Which brings me to todays topic: reverse weight doping. Or theyll ignore leaders instructions and ride off the front of a group (flyers). Conserving energy is a key part of successful bike racing. 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. 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). Its ridiculous. It would be easy to deny it was intentional. Best Zwift setups: Indoor cycling setups to give you the competitive edge. I just got upgraded to CAT A according to zwiftpower. How about simply showing a percentage variance. stop worrying about whatRead more . I have a Withings scale and in the Zwift Settings, it shows up as connected. Its only a bit of fun at my level (solid B with the odd podium). However, I was able to navigate to the settings page by doing the following. How Do I Change My FTP On Zwift? It's harder than real racing. Food for thought. People still rode at B level pace in a C group. (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). 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. 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. Level 50. Contribute a post, shop through us, make a donation, advertise on this site. 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. Nailed it. (better than any bike upgrade i could afford) Yes its great to win,but as long as you improve yourself who cares what anyone else does.You will always get cheaters,dodgy equipment and so on so just enjoyRead more . The categorization system is, like you say, fundamentally flawed. For example, if a rider has an FTP of 210 watts and weighs 75 kilograms, that means the rider's FTP is 2.8 w/kg. Everyone else in the race is riding flat out (your own HR was 174bpm) but these guys are just cruising along watching their watts and are then able toRead more , Not sure its that simple I am a heavy category C racer, and (funnily enough) finished 5th in both my recent Crit City races with average HR of 153 and 150. Head to http://my.zwift.com/ and hover your mouse cursor over the 'Download' button under one of your activities. As far as my weight goes the only thing I care about is being as accurate as I can to get accurate results. Also a really frustrating thing is why doesnt Zwift autoRead more , is he riding in the right category? 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. A good rule we follow is to take our FTP divide it by 3 and then put that in as our weight (in Kilograms). 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. We would like to thank the community for your passion and feedback. I currently weigh 59kgs but my BMI is 25 which technically overweight. Secondly, Zwifts statement says they agree there is a need for tools that deliver greater transparency to Zwift racing. Thats good to see, and we completely agree! Thats the graph. In fact, if in a long ride your weight could change by more than 1kg over the course of that one ride!!! If there are problems, Zwift already has a reporting function and everything is recorded police that properly andRead more . Would depend entirely upon the bike geometry, how much weight is over the front wheel and how much over the back. 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.. How does being heavier help a cyclist? you may ask. On Zwift, weight dopers seek to gain an advantage by entering a lower-than-life weight into their Zwift profile. It points to the need for a results-based categorization system, which I discussed a month ago in the final post of my race category series. I hope they learn from this and are more careful with things like that in the future. i was just having a similar discussion with my old lady about watts and weights, etc. Zwift doesnt like this and disqualifies him on Zwift power. Keep it on. Why dont you start self-regulating then? I ride B category races & never podium but have been puzzled as I always seem to have a higher w/kg than most of the other riders in the race. Work over time is work over time. Someone sandbagging will get promoted out of category and will not be allowed to reg for lower categories. You'll receive a four-digit code, which you'll then have to add to your. However, I have a lighter and faster son that smokes me head to head. As a relatively light 69kg rider, I often feel at a disadvantage in the flatter races, of which there are many more than hilly ones. .Personally I one of the outliers on height and weight. Zwift can wipe your Zwift Power profile and give you a clean slate to start over if you want, but I think you will lose all past data. Either these racers need to calibrate the trainer or they are sandbagging big time. Generally weigh myself once a month. Many riders is talking about cheating, when someone enters a lower category but it's not, in my opinion. either a) ur starting ur sprint way too late or b) ur leading him out. 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. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, This clearly shows the power of the Zwift blob it impacts more than just drafting. Nice work! Whatever your answer, some people will never like it, but there has to be a clear, credible answer for the majority to support. The easiest way to qualify for a higher category is to cut weight. ZwiftPower - Login Please update your Zwift ID on the connection page to complete registration. I completely missed these as I reinvented the wheel, trying to stir up the hornets nest on the Zwift forums the other day. Threshold HR is around 151 bpm. He argues hes not gaining an advantage. This isnt IRL racing it is e-racing. This can be seen by comparing Zwift physics with real life physics (calculated by websites likeRead more . (I dont recommend this approach, but it proves the point that weight doping is an issue that concerns many Zwift racers. If they keep riders from competing in categories below their ranking, it will reduce the number of sandbaggers and cruisers. I am always passed by everyone on the way up but can usually catch up on the way down (190cm/93kg). 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. That a cat rider may win a d race but on zwiftpower they will be DQd for not riding an A race. 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. They do? Im not sure Id say the algorithms help heavier riders in descents. I started started zwift four months ago as a retirement present to myself. What you see a lot are riders who are (claiming) to be really light with decent but not exceptional watts. If you are on the lighter side, try picking some climbing races. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The best solution would be for Zwift to actively monitor all racing for people cheating. MyRead more . But without any hard and fast rules, we cant say anything is illegalat least for certain races. I agree Paul great idea. Two months ago he had a magic weight loss on zwift. Zwift is full of cheaters and thats not going to change now. Terms of Use/DMCA Copyright Policy there seems to be a lot of variability in power products and what people are using to feed into zwift. On Zwift I look suspicous. Tie that together with not letting people race in a lower (but letting them race in a higher) cat, and youll have fixed a number of the issues. I do ZHR Masters on a Tuesday night. Especially for the C and D groups but even for the Bs albeit to a lesser degree. It this fair? I did this because I had a particular effort level planned for my workout that day, and didnt want to exceed it. Though our intent is to protect potentially vulnerable users by removing labels that can trigger unhealthy behaviour What are they trying to protect? (Same effect in a sprint, just harder to isolate). The only trouble is the downhill doesnt take as long of course, so the light advantage is obviously better. 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. Would achieve the same thing. On one occasion I entered a flat race (Laguardia Loop) following my ZP category (class C), finished almost three minutes down (though since it was a small field I still got third place), and then was disqualified for averaging 3.6 w/kg and 206 watts. More of an issue than thisRead more . Completing this first step means that you've given permission to share your results and activity history with ZwiftPower, so now all of your performance and race data can be transferred across to the website. It all has to do with the way Zwift's racing categories work. 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 . In fact, you can change a workout on Zwift about as fast as you can U-turn a bicycle on a real hill. There is no reason I should be gettingRead more , Sounds like its time to start racing the Bs, @guest_35522! Some people, I think, just have a lower HR. Their hr should also correspond, which they often dont. Exactly, although As arent that regulated, unless you hit the premier class, which is a very small section of A riders. Share your thoughts below! yea but realistically is it worth it for them to dedicate the resources to that $$$$$$$, Well, thats good news. I dont know why this is, but i dont care one bit if people are cheating. Youll move a little slower with the added virtual weight, but youll be able to hang with the front of the Cs instead of getting shelled off the back of the Bs. I think Im just heavier than my competition. You have lowered your weight and skewed your power graph so it is inaccurate. Or theyll ride races 1-2 categories below their actual W/kg so they can still win and feel like that theyre legends. Please refresh the page and try again. Certainly it impacts the accuracy of race performance and results. Then save your ride and log out. Keep hammering the point and finding ways that Zwift can improve controls. Wow, cheating !! I never thought i should weigh myself with my kit on. Racing the As resp. I love reading it. Even if Id ridden at threshold a little over 4 W/kg, I wouldnt have been able to hang onto the front in a D race, it seems. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). Ive done multiple races where my main goal was to keep the watts as low as possible while hanging with the front group. also interesting about this equation are the: wattage data points and the zwift computations of W/Kg. 2022 Primr RWB League - Cycling Ireland eRacing Winter League. The six-digit number highlighted in bold will be your Zwift ID. Last week we announced Zwifts plans to remove rider height and weight from ZwiftPower, among other changes (read the full post here). First up, you'll have to head to Zwift.com and log in, then click on Settings > Profile > Connections and choose 'opt-in' under the ZwiftPower logo. The bottom line is that in any competition there will always be someone who wants to cheat to win.Read more . You could attend races where all categories go together (same start, all riders visible) for a while if you find that to be more fun I think one of the biggest issues with weight (and height) in Zwift is that you get punished really hard for something you only have limited control over. Hahahahaha. IRL I am 85kgs and cant pretend to be 65kgs. If I am racing I want to be able to look across at the guy/girl next to me (ie on the Companion app) and get an idea if they are going to kill me on the next hill, or not are they a 185cm/90kg guy versus my 172cm/74kg. Im older heavier and relativily fit. But I get beaten by lots of other zwifters, even on flat courses. It just makes a mockery of the whole system. See how you can support Zwift Insider! Case in point: in the A race I mentioned, only one rider was heavier than my 85kg dad bod. Everything you need to know about the third-party Zwift results and analysis website. Currently trying to convince a friend who is new to Zwift not to reverse weight dope. But maybe Im just thinking like a lady its hard for me to imagine a lady voluntarily gaining weight, even virtual weight. 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. I have no idea. Stick a few more kgs on to stop you getting upgraded, would that get you a ban? My weight is showing orange everytime. Category systems are complex beasts, of course, I agree, people can have fun with weight doping and such aslong they dont enter competitive races. On the flats and descents she crushes her w/kg field. 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. As some others already mentioned, the bodyweight tends to oscillate over the week and even the day. 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 . I currently use the Garmin Smart Scale so I may invest in the Withings scale. How doRead more . I never reverse weight doped. 2.5w/kg (215Watts) is hard for me to hold for extended periods but I keep trying. nothing less. You must be a much better person than me, because thats something I will Never make peace with. Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. 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). 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. I wont do and will rather try my very best to compete with the As. If youre a 300-pound dude who wants to go a little faster uphill as a virtual 200 pounder, have at it. So am I a super-drafter, the king of indoor efficiency? Ive seen many A Riders with 300 FTP on Zwift who I beat by a HUGE MARGIN at triathlon events, including the cycling portion. As such, we have agreed to pause this change while we develop tools that deliver greater transparency to Zwift racing while promoting wellness. Too heavy watts are up but watts per kilo goes down. As a low to mid-cat rider, ImRead more . Although does WTRL encourage reverse weight doping? However, insecure Freds jumpingRead more , I am new to Zwift, but I do wonder how it is youll see a bunch of people finish at the front of a D race at 4-5 W/kg. 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. Yes thats completely unacceptable, you should never be at a disadvantage at any time in your life, just as your mother raised you. My guess is that another reason some do it, is because it gives you points on zwiftpower, becauseRead more . (and dont do organized rides for fairness) so I dont have resistance changes and sometimes zwift reports extraordinary power readings for a ride. . 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. Since strava is all that matters of course. Well Eric, my weight is plummeting, and Ill probably be taking a break from Zwift over the summer, so Im sure the upgrade is coming very soon!!! Well, its adding weight to gain an advantage. I know its just virtual but my godi hope they enjoy their lies. I rode outside last night, and Im sure I will again soon. Fluctuations of a few percent would be tolerated and percent change would be displayed on ZP. Not too many people actually want to see other peoples height or weight except to be able to verify race results are reasonable. I understand if someone has a banner day or just bumped up out of upper C to lower B. If its not done during a competitive Zwift event, I dont see it as a problem. My power to weight is decent at about 4w/kg. 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. My FTP/kg is 3.88, which I now know would make me a B racer (3.2-3.9). 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. Chip on the shoulder there or what? ZwiftPower FAQ We're sure you have several questions about ZwiftPower and what it is. 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. When you're in the game, click "Menu". 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. Here it is in its entirety: Last week we outlined a number of planned changes to address harassment and further safeguard the health and wellbeing of the Zwift Community. I started zwifting about 2 1/2 months ago.I did the ftp test and put in the correct weight.Ive no idea how precise my trainer is tho.what i do know is,Ive managed to go from cat c to a. If so, that makes sense to me and I can absolutely see the point of that. You will receive a verification email shortly. I agree WTRL ZRL races dont feel like they have cheaters. ), So what is reverse weight doping? Monthly weigh ins arent perfect but they are better than no weigh ins. We really like the sound of this: 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. I know Ive done it! However, I definitely recommend entering some races. Updating Your Public Profile Zwift takes your physical measurements into account for things like leaderboards, speed, and your avatar's physical appea. Okay, I now see in ZP where it has my minimum racer category (B) in my profile based on my last race, so I can choose B or A going forward. I rarely race, don't care. No race Chester worth their salt pops in and changed weight ahead of a race, what they do is post the wrong weight and leave it there. You enter a real race,out in the world, you are ready to finish in the top 20 for your best result of your life,then out of the blue a dirt bike rides past you goes tabletop and crossesRead more . Have you ever compared numbers for calories burned, power output and even elevation ridden for a Zwift ride uploaded to Strava? All rights reserved. Using your Mac or PC, you can do it online on the Zwift website. IfRead more . That's pretty straightforward the usual email, username, password, terms and conditions so you won't have any trouble with this step. In some cases this even happens unfairly. This covers name changes as well as weight/height changes during an event. 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. The other race, events, and activities are needed to display that data. Most of the time, this will be what you use to figure out your race category. Racers who get top 1,2,3 more than a few times get upgraded period. Im new to Zwift and its racing and what I like notice is how well I do compared to theRead more , This is not just about cheating. When a rider can change categories by modifying their virtual body weight, thats an issue. Privacy Policy, How to Race on Zwift (Setup, Strategy, and More). For the time being, height and weight will remain visible on ZwiftPower. As a 59/60kg rider who always seems to have a higher w/kg than the people I finish around, Ive been curious about adding 50% to both my weight and http://ftp. 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. It does the job as described. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. People can be far to either direction im 25 and my max that I have hit is 217. Why not only require weight and height for entry to A and B races? I was wondering is it possible to get the graph at the bottom of the screen that shows youre power and other stuff on a normal ride and not doing a FTP test or workout. This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. Note how he wins races while his max HR is around 30 beats below his maximum. This site contains affiliate links to Amazon, Wahoo, and other brands. You only change it in Zwift and it should get picked up with regular backend processing periodically (maybe overnight). Not knowing what to pick and with minutes until the my first race, I selected the C group and was thus filtered out of the Zwift Power race results when I then posted a 4.00w/kg over the 28 minute race. If I feel happy in my body thats the most important thing for me, and why I rarely weigh myself. But I will, and Ill get hammered and hopefully improve. How big of a problem is reverse weight doping? Cheapest Zwift setup: Everything to help you onto Zwift for the first time Im surprised that (off wheel) smart trainers dont have the ability to weigh the rider when they get on the bike. Cyclingnews is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Weight doping is a key challenge for cycling esports to overcome, and its one reason why many big races (e.g., those with prize money) require riders to show up and weigh in on-location in a supervised environment. Blaming Zwift for allowing cheaters is the system problem that gets more people frustrated, upset, etc. Now in A i get dropped all the time. Zwift doesn't need a fancy code fix, they don't need special anti-cheat software, special post race investigations, and they don't need to change anything other than when the game updates personal attributes. There are two ways to do this. thanks for the help with the graphs. nothing more. You weigh 80kg and have an FTP of 248 watts, which works out to 3.1 w/kg. There could be Zwift level weight bonuses instead of another pair of socks. Yes us heavier riders have the downhill advantage definitely. My IRL time and my Zwift time are almost the same. To change your profile to have to log in on the Zwift website and then edit the profile there. My W/Kg has gone from 3.76 to 3.97 without me really improving my FTP. How many cyclists do you see in real life who are 65kgs, but they are ten a penny on Zwift. Ill remain skeptical until I see some actual changes. In theory (at least) weight dopers could game the results based categories as well. My power to weight ratio would be the same, but Id get the benefits you get from being a heavier rider. Problem solved! This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. If people want to cheat, they will and can do so in any uncontrolled situation. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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. The issues with e-racing remain the same, and largely ignored for years now. Now head back to ZwiftPower, click 'Connect' at the top of the page, then enter your Zwift ID in the box when prompted. Take one of our four FTP tests to determine your FTP. Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. 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. Youre having fun winning (or nearly winning) C races! Keep answering that question and youll keep most people on side. 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. Incrasing virtual weight would probaly downgrade me to B again. Some big Zwift races have specific rulesets, etc. Then everyone would know who is legit or at least somewhat legit. Though our intent is to protect potentially vulnerable users by removing labels that can trigger unhealthy behaviours, we also hear the concerns of the racing community. Thats hilarious. I have seen riders weighting 56 kgs and week later they are 35 kgs. Manually change your weight in Zwift by adding 10 pounds. Sure, easy! It all has to do with the way Zwifts racing categories work. Why not ride to your strengths? Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. But then you could have someone in the same age group who maxes out at 170. Blaming Zwift for eating disorders is not sensible. 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. You'll receive a four-digit code, which you'll then have to add to your last name back in your Zwift settings (you can change it back after the process is completed). As there is no official A+ CAT there is nothing to worry about, but if there were, I would be right between A and A+. That is pretty low compared to most people on zwiftpower. Im quite heavy, at about 85kgs, but also 183cms tall (and 52 years old). What I think your articles miss to point out, though, (Im sure you are well aware of the problem), like people have mentioned already, is exactly how many cheaters there are that manage to stay in lineRead more . Totally agree with you. If I were to drop say a kg obviously the watts required would not change to keep at the speed of the group andRead more , Youll go faster at a lighter weight on the flats. BA1 1UA. You lose 10 liters of sweat during a medium long ride? Absolutely impossible. As others have said, your higher weight helps on flat courses. I think the Zwift algorithm is quite relevant because it implies a good workout in any race for any kind of rider (and thats what we are looking for).

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