I am a relatively new Zwift rider (less than a year) and rarely do races. I mostly do group rides keeping my effort levels at zone 2 with an odd sprint here and there. Prior to last night, I think I’d only done 2 or 3 actual Zwift races with the last one being back in March.
Prior to entering the race, I checked my Zwift Power category and it said I was in D. Hence, I entered the D category for the race - Herd’s Bullseye Points Race (8 laps of LaGuardia Loop Reverse). Immediately after starting one rider goes off the front never to be seen again. I ride three laps with a group of four other riders but eventually start to pull away from them and end up finishing 2nd about 2:30 down to the lead rider and 20 seconds ahead of the other four riders I had been riding with early on. There were another 7 or 8 riders that were 5+ minutes behind me.
The results in the companion app show I held 2.9 w/kg for just under 40 mins. The lead rider shows as holding 3.4 w/kg. When I checked results on Zwift Power the first thing I noticed is that I don’t have a placing listed and next to the race name there’s a WKG icon. Also, my category is now listed as “D Almost C.”
So, did I just sandbag this race and should I have entered the C category even though I was listed as D on Zwift Power? Btw, Zwift Power now shows my FTP at 2.93 w/kg (not sure what it was showing before the race) but in reality it’s more like 3.2 w/kg.
I believe Zwiftpower filtered out your placing because you exceeded the w/kg for the D category.
Based on your performance, you should consider trying a C category race next time and see how it goes. If your FTP is truly 3.2 w/kg, you are technically on the fence between C & B category… and yes, technically sandbagging in “D”.
I am a relatively new Zwift rider (less than a year) and rarely do races. I mostly do group rides keeping my effort levels at zone 2 with an odd sprint here and there. Prior to last night, I think I’d only done 2 or 3 actual Zwift races with the last one being back in March.
Prior to entering the race, I checked my Zwift Power category and it said I was in D. Hence, I entered the D category for the race - Herd’s Bullseye Points Race (8 laps of LaGuardia Loop Reverse). Immediately after starting one rider goes off the front never to be seen again. I ride three laps with a group of four other riders but eventually start to pull away from them and end up finishing 2nd about 2:30 down to the lead rider and 20 seconds ahead of the other four riders I had been riding with early on. There were another 7 or 8 riders that were 5+ minutes behind me.
The results in the companion app show I held 2.9 w/kg for just under 40 mins. The lead rider shows as holding 3.4 w/kg. When I checked results on Zwift Power the first thing I noticed is that I don’t have a placing listed and next to the race name there’s a WKG icon. Also, my category is now listed as “D Almost C.”
So, did I just sandbag this race and should I have entered the C category even though I was listed as D on Zwift Power? Btw, Zwift Power now shows my FTP at 2.93 w/kg (not sure what it was showing before the race) but in reality it’s more like 3.2 w/kg.
So, you knew your FTP was 3.2 w/kg and when you signed up
Yes, roughly.
but you felt the “1.0-2.4 W/KG” bracket seemed more accurate
I’m not sure what you’re referring to here. Is that some relation to the categories or something? Like I mentioned, I checked the Zwift Power ranking category prior to the race and entered what it said I was listed as. In fact, I’m still listed as a D category rider for some reason.
Based on your performance, you should consider trying a C category race next time and see how it goes.
That’s my plan for the next time. I like doing a hard effort on Wednesday afternoon/evenings and with it getting dark earlier now (and cold soon), it’s going to be more challenging to make the local Wednesday night hammer ride. A Zwift race seems like a good solution.
If your FTP is truly 3.2 w/kg
Is there a way to manually update your FTP on Zwift power? As far as I can tell it pulls from your best 20 min efforts on Zwift but since I rarely ride hard on Zwift (mostly zone 2 stuff), my best 20 min effort prior to last night was fairly low and even last night is low if I were doing a stand alone 20 min effort. Last night’s effort was over slightly less than 40 mins.
It’s a Zwift race. enter your correct category on the sign up page, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter and no one should actually care. The reality is there will always be sandbags and cheaters.
Overhead this in the tent next to us at a recent crit - Someone asked a cat 5 what his power was for his race - Apparently, Cat 5 roadie forgot to change his power meter back to actual power for his race. He set it to double the readings for zwift racing so he could win the A level races. So his power meter read NP 370, yet he’s a cat 5 and didnt win. People are pathetic.
So, you knew your FTP was 3.2 w/kg and when you signed up
Yes, roughly.
but you felt the “1.0-2.4 W/KG” bracket seemed more accurate
I’m not sure what you’re referring to here. Is that some relation to the categories or something? Like I mentioned, I checked the Zwift Power ranking category prior to the race and entered what it said I was listed as. In fact, I’m still listed as a D category rider for some reason.
Zwift/Zwiftpower only know what you’ve done on Zwift. If all of your sustained riding online was at less than 2.4w/kg, that’s all they have to base your ranking on…
Is there a way to manually update your FTP on Zwift power? As far as I can tell it pulls from your best 20 min efforts on Zwift but since I rarely ride hard on Zwift (mostly zone 2 stuff), my best 20 min effort prior to last night was fairly low and even last night is low if I were doing a stand alone 20 min effort. Last night’s effort was over slightly less than 40 mins.
You don’t need to update it. There’s nothing that prevents you from entering a category above your ranking. If you look at your profile page, your category is listed as “Minimum Category”, and as ZwiftPower explains it: “The lowest category you can race in without being disqualified in your ZwiftPower results. You can always race in a higher category to push yourself”. After a few more races with efforts that reflect your real ability, they’ll automatically upgrade your w/kg and category…