At least if there was automatic results-based categorization, the cheaters would end up racing against other cheaters, and leave us honest low-performers flounder together in the lower cats.
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That was a fun one @AndyGajda I didn’t realize there was commentary.
I was cooked going into that one from a morning SS workout. Tough right from the start. I ended up capping it at threshold and letting the leaders go when they punched it on the climb. I wish I’d known about it ahead of time and I might have switched around a workout to have a chance at mixing it up. Nice thing with zwift, there’s always another race tomorrow… or in 15min 
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I agree with Bbt67. Aside from the issues with e-doping or sanbagging, if this was a 25 minute race, you should expect that people are going to be able to ride higher than their FTP. You should be able to hold your FTP for longer than 25mins. Of course, this doesn’t consider that if you draft a lot than you will be going faster than if you rode solo at your FTP.
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I’m doing my first race on there - a TT on Zwift tomorrow, part of the Tri Academy thing.
Any tips? There’s no drafting (I assume that means you just don’t get the benefit, rather than you have to keep your distance), and I don’t much care about the result.
I knew I’d have no chance on the climb so went for TV time on the flat, then got gracefully dropped!! I wish I had gone a little deeper on the hill though as I could have picked up a few more places!!
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Not much to do in a TT besides get a good warm up and measure your effort just like IRL. The drafting and pack physics in zwift is where the game comes into play and experience can beat strength more times than not.
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How do you know which races are being streamed?
You can check the Zwift Community Live Facebook/website/twitch and it’ll usually tell you when they are going live👍
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I missed the TT yesterday but managed to my first race in tour de Zwift London Classique.
It was lots of fun! 
I won my mini race, huge sprint finish for 69th🏆
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Hello TR crowd. I am new to TR and have been on Zwift for over 2 years now. I have been racing on Zwift for just over a year. I for one would love to see Zwift implement a Zwiftpower type enforcement (or any enforcement at all) for racing to make things as fair as possible in game at the time of the race. I have always thought that it just does not seem right to have to go through a 3rd party that removes people after the fact. I hope that 2020 will bring big changes in the category enforcement department, fingers crossed. This is probably my only complaint about Zwift racing.
I will say this about my experience with Zwift racing, it is the most fun I have had on an indoor trainer and they are some of the most intense workouts I have ever experienced. I worked my way up to be within the top 15 out of thousands within the D Cat at one point in time per Zwiftpower rankings. I have always been 100% honest about my weight/height, kept a calibrated trainer, etc… bottom line is that I am “clean”. There are certainly people who join D races and are gone never to be seen again, but after a few races you realize this and that they will be DQd on Zwiftpower. It is certainly possible to race clean and win within the Zwiftpower enforcement system. I would also say it is nearly impossible to win your cat outright at the actual time of the race if you are in your proper Cat. Too many sandbag or sign up for the wrong Cat.
Zwift racing benefits…
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You can race 24hours a day. At least 1 race and sometime 4 per hour kick off. Race lengths from 2.5 miles to 100 miles available. TTs are now available, TTTs are now available, climbing AdZ (3,400ft vert mountain top finish) are available, flat races, rolling races, race series with overall leaders and points systems on ZP are available…. nearly every option. I have raced at 4am, 9am, noon, 7PM, 10pm, etc. Just open the app, register, and hop on your trainer. I cannot say enough about the convenience factor.
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You can use Zwiftpower to see others in your race within the live tab while you are racing. From there you can see who is going over power and will be DQ’d. Use this info to your advantage (don’t chase and blow up if they are taking a flyer). This only works for those on ZP though.
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The starts and sprint finishes really wreck me in a good way. I never knew I had 1200W in me!! Never saw my HR over 186 before but a hard Z race saw me hit 194!
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I am ok with people who have not upgraded and have higher cat fitness. In fact those are the ones I want to race. In Jan and Feb 2019 I was dominate in the D group and it allowed to learn a lot, when to be conservative, what attacks to go with, when to sprint, etc. When I first got into it there was nothing but “hold on for dear life”. That may be good for fitness but it was more fun to dictate the race and when you were up against others in the same boat with a high level of fitness it was fun, win or lose.
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It is a great opportunity to be competitive and get a great workout at the same time.
I for one would love it if/when Zwift comes out with their own system it includes overall rankings and a points system to which you are restricted for which Cat you can register. Ideally a system that went deep into you numbers and maybe put my in a higher cat for flat/sprint races and a lower cat for pure climb races. Imagine that… a specific TT, hilly, climb, flat, etc ranking specific to each so you get really good competition based on that specific course profile!! I can only dream.
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Looking at the results of one of the Tour de Zwift Stage 3 races a friend of mine participated in. D category, front-runners finished in approx 30 mins - and FTP should be approx 95% of 30-min power, therefore the strongest D-cat riders should have an average power around 2.6W/kg since the class is restricted to 2.49 W/kg FTP.
The first rider not above 2.6W/kg average for the race finished 17th. The top 9 are all above 3.0 W/kg, with the winner at 3.7. There are only 8 riders at or below 2.6 in the top 40.
Not sure what the point of these categories are if nobody follows them, and nobody reclassifies riders after the fact (other than Zwiftpower).
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There are definitely some suspicious results in zwift races. Take it for what it is worth, a great workout, and a lot of fun. Maintaining above FTP for a 20-25 minute race is not hard to believe at all. Perhaps someone else has already mentioned this (I didn’t read all the responses); but of course, FTP is how much you are supposed to be able to hold for an hour (in theory). So, you can go deeper than that for 20 minutes. A traditional FTP test takes about 95% of your 20 minute power to get your FTP.
Zwift races start incredibly fast. It is like a cyclocross race from the gun, so go really hard for the first 3-4 minutes, then settle in. A crit city race is going to be hard the whole way with micro rests. A good warm up is a must. Give them another try would be my recommendation, they are fun, and a great workout.
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I think a lot of people join a “C” race thinking it’ll be a cruisy one, just sit in and wait for the last few km’s to pick up the pace then have a reality check when it’s full gas from the start. Zwift racing is more about what YOU get out of it then the actual results. In my experience, as my fitness increases I break my 5, 20, and 60 minute Power and HR records (based on TrainingPeaks data) in Zwift races, and this is in conjunction with doing road/crits outside as well. Meaning that I have more continuous effort on Zwift, and the output is higher. We all know a byproduct of the trainer is no rest, even going downhill. All these threads about expecting fair classifications, calling people “cheaters” because they’re faster or sandbagging are comical, we all know the shortcomings of Zwift, but at the end of the day, it’s an amazing tool for getting faster IRL, regardless of what the leader board says.
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So lately I’ve been jumping on these tour de zwift races for some eye candy during my sweet spot intervals (with rest between intervals it’s guaranteed I’ll be close to last). I’ve jumped on C events where I’m going out of the gate at 3.8w/kg and quickly fall back to 80 or something and even when the race settles I don’t gain spots. So there are surely sandbaggers at the front keeping the pace high.
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Regardless of what grade, you have to start at V02 to even have any chance, my last Race I started at 400w for 3mins and settled back to threshold I pickled up a couple from B but rest of the grade they put time into me. Take Zwift racing for that it is, its good incentive and can give you motivation but the results definitely don’t matter IRL.
There is a racing league in Australia, The Chop which is heavily moderated and as its a handicap, those outside of the w/kg are relegated and each week the h/c times are different depending on who won last week and which grade.
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The front bunch maintained >120% of FTP for 30 mins, and the winner 150% - assuming they had a 2.5W/kg FTP, of course. There’s above, and then there’s above squared.
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In my short experience so far, about half way through the ride or race you’re hanging with people about your ability and form your own little race, which is a lot of fun.
When the Cat D winner is faster than Cat A and C winners, it’s a fair shout to disregard the results. ZwiftPower just looks like a mess to me, with hardly anyone registered - interesting for the genuine Cat leaders perhaps, but of no value to me.
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New to cycling eh? You’ll get used to it…soon. Or turn in to what you loathe.
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The Chop is a bonkers race!! Some of the hardest threshold sessions I’ve had have been in The Chop. When Zwift Community Live cover it, you get some of the strongest riders in the game showing up.
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I also set new power records in Zwift races. Similarly I have never seen my HR so high. In fact to the best of my knowledge outside riding max ever has been 186-188, whereas Zwift race has been as high as 194.
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