Today’s Chartgeist post revolves around a central question: what makes a top Zwift racer?
(One request in advance: please hang up your pitchforks. These charts were created to make you smile as you ponder the population patterns producing the pictures. These are not personal attacks aimed at specific racers.)
Top A racers come in two flavors. First, you’ve got dedicated cyclists who have trained and raced hard for years, reshaping their bodies into low-fat, pencil-armed visions of cycling fitness.
You’ve also got some cyclists who have no business racing against these uber-strong riders, but their poorly set up trainers deceive them into thinking so. Ride on, ZPower Rangers. Ride on!
If you’re a top B on Zwift, you could easily be a mid-grade A. But you manage to stay legal as a B through some combination of carbohydrate overindulgence, avoiding the sacrifices of serious structured training, and judicious use of Zwift Activity Monitor.
Earning the points needed to remain a top C generally means racing flatter events with larger fields. But it may also mean you’ve got to keep your weight just a bit higher to stay below that w/kg limit. Bring on the cake, and leave that structured training to the masochistic As!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of this first set of Zwift charts? Got an idea for a useful chart we could put together? Share below!
RIP Zwift Activity Monitor… We hardly knew you.
They have a problem but their Facebook says that they are working on a solution. Otherwise you can use your headunit for some information
As a C rider that loves cake and flat races I feel personally attacked lol!
yes…the flat races…we’re gonna need to flag that
Eric, The infographics are spot on, great post.
“Dabbled in structured training and homemade cookies” – genius line. Unfortunately that’s the only B box I tick!
Bring on the homemade cookies !
Yes sir! I’ve got an amazing chocolate chip/oatmeal recipe…
Sandbagging makes a top B racer…. lol so many times you see B racers being cat up and immediately winning A races.
As a member of the D colective, I feel sad not to be considered in the charts :'( LOL
I thought about doing a D one, but:
1) I’ve always done just three charts per post and
2) All the D ideas I had seemed kind of mean and not terribly funny.
That said, maybe I’ll come up with a good D chart in the future. 🙂
D’s are a combination of factors. Greater than 90kg, at least 6 months of riding, dialed in nutrition to keep wkg just below C category, weight lifting, races with C’s on the off days.
I‘m a 100kg low B Rider (ftp ~3,5), almost 3 years of riding after a 5 years brake, did the 3 month build up plan the last 2 winters and got updgraded to B this spring. Never raced C, B is always an all out competition for me fighting in the midfield… wished i could loose another 15kg weight like the first winter, but i can‘t manage the nutrition. On the other side i‘m not able to gain more weight to get back to C- Cat. So i think i‘ve to go on, always pushing it to the limit to get more powerfuel…
Ride on, man!
How does age figure in?
This is scary – are you inside my house?
That’s where I’ve been going wrong, I’ve no idea what the Zwift Activity Monitor is, although I do have a serious biscuit addiction.
“Top” C racer here. Your chart is dumb and completely inaccurate. You forgot to include a circle for “craft beer”.
Oh man, you’re right. Big miss on my part.
I could have included that on all three categories, really. The difference is how many ounces you take in after each ride…
Ok.. Any advice for getting from 85kg to down to <70kg??? 🤣🤣🤣
As Chris Froome said… “I ate fewer lollies.” He went from 75 to 66kg and started winning grand tours 🙂 https://www.businessinsider.com/chris-froome-weight-loss-tour-de-france-2016-7