trail wrote:
giorgitd wrote:
Duncombe statement on VeloNewsThat goes up there with the best (and by 'best' I mean 'worst) excuse statements of all time
Throws data file merging "friend" under bus. Inserts irrelevant paragraph on COVID and eating disorders.
And confirming what ZADA said - not a glimmer of remorse.
Sheesh.
Not an ounce of personal responsibility, all for semi-anonymity in a virtual bike race...
Just couldnt take a (rightfully imposed) one race DQ, so she decided to turn things from an honest mistake (punished by the DQ) to full on data forgery.
On the bright side for her, she’s not anonymous anymore...
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ETA: I just saw the following list of requirements for competition in the Pro-Am races and noticed the following.
ZADA codes wrote:
A) During the race, riders must also record a secondary power source to another device (a Garmin/Wahoo/etc…), in addition to the trainer. Meaning, they need a power meter and must record another file. [2.7.1]
B) Riders are to submit a pre-race weigh-in video per a set instructions [Appendix A: Pre-Race information]
C) Riders are to submit a video recording of riding a specific Zwift test course [Appendix A: Pre-Race information]
D) Riders need to submit the exact model, firmware, serial number, and calibration information of their trainer and power meter prior to the ride, as well as photos of that. [Appendix A: Pre-Race information]
E) Riders need to submit an outdoor ride file on a gradient of 5% or more from the the last 12 months, with 5s/1m/5m/20min efforts. [Appendix A: Pre-Race information]
F) Riders need to submit calibration and spin-down video evidence for both the smart trainer and power meter [Appendix A: Pre-Race information]
G) Riders need to do the hokey pokey, recorded on video. [Appendix Z: Squirrel Section]
It's actually quite difficult for a lot of people to go somewhere with a climb averaging 5% for 20 minutes. I will need to drive 10 hours to Pittsburgh to get to a place with a climb like that. Certain countries don't have any climbs like that.
This also doesn't address a more immediate issue, which is that static calibration on both the PM and the trainer could be gamed. Comparable to the 50% HCT rule, which wasn't a full crack down on EPO and blood doping, quite a few of the rules listed above are of tangential relevance at best.
Much easier to require everyone to purchase certified weight plates (hey, Zwift could even make a buck here by having ZADA engraved into the plates), one 10 kg, one 20 kg. Make people do a video of them taking the mass of the plates on the scale they plan on using, then in the same video, have them do static calibration of the PM they plan on using. Have them submit the excel file with the various offset numbers recorded, and have them use that slope. That's what guarantees the accuracy of the PM. Now that the PM has been standardized (and I believe the slope is reported in the *.fit files), if the recording from the trainer doesn't match up, then there's an issue. Make people do this 3x a year. An added side benefit is that this also guarantees the accuracy of the scale used.
Otherwise, without addressing the more fundamental issue of people adjusting slope on the PM to match the wacky numbers from the trainer, it's all smoke and mirrors anyway. Yeah, some powermeters don't allow people to enter slopes. Well, if ZADA really want integrity of competition to be taken seriously, it should require that either the PM or the trainer to have slopes that can be calibrated (and require people to use data from that device as the primary feed when doing Zwift races).
As @ridenfish39 mentioned above, there are numerous A-grade Zwift racers who can't do what they do indoors when competing outside. I posted rants about this elsewhere, but someone who's a no name at GMSR (a climb-heavy amateur stage race) could apparently do 6.2 w/kg for 20 minutes on Zwift. Rather ludicrous, when our resident climber, who actually won the mountain top finish stage at GMSR and is an actual pro, has a 6.0 w/kg 20-min PB on Zwift, all the while being ~10 kg lighter.
Someone else (a former competitor of mine) who could apparently do 5.0 w/kg (325 W) for 20 minutes on Zwift either has a 0.29 m^2 CdA on the TT bike or uses a faulty PM/trainer when on Zwift.
Sure, go after the easy-picking targets such as Ms. Duncombe and Ms. Berger above, but one could easily do all that ZADA asks and still adulterate the integrity of competition, or one could skip at least step E mentioned above without compromising integrity of competition when people are forced to use PM/trainers with the correct slope.