Category Enforcement is a crucial part of fair community racing Zwift, since it forces riders to enter the correct race category.
This post is a thorough look at all things Category Enforcement including the history, usage, and possible future of this feature. Let’s dive in!
The Backstory
For the first several years of Zwift’s existence, racing struggled with one key problem: riders could join any category they wanted. While the A-B-C-D category scheme was meant to break riders into competitive groups based on fitness, an A rider could just hop into a D race and blow it to pieces.
Some riders didn’t know any better, while others certainly did. But reasons didn’t really matter, because in the end, the effect was the same: a diminished experience for those who raced fairly.
Of course, “real” Zwift racers knew the final results lived on ZwiftPower, where sandbaggers would be removed from results for racing out of category. But that didn’t fix the problem of overpowered riders blowing apart lower-category races, especially in the C and D categories.
In February 2022, Zwift began testing a feature they called “Category Enforcement”. The goal was to set a minimum race category based on a rider’s historic power numbers on Zwift, blocking riders from racing categories below their detected ability.
And it worked! Race organizers quickly began adopting Category Enforcement for their events, and Zwift continued to tweak the model to improve racers’ experience. Today, approximately 2/3 of all race events on Zwift use Category Enforcement.
How Category Enforcement Works
- Zwift uses your last 90 days of riding activity on the platform to build a 2-50 minute power curve profiling your fitness as a rider. Every ride is used, whether you save the activity or not.
- This power data is used to compute your zMAP and zFTP, and you can see these values by logging into my.zwift.com.
- zMAP and zFTP are used to determine your minimum race category (see category boundaries below). When signing up for a race that uses Category Enforcement, you are only allowed to sign up for that minimum category or higher.
- New or returning Zwifters who don’t have enough recent activity data in their account are placed in the “E” category of Category Enforcement races so they won’t interfere with properly-classified riders.
- Any ride that would cause an increase of 70% or more to your CP is not included in your Zwift power curve, as it is assumed to be caused by a trainer miscalibration or someone sharing your account.
Category Boundaries
The following Category Enforcement boundaries are used to determine the minimum race category for riders in open or “mixed” races (where both men and women can participate):
| Open Races | zMAP | zFTP |
|---|---|---|
| Category A | ≥5.1W/kg | ≥4.2W/kg and ≥250W |
| Category B | ≥4.1W/kg | ≥3.36W/kg and ≥200W |
| Category C | ≥3.2W/kg | ≥2.625W/kg and ≥150W |
| Category D | <3.2W/kg | <2.625W/kg or <150W |
| Category E | N/A | N/A |
Women-only race events have their own set of boundaries:
| Women Only Races | zMAP | zFTP |
|---|---|---|
| Category A | ≥4.8W/kg | ≥3.88W/kg |
| Category B | ≥4.1W/kg | ≥3.36W/kg |
| Category C | ≥3.2W/kg | ≥2.625W/kg |
| Category D | <3.2W/kg | <2.625W/kg |
| Category E | N/A | N/A |
Note: exceeding just one of the thresholds (zMAP or zFTP) will bump you to the next category. You don’t need to exceed both to be upgraded.
What are zMAP and zFTP?
These two crucial values are Zwifty versions of the commonly-used MAP and FTP metrics.
MAP (Maximal Aerobic Power) is your power at VO2max (maximum oxygen use). FTP is the wattage you can stay below and sustain for longer durations, while going above it causes fatigue to occur very quickly. A trained cyclist on fresh legs should be able to sustain their MAP power for 4-6 minutes and their FTP for 40+ minutes.
Zwift hasn’t shared their precise formulas for calculating zMAP and zFTP, but they told us zMAP is calculated using a standard MAP formula. They’ve also said zFTP is “the estimate of your actual lactate threshold”, but haven’t shared the actual formula.
Finding Category-Enforced Races on Zwift
Category-enforced races are generally fairer, more competitive events than those not using category enforcement. So how do you spot category-enforced events? Easy! They include the category enforcement symbol:
Finding category-enforced races is easy, too. If you’re browsing Zwift events online at zwift.com/events, just click “Filter Events” and select “Category Enforcement” to restrict results to Category Enforced events. The same can be done in game:
Lastly, the Zwift Companion app lets you show only events with Category Enforcement, and clearly indicates which events are category-enforced:
Category Enforcement FAQ
Zwift says I’m an A, but I should be a B.
Sometimes riders are convinced that Zwift has placed them in too high of a category. We haven’t seen many examples of this actually happening, though. Usually a rider just doesn’t understand how category enforcement works. On some occasions the rider may have had an equipment malfunction that gave them too high of a power reading – or they may have let a stronger rider use their account. In those cases, unfortunately, you’ll probably need to just race that higher category until your power numbers expire after 90 days.
If zMap and zFTP thresholds are in W/kg, couldn’t someone just increase their weight and thus lower their category?
“Reverse weight doping” may have been possible in early iterations of Category Enforcement, but Zwift has made changes to make it basically impossible. Take that, cheaters! See this forum thread for details.
Why am I being placed in the E pen?
The E pen is for riders who don’t have enough data in the system to be properly classified. The best solution is to put in a hard 12+ minute ride (20 minutes+ is even better), then come back and try signing up for your event again.
See more FAQ on Zwift’s Category Enforcement support page >
Next Steps
What’s next for Category Enforcement? Based on a recent post in the forum, we know that Zwift is working on showing our fitness metrics and minimum category in Zwift Companion. That’s a good step.
We’ve got three more things we’d love to see:
- Zwift needs to make its fitness metrics simple and effective, then apply them across all aspects of the game. Prime example: we can now see our zFTP in our dashboard, but the game is still detecting FTP using the “95% of your 20-minute best” model. This is unnecessarily confusing.
- Make a few minor changes to ZwiftPower, to make it more Category Enforcement-friendly. Indicate when a race uses Category Enforcement – this will reduce the “my ZwiftPower category doesn’t match my Category Enforcement category” confusion. Perhaps swap out the unused “Anti-sandbagging measures” toggle on the events filter to be a “Category Enforced” filter, for easy searching.
- While Category Enforcement is doing a good job of forcing riders into proper categories, race organizers are hoping for the ability to define custom power thresholds for the categories in their events. This could make racing much more dynamic, as the same riders wouldn’t always at the top or bottom of their category.
Questions or Comments
Got thoughts or questions about Category Enforcement? Share below!
Change Log
- June 9, 2023: Updated zMAP limits after Zwift updated them today. Also changed power window from 60 days to 90, per Zwift’s change today.
This is certainly to be welcomed. But surely greater innovation can be considered. There are thousands of zwifters, many of whom race, or would race, but just four categories. If you are at the top of a category you’ve got a chance of winning or doing well, but no chance if you are promoted into the next category. Surely Zwift can devise are cleverer system than four categories essentially based on power to weight.
Likely something resembling the RoboPacers – lots of categories within D, fewer in C, some in B, few in A.
If categories are increased how do you deal with the decrease in field size in each category? Having sometimes less than 10 per category leads to a poor experience in race…
Similar to the RoboPacers – there are a LOT more D riders than A,B,C, most of whom have had terrible experiences with races and stop racing.
Personally I’d be quite happy racing a few (say 9) others if we were all of similar ability, and have similar power profiles. Indeed, this is what makes it a race for all involved – everyone has a chance to win. It would in my view be more fun than racing hundreds of others and coming say, 56th, knowing full well at the start that you stand no chance of winning or getting anywhere close. It seems to me that Zwift generates huge amount of data about thousands of riders – it surely wouldn’t be too difficult to find riders… Read more »
They are working on a ranking system with configurable pen boundaries i think.
Then we can get away from this set cat limits which is the biggest problem with making racing fair on zwift. Even now there are some private series that use half cats on tfc mad monday trialling a new category range looks very good for allowing those that previously found themselves low to mid cat to compete in a race.
If you increase the number of categories how do you deal with the decrease in field sizes in each category? Small groups leads to poor experience in races…
“ but no chance if you are promoted into the next category”… How do you deal with the category boundaries either being power based or other system? There will always be a wrong boundary for someone, unless you end up with categories of 3 where everybody will finish on the podium…
Zwifts planned culling of the race calendar should take care of this issue. No more inflation of races every hour/day. And then, with split or custom cats boundaries, organizers should be able to serve more fair racing to folks of all abilities. Until then top of each cat will continue to dominate.
Figure being top of the category as your reward I was in C in the nosebleed section for months… I just settled for racing my previous times on the course… But then I got injured and dropped into D and had to fight to get up to being right on the threshold there … But I still occasionally bump myself up to C to challenge myself but my numbers ain’t there to be promoted… but honestly don’t knock people who reach top of the category it is not a magical advantage but those under just need to work harder to… Read more »
One-off races are unlikely to be as popular, however the DIRT racing series, SZ series and TFC Mad Mondays all show that split categories do work. The key here is giving people something to work towards, such as a series/GC/updated classification.
It would be great if Zwift implemented this with their Monthly racing series. Having a minimum of ~30 riders in a race seems to be a good cut off, I’d also argue that having 100 racers also makes for poor racing. Splitting these categories would be a good step.
Have to say, category enforcement is definitely an improvement from the Wild West where anybody could join any race. However, the set boundaries really create a “haves and have nots” within a category. If you’re at the low end of a category range, you’ll never sniff a podium, whereas the high end will win week after week. It’s like having a car race where the max speeds allowed are from 150-180mph. The 150mph car will never have a chance. Very keen to see the evolution of custom brackets (e.g. C+/C/C- in big races) or the elimination of brackets altogether in… Read more »
What is your wish then, everybody that races gets a medal? That not it works, some will always be better than others.
What matters more than the raw number values here, is the tactics and how you spend your power that will determine how well you place in the end.
You’re missing the point, categories are imaginary lines. They can and should be dynamically changed but they don’t. This ends up in same suspects keep winning all the time…
Here’s one example from today’s Zwift Insider Tiny Races (12-31-22).
That’s how the ICR races are organized (A/B/C/D are spit into two) but unfortunately the races are no fairer. The sandbaggers are still cheating and there seems to be no stopping them.
Agreed, no stopping them if they’re keen on it. But it’s a culture change if split cats are widely adopted at highest levels of racing. Then 1: they might be more willing to take the upgrade because their new cat will still be relatively competitive for them, 2: other races will also start adopting it. Just ICR or TFC was never gonna cut it, has to start from ZRL. Maybe in the Fall…
I welcome Zwift’s attempts to make racing more fair. However, category enforcement hasn’t addressed the real issue: short-duration power. And it has gotten markedly worse. In Aug 2020, ZwiftInsider published an article ‘How to Become a Zwift Top 20 Category B Racer’ (https://zwiftinsider.com/top-20-b/). At that time, the average 15 sec power for a Top 20 B racer was 11 w/kg. Today it’s 16 w/kg. 30-sec and 1-minute power numbers for top ‘B’ riders are similarly ridiculous. Everyone knows that shorter bursts of power dictate outcomes in Zwift races. Whether it’s hammering the final sprint, or leaders blowing the field to… Read more »
I would tend to agree, Sean. I think including 15s power would be a good thing.
Isn’t this what zFTP (really, critical power) is supposed to do? I thought the idea was to weight various duration outputs rather than a flat 20 minute burn.
The problem is that the various durations don’t include short bursts. They’ve at various times said it measures 2 or 3 to 50 minute power, but doesn’t measure anything below that lower threshold whether it’s 2 or 3 minutes.
As long as FTP (zFTP, or whatever you care to call it) is a distinct qualifier, those of us who are diesels are out of luck. I am a mid-to-low C on zMAP, but a B on zFTP. If I hit 600 watts (8 w/kg), someone better call 911. At least DFL gets a few points in ZRL. LOL
This is the precise problem I have with Zwift racing. Shorter, punchy climbs almost always doom me, even though I hold my own or excel on the rest of a course. The currently running ZRacing course, Three Little Sisters, is a great example. The 2 minute climb 1 km in is like an insurmountable barrier to me staying with the leaders. Frustrating!
How about a M for Masters and S for seniors categories. Seriously, I’m categorized as a B but my top end power at the end of a pace, pales in comparison to a 30 year old
If you have ever raced against ex pros in Masters racing you will see the hole in your suggestion.
the pointy end of C is easy enough to get a ride and coast on the back of B/A, and then look after that wpk. the issue with A/B is they arent often willing enough to offload (us) from following them.
I am classed as a low Cat C rider but only because I only weigh 67kg so 200w equals 3Wkg roughly whereas another 9kg drops it to Cat D. My downside is I am 68 next month and like many will never match younger Cat C riders – ever! Following a summer irl I returned to Zwift and even though I had been off for more than 90 days I was back in C within a few weeks, days even. Hence I don’t race on Zwift.
You seem a good example of what I’m talking about. You’d like to race, and like all of us have a power profile. If Zwift were able to find 20 or 30 people who also want to race, at similar times in the day to you and have similar power profiles then it could set you all up – bit like a dating app. Then you could race others knowing (as far as it is ever possible to know with Zwift) that you are competing with people of very similar ability to you.
I love racing, kind of feeds the fantasy indoors (I wouldn’t dare ride outside like I do on Zwift!) but I do not wear a heart monitor, nor will I ever, I have power, speed and cadence, but I am excluded from all races that require a heart monitor. I know my heart is beating, it gives me the creeps to start quantifying my heartbeat, although I know my resting is 65 bpm.
A hrm is needed to show you’re a real person and not someone with a drill. Without speed, power, and cadence, any numbers are just random guesses. There should be a set of races that advertise as being Zpower friendly or Zpower only for the folks who can’t afford/don’t want those devices, but not having them in a race where everyone else does just means there is an uneven playing field.
I never wore a HRM before Zwift. One came with my velocore bike (terrible for racing, but I bought it before I discovered Zwift) and it’s fairly innocuous. I thought it would freak me out, but now I *do* like seeing my max heart rate when giving max effort. At 57 years old with a professional relationship with a cardiologist, I like having more data than just an annual stress test. Best of all, I’ve found that the racing aspect of Zwift gets me on the trainer more than I ever thought. [BTW resting heart rate is ~ 50BPM] Like… Read more »
Hi Peter I have the same problem. I am nearly 64 and love riding in D,…plus it doesn’t push my heart rate above my theoretical maximum of 166. I did a strong 5 minute push up a hill yesterday and have now been banned from all my favourite HERD class D team rides where there is an electric fence. I am supposed to ride with C’s,….but at that age it will be dangerous for me.
A heart monitor is critical. Once on Strava,….I completed a very popular section in record time……OK like most of the other I took advantage of a strong tailwind that day. A week later two younsters completed the section at a low cadence but at 100bpm with no tailwind…….clearly hanging onto a vehicle or some other trick. Their record is still on Strava,….but everyone knows they cheated! a heart monitor is essential along with Zwift programming to kick out cheaters
Just flag the activity, it’ll be gone.
Honest question I haven’t really managed to find a decent answer. With the short races happening >20 mins it’s possible to put out higher W/Kg than it is in an effort <20 mins. I've been surprised to be bumped into a higher category than expected and the only results out of the catagory for the events were these short prologue efforts. So instead of enjoying racing now every event is a prologue till being savagely dropped and still recording a W/Kg that wouldn't top the category below… Has anyone else seen this happen? Obviously I should train harder, loose weight… Read more »
i did a couple of shorter TT’s and got bumped a while back.
Totally agree!!! This algorithm should be changed. I’m unable to follow strong racers from “C” and after one short race was moved to “B”. I can’t follow the first group on short punchy hills and on sprints in group B and even C. My 20min power doesn’t exceed 3,3W/kg. My HR graphs shows always maximum or almost maximum effort during races. HR of top racers in “C” and “B” looks often very comfortable comparing to my HR…
Mick I agree,……and at nearly 64,……..where do I send the cardiologists bill to?
This has now just happened to me. I cannot stay with a good class D group ride over the Three Sisters,……….but because I have good short term power , I have just been bumped up to Class C! I am a great group rider and stick with the group. If there is an electric fence then way ban supposedly higher group riders from riding it.
I won a ITT a couple of weeks ago that used categort enforcement in B category. In zwiftpower I was only disqualified for to high w/kg. Hopefully both zwift results and zwiftpower results will use the same rules in the future.
That’s a race organizer issue. They need to set the event to not enforce ZP categories.
I like to think that I’m fairly numerate, but I’m totally bemused by the zMAP and zFTP data. Over a 6 week period I moved from having category enforcement moving from cat D to cat C, then cat B. Throughout this period I remained as cat C on Zwiftpower. My FTP on Zwift is 228 & my zFTP 252w. I am 67 years old so think that it is extremely unlikely that I have had a sudden massive improvement in my fitness. I have been riding regularly on Zwift for over 4 years & until recently have always been a… Read more »
Your CE power curve may be poorly populated. Try doing a free ride where you warm up and then do a 3 min max effort. You may find it moves you down a category.
Paul…thanks for the suggestion. I’ll give it a try. It does seem to make the category enforcement very difficult to understand.
I’m 49 and my true FTP (what I can sustain for an hour) is probably 240w. At 74kg that puts me in C. If I do a ramp test I can get a score of almost 280, which bumps me up to a B. I’m a better sprinter than endurance rider.
I do very well in C races but very poorly in B races, as I’ll inevitably get dropped at some point
I suppose the morale of the story is that everyone is different
Me too. I am a happy D on Zwift Power with many races,….and now a miserable C on Zwift,…and excluded from my favourite group rides with fences. The question remains at nearly 64,…..is it right for Zwift to force me to select C groups and races where either I get dropped and have to take the wind 100%,……and/or to give me heart arrhythmia and a stroke? I strongly feel that Zwift and groups such as Herd need to think about the older riders NOT being excluded from Class D group rides for example. Our cardiologists certainly would not like this… Read more »
Eric, do you know why WTRL hasn’t implemented Cat Enforcement for ZRL?
I do not. Seems odd.
I thought I’d heard/read somewhere that it was because they wanted teams to be able to stay together if someone catted up (but not too far up) later in a season. Not sure if that’s even something they still allow though. It would be nice if they paired cat enforcement with a race that required a big 20 minute effort in the first race (climber’s gambit, Innsbruck UCI worlds, etc.) every season to weed out the sandbaggers. Even better would be using cat enforcement and starting with a sneaky race that requires a hard VO2Max effort to catch out a… Read more »
Even their non-team events don’t have CE enabled. They just don’t use it at all.
Or they could hold individual time trials rather than team ones, make them longer than 20 minutes and have double points or something similar so that riders won’t throw the race.
For a long time, I’ve wished that they would do an individual TT as one of the races where they sum up all (or the fastest 4) times and compare times against each other. Wouldn’t catch people skipping the race (or taking it easy), but giving it extra points like you say would help.
I emailed WTRL about that and they said their system is better that Category Enforcement.
Any sandbagger with average w/kg on their Garmin can beat CE or the WTRL system but they just won’t listen.
if you are able to join just about any WTRL team chat you will see riders talking about making sure they don’t get caught and moved up a category.
“if you are able to join just about any WTRL team chat you will see riders talking about making sure they don’t get caught and moved up a category.” That sucks. So the way the system is set up it encourages people to cheat so that they don’t get bumped up and then quit? It *is* disheartening to go from being decent in a lower category to never having a shot at a decent result after you get bumped up. I don’t believe in the everyone-gets-a-medal criticism. This is a video game that has the possibility of getting people off… Read more »
Would like to see Categories A-E used only for Race Categories and not for describing the length of fondos and other stuff like language in workouts or women specific. Not easy to understand for some…..
I was in B , but my wattage was way too high. 500w over a minute. I normally ride with the stragglers of the novice class irw. I use a wheel on Trainer set according to instructions.
I juggled the settings to get RW average speed.
Note: the outdoor season will start soon. I don’t want to do a rw race with s zwift ftp of 360w.
I’m afraid that wheel-on trainers are notoriously inaccurate at estimating power. Adding a crank or pedal based power meter would fix this.
and that’s called… welcome to reality
Instead of fixed “custom power thresholds“, how about dynamic categorization? Race organizers define the min/max pack sizes, and when the gun goes off, Zwift automatically divides the field into even packs.
i.e, organizer sets min pack size = 20 and max pack size = 50.
a field of 44 riders will be divided into 2 packs of 22
a field of 220 riders into 5 packs of 44. In other words, fewest packs that meet the min/max.
4) WTRL need to up their game and use category enforcement for ZRL and TTT
They have been enforcing categories for a long time already. That’s why as an A you can’t join a C race.
Don’t confuse enforcement with a new categorisation… Which is poor btw and hardly an improvement over ZP categories. From that perspective there is little upside to using the new categorisation. Window is much smaller, only sixty days, and category bounces around much more as its a curve fit. For which on sixty days there isn’t enough quality data.
Instead I’d argue that they and the community would benefit more from implementing split categories in ZRL.
Try the ICR races, they split the categories – but it makes no difference. The sand baggers still sand bag.
Agreed, no stopping them if they’re keen on it. But it’s a culture change if split cats are widely adopted at highest levels of racing. Then 1: they might be more willing to take the upgrade because their new cat will still be relatively competitive for them, 2: other races will also start adopting it. Just ICR or TFC was never gonna cut it, has to start from ZRL. Maybe in the Fall…
D category is far too big a range of abilities in my opinion, I’d like to see stronger D riders promoted to C by vertue of high raw Watts in the 3-7min range. To keep it “simple,” a raw Watts number for the zMAP (approx 6mins30secs) of approx 270-300W+.
Race results affecting pens is possibly coming in 2023… Don’t hold your breath. 😉
Doesn’t work for me. As I’m a mediocre climber I’m a cat B (used to be a cat A due to climbing capabilities). All races are held on flats where I can barely hold my own in a cat C race, let alone in a cat B or A. Because I always get punished this way I never race, just ride along to get the badges.Happy New Year.
Do anyone know why is a Cat enforement race i was allowed to enter as a Cat C (i’m a low B) but in the results i’ve have been upgraded to B. Like a normal race where you enter the wrong Cat?
So Zwift is calculating your category based on 60 days worth of data – that makes good sense…. but surely it needs to differentiate between those rides when you are actually trying, and the recovery rides when you’re just spinning the pedals – otherwise they are going to be dragging your numbers down – or have I missed something?
You’ve missed that Zwift is only looking at your best (highest power) efforts. If you do an easy ride, it doesn’t change anything.
Gotcha – I was thinking the 60day thing meant it was somehow calculating your averages over that time, rather than just selecting your best. Makes sense thanks, and realised it myself after typing as when you click on ‘More Info’ it provides the date/time when you did that specific ride…
There is no consistency with the current format. I am according to ZwiftPower a Cat A, by a gnat’s whisker (4.06w/kg). In the Zwift Flat is Fast series, this ‘new’ enforcement says I can enter A or B, so went with B because the field was much larger. I get a result on ZwiftPower. Entered a different race today, also could enter A or B, so went B again for same reason and got disqualified on ZwiftPower. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care, but it needs to consistent …
Cat enforcement showing me as a C with 3.4wkg 270w ftp 81kgs, something not quite right.
I just barely made it into A. But being on the very low end and will always be any Cat A race is not of interest for me. I will become the lonesome rider. Unless Bs, Cs, Ds are also shown and ride same course and time. Personally to stay motivated and most importantly have fun would like to have races with mixed categories the ranking is done at the end based on categories. Just as an extra option for organizers. I understand that A riders in a C race can mix up the dynamic and strategy of a race/racers.… Read more »
Category enforcement is a really welcome part in racing on Zwift.
Sometimes, however, one wonders how a category B on ZP can compete in C when it is a category enforcement race.
ZP last 90 days / CE last 60 days could be one of many reasons
On Jan 12, 2023 my 20 minute power according to zwift was 249w. Today (Jan 23, 2023) my 20 minute according to zwift is 256w, which it says I put down on Dec 27, 2022. Why was this Dec 27 effort not included on Jan 12? Or did they tweak their algorithm or something? This doesn’t seem consistent.
Hi all Firstly I would like to say that in principle Cat enforcement is a great idea, however as one of the guys who falls foul of cat enforcement I would just like to highlight the main issue as I see it. Cat enforcement is there to try and catch sandbaggers or people who are more than capable of racing successfully at a higher category. I would have to say that on a pure 20 minute all out effort I am very neat to being a B cat on zp and am currently a C cat. I am though now… Read more »
Riders who do high power efforts to win races or segments…then sit in and draft…would be uncovered …
Im confused as that just sounds like smart racing strategy…in a cycle race
Are you mixing up racing vs TT.
They are different for sure. That’s why there are separate events for racing..TT ..TTT etc.
I have just completed a Cat Enforced race as Cat C and even though I was under the threshold for cat B, beaten by all the cat B riders and finished in the middle of cat C I was disqualified for UPG (wrong cat) presumably because my cat is still cat B. This just is not working as it is letting me enter cat C races but then disqualifies me regardless of my performance!!!
That’s an error on the race organizer’s part. Contact them, and tell them they need to change the ZwiftPower settings to not DQ riders based on ZP categories.
I really like the idea, finished a non-enforced Cat D event in 12th recently, but then end up as 1st on ZwiftPower. Most of others originally above me were Cat C & even a Cat B. I’m just a bit mystified on how Zwift come up with the categories so different from ZwiftPower. My FTPs calculations vary wildly depending on which platform used, even though all should be based on my power figures that Zwift gives as: Best 20 min = 241w [set in Zwift TT Week 2 – Bologna, which was a properly flat out 23mins for me]; Best 30… Read more »
Now even more mystified:
increased my 3 & 5 min Peak Power after TT on Glasgow Crit Course (just under 5 mins flat out for me), with all other Peak Powers unaltered. Zwift now says my FTP has dropped to from 254W to 232W, so back in Cat D!
Question: if I enter series events, such as Zwift TT Club in Cat D will this result count in Cat D too or stay in Cat C where I raced?
Hmmm. Wanted to race a bit. Just finished a 12 week build me up, increased real ftp by 16 %. Now I’m Cat C where before I was D, and had only done 6 Zwift races. Was hoping (and training ) to maybe win a race, but I will now be bottom of the barrel C rider, likely 2 or 3 spots from last. My zMAP W/kg is less than 3 when it should be >= 3.3 for Cat C. My ZMAP number is now 2.7, which just gets me over the greater than 2.625. Kinda bummed. Will never be… Read more »
Don’t confuse zMAP and zFTP. Two very different metrics!
As a B category rider competing in the Rapha Rising GC, I am wondering if there is any category enforcement at all on small riders. There are riders with a 20 min w/kg at 4.7 and 4.8 who are winning races by minutes because their watts are just below 250. I rode with one of these riders up ADZ at 4.1 to 4.2 until we hit switchback 5 where he dud the rest of the climb at 5.0 beating me by over 1:20. The leader board is full of these light riders. You simply can’t compete.
Why have I gone from cat c to cat e today?
Because of this: https://zwiftinsider.com/zwiftpower-ce/
I just did a TT in the “D” waves, billed with a max of 2.5w/kg. But the riders I am racing “against” were consistently riding at 2.5-3w/kg. So category enforcement doesn’t seem to mean much.
How long was the TT?
The zMAP and zFTP boundaries provided in this post are in W/kg, but in our official Zwift profile page, it only gives us those values in W’s. Is there a conversion formula? I’m trying to figure out how close or far away I am from the next category.
Thanks.
Needs women’s (and men’s) youth categories. My tween would really enjoy this but not reasonable for a newb 12 y.o. to race against experienced adults (unless maybe it involves hill climbs, where low weight seems to have a significant advantage).
The problem is, there aren’t enough kids online to make a large enough race pack.
You may be surprised by how well a kid does against adults on Zwift (where bike handling isn’t a factor). There are a fair number of 13-15 year old boys who are pretty competitive B racers.
If I enter a “C” cat race thats who i want to race not cat “C” that jump on the wheels of a higher category. I find the mixed category races very annoying. How do I know when a race is mixed or not before entering!
Look at the start times – if they’re staggered, that means they’re separate.
https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/ is a nice place to do it online…
Good deal, thank you.