frame for hills with the appropriate wheels.

I have all of the fastest combos and I’m still at a disadvantage climbing because I’m 83kg. The fastest thing for me to do now is lose weight.

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Dan Mayberry
Amateur a lot of things, professional a few things.

Yup, don't want to piss off the paying customers. Strava could also make it easier to bulk-flag ebikes, car shuttle rides, and people who bike running segments but the "casual user" is a large untapped market of potential subscribers to piss off.

I did a ~25min vertical ski race against Kilian Jornet (world class, but maybe a step below a grand tour contender in terms of "fitness") and finished 15% back. I feel like W/kg correlates closely to VAM and it is laughable that it seems like everyone and their dog could do more than 15% more W/kg than me...

For the people doing it honestly we can still get what we want out of it and that's great. Longer term Zwift may find that it diminishes the racing aspect too much.

Love that people ask the question who are these guys? Might be better to ask what they are and as they have more aerobic engine than Jan Ullrich why they didn't do more with their talent than play at cycling on a video game

"What do we think they are doing"
I think we are in agreement, a lot of the top performances are suspect however I still am 100% certain there are some extremely fast "amateurs" on Zwift.
Just by comparing my current performance (42m.) to when I was only racing bikes (15 years ago) I know that I was at least 10% stronger then ... to think of some lightweight climbers that would be another 10% faster and never become pro is not too far fetched.
For example had a team-mate who won la Marmotte, 2nd in Maratona etc. and def. clean! ... these guys would give a lot of non top-climber pro's a very hard time on a single mountain ascent!

That old Upton Sinclair line applies any time when a person/organization doesn't do the sensible thing. Knowing how businesses operate and behave, I don't think it's at all cynical to view their actions through this lens



I bet as soon as they figure out a way to monetize more reasonable racing (e.g. by charging extra for races or something), they'd be all for it...

Hell, they could make even more dough by requiring one to purchase certain pre-approved scales for mass measurements. Of course, that still doesn't solve the issue of inacurate PM measurements

Zwift racing is fun but it’s the wild Wild West.
I know a bunch of guys, a couple that are top racers on Zwift too, that I’ve crushed in real life. I don’t understand how they make pro level numbers indoors and cannot win a mid level race outside. If you can do 6 w/kg for 15 minutes on an indoor trainer you should be able to annihilate any local race.

All I want to know is how to hit 28 W/kg like the guy who passed me today. Those are impressive numbers.