When I saw the news that Zwift was rolling out their new Racing Score metric in various test events, I knew I had to give it a go.
My first thought was to jump into one of the 5-category ZRacing events that were using Racing Score. The prospect was especially appealing because my initial “seed” score was 570, putting me right at the top of the middle category, which was for racers scored 400-575. Maybe I could find my way onto the podium!
But it wasn’t meant to be. Zwift reset the seed scores to fix a bug soon after launch, and mine went up to 588. Plus, schedule constraints put me into the race starting at 10:10am PDT, and this race was using Zwift’s experimental 10-category setup. In this scheme, there are actually two events – a “high” and a “low” – due to Zwift’s current (and silly) limitation of 5 categories per event. Each event has 5 categories, and my score put me in the lowest category of the “high” event, with riders between 550-600.
So I was still near the top of my category. On paper, at least.
The cool thing about results-based rankings, though, is that when done right, they reflect your race craft, not just your pure power numbers. Everyone was initially seeded based on their power numbers, but in theory, someone like myself with (*checks ZwiftPower*) 1141 races under their belt should have the smarts to outperform others who have the same physical capabilities but much less experience.
So how would I perform in my first-ever scored Zwift race? There was only one way to find out…
Warmup
I chewed two pieces of caffeine gum as I jumped into the Maria Robopacer group which had recently been relocated from Makuri Islands to France as part of Zwift’s big TdF July focus. After warming up a bit with Maria it was over to Coco to ramp up the effort a bit, put in a few harder pulls, and generally break the ice so my heart and legs wouldn’t be surprised by the race effort.
Then I headed to the pens for one lap of France’s R.G.V. route. We had 43 riders ready to go.
The Start
The start was rather tame, with nobody pushing hard from the line.
The attacks would come soon enough, though. One of my DIRT teammates (Captain Diogo) went early, moving to the front for a hard pull, ramping the group up from 40kph to 46.
The Middle
This pattern would repeat itself throughout the race. Someone would move to the front and push hard, others would chase, and our speed would ramp up to 46-48kph. Eventually everything would come back together, we’d catch our breath, and a few minutes later another attack would go.
The group wasn’t thinning much, though. This was a flat course, and as long as you stayed in the draft, you could stay in the group holding around 3.3 W/kg. Still, every attack dropped a few riders, which meant we had gone from 43 to 33 by the time we rode through the Pavé Sprint.
The biggest push (other than the finish) came, unsurprisingly, up the Aqueduc KOM Reverse. It’s really more of an uphill sprint than a climb, and while I’ve been dropped here before in mixed-category races (*shakes fist at A-cat*), I can usually hang with a group of B’s up and over this rise.
The same was true today: I stayed well-positioned mid-pack, triggered my draft boost powerup, then recovered on the descent that followed. We went from 33 to 31 riders, and everyone settled in for the final push through Les Intestines to the line.
The Finish
Les Intestins are always a tough push at the end of a race: 3km of twisty, rolling road, followed by an all-out sprint! I stayed in the draft, steered as much as possible to shorten my lines, and generally tried to save my legs as much as possible for the final sprint.
With 500 meters to go the road flattened, the twisties ended, and 31 riders were tightly packed into the front group.
I triggered my draft boost as we turned right onto the main road and avatars got out of their saddles. Then I dug deep, pushing with all I had to the line. Riders just ahead took the corner wide, so I chose to stay in the draft on their wheels instead of cutting the corner with steering.
My legs struggled to hold high power, though. I crossed the line in 8th.
See results on zwift.com >
See results on ZwiftPower >
See activity on Strava >
Watch the Video
Zwift Racing Score Results
The in-game results screen (shown above) didn’t reference Racing Score in any way. But I could see my Racing Score result on the event’s page on zwift.com, as well as in the Companion app. Here’s are the zwift.com results:
My score heading into the race was 588. Finishing 8th earned me a score upgrade to 594. (It’s worth noting that this isn’t like ZwiftPower, where your ranking is derived from your 5 best results in the last 90 days. With Zwift Racing Score every race counts, and your score is calculated at the end of each race based on that race history.)
Checking the results on zwift.com, it appeared as though every single rider in my race got a Racing Score upgrade from their result. That is, they all had an up arrow beneath their result! I reached out to Zwift to ask how that could be possible, and it turns out… it’s not. The wrong arrow is showing some cases, so while some rider’s scores did decrease, it’s only showing up arrows for everyone on the web results. Companion app results show the arrows accurately.
One thing I did note when browsing results in Companion is how startlingly accurate Zwift’s seed scores seem to have predicted the results. In my race, in all 5 categories, there isn’t a mix of up and down arrows as you scroll down the list. Instead, all the upper finishers get up arrows, and all the lower ones got down arrows. This would only happen if people finished right around where their seed scores would have predicted them to finish.
(I did find one rider in the highest category who had an up arrow instead of a down. But just one rider.) Zwift says they’re checking into this, because they noticed the same pattern and think it’s a bit suspicious.
Takeaways
What was my actual experience in the race? It was good. It felt like I was pushing at a typical B-category pace, but it also felt different than a typical B race, because riders were putting in digs that forced us to chase. It was less of a boring, steady effort and more like several hard efforts with recovery in between. It felt (and I’m too lazy to do the homework to confirm this) like we had several riders with high FTPs but poor sprints who were trying to get away off the front, or at least stretch out the group to thin the herd before the final push. And that’s good, straight-up bike racing.
In the end, our starting group of 43 became a finishing pack of 31 sprinting for the win. That seems like a sensible level of attrition for a flat route like R.G.V.
One final takeaway: I forgot the draft powerup now lasts 40 seconds instead of 30. This change was made over a year ago, so I really should have it locked in by now. It’s a crucial mistake, because I could have triggered the powerup 10-15 seconds sooner and enjoyed its benefits heading into my sprint effort.
Your Thoughts
Have you tried a scored race yet? What do you think of Zwift’s new Racing Score? Share below!
In my race (450-550) We was 79 at start. I had 451 zrs and must have been the lowest ranked rider in Pen. I finished 13 and only gained 4 points to 455 zrs so seems like they have some work to do with the system before it works properly.
Interesting!
Wow, based on the times, that was a photo finish!
Awful experience, somehow have a 504 score despite being low C. Got dropped on the lead in, couldn’t keep up at all and saw only 1 other rider in 40 minutes. If that’s my seed score and I can’t go below that then zwift racing is over for me.
What’s your new score after that first race?
At the moment it still says 504!
That seems like a ridiculously high initial score. I’m low C also, and my seed score is 219. Got a mate who never races but I know has similar power numbers to me & he is 230-ish, while my brother is middle Cat B & 520. So on that admittedly tiny sample your score looks way off.
I just promoted from C to B two weeks ago and they put me at 614 …
im also 494, this score range and this level is a shit show. pretty much all C’s are done. if you arent done, you were a sandbagger and belonged in B.
Mostly the scores in our club look sensible based on how fast / good at racing we know people are but there are some glaring anomalies where riders are much slower than their score suggests and also some riders whose scores seem a good bit too low. Hopefully those will be fixed somehow
I’ve been aware of my Racing Score since I first learned about the new categorization system.
My Racing Score has been 421 from the start (421.48 to be exact, and it hasn’t changed since I saw the number first appear more than a week ago). Thing is that my racing score put me at mid Cs, where riders are holding power that I simply cannot hold. Interestingly enough I got bumped to Cs yesterday (thought i was a D lifer). RS still 421.48.
I’m a statistical outlier, with an FTP in the 200w range and a max power PR in the 1600-1800w range, with normal max power about 1200-1600w (indoors and outdoors, respectively). IRL I upgraded to Cat 2 at 220w (peak power in races 1200w), but that was 14 years ago. I downgraded the following year as we were starting a family.
The last two nights I did the RGV race. WIth my upgrade, and with a flat course that suits me, it was a nice comparison between the Cs and Ds. Yesterday was a C race, two days ago was a D race, and in both races I averaged 2.4 w/kg, 188w and 189w, which is basically my limit. In the Cs the base pace was much higher so I wasn’t able to go with the surge on the Aqueduct (got shelled), but I was highly motivated to keep clear of a chaser so I worked hard to the finish. In the Ds the base pace was lower so I could surge on the Aqueduct, one random rise, and the twisties (multiple surges there), and sprint. I won, and at least one person mentioned the term sandbagger, which I understand.
Last week (as a D racer), in the Mayan San Remo course, I couldn’t stay with the others on the second climb, and I did the D race 4x. My best time was 39:24, to put things in perspective, and I was very proud to be able to break 40 min. Pretty much everyone in the groups had Racing Scores in the 200s and 300s. The winner of the race where I did a 39 min time did a 37 min time; he had a RS of 410 and soloed most of the race.
One of last week’s Mayan races I did the C race after a D starter commented that “I have a Racing Score of 2 points, 421 isn’t right”. I poked around – first time I checked others’ RS – at the 3 or 4 riders listed and the second highest score behind mine was something like 317. There was another 2 pointer and one more that was in the 100s. My 421 definitely seemed unfair.
I exited the D race, joined the C race, and poked around there. It was a bigger group so I couldn’t look at everyone but the majority were in the 200s, with some in the 300s. It seemed more appropriate for me to enter this so I went back to the D race, said as much, wished them luck, and then rejoined the C race. I asked if anyone was over 400, and there was a 445 racer. I figured this was good.
Ha! I got shelled on the wood bridge, which is the first rise in the race. The downhill start meant I could go an easy 1.5-1.8 w/kg in the draft, but the wood bridge put me over the limit, and that was a few minutes into the event! The winner did a 35 minute time. I wasn’t motivated to work so I did a 43 min, although I put in a huge dig at the end to catch one rider. I seem to do 41 min for that course racing normally.
I tell people to work within the system, whatever system that is, things eventually work out. I’ll see how things go with the Racing Score.
How do you work within the system of you can’t keep up? I get race craft but if you can’t get on the back I’m not sure what I can do.
When I say “work within the system” I mean I’ll wait for the algorithm to catch up with my (lack of) riding ability.
If I can’t keep up right now, I can’t keep up. I mean, getting shelled in the first “course feature” was pretty tough, but that’s an indication I’m not in the right group.
As my results get updated my score should adjust to reflect that. I’m assuming I’ll get shelled repeatedly until I’m in a group where I can hang on and the winners are doing something in the 3 w/kg range or a touch below (I can only do about 2.4-2.5 w/kg for a typical race).
With the scores just implemented, all the numbers are fresh, not adjusted for any results, and there will be outliers. As the scores get updated from race results, the outliers will be adjusted the most, and will get drawn back into the fold. I figure I am probably one of those outliers – I have a sprint, I have low FTP, so I probably score well in RS (short term power). I also have a lot of wins. Take away any chances of winning or placing and I have a feeling my RS will drop significantly.
Hi there,
Just saying that Vive la France stage events based on Racing Score’s description should be corrected as the results do no count for League GC. The description is totally misleading… As it is naming them as stages.
Good point. James at Zwift says he’s removing the GC references today.
Thanks! 😊
Seed scores for heavy riders are pretty much over estimated and of light riders under estimated. James said they are looking into this. I have recently promoted from C to B and they gave me a score of 614 only because I have a sprint and am somewhat heavy at 95kg. Tried a race twice DNF both of them cause I was dropped within 10 minuts since I now have to race A riders.
I have a similar issue. Can sprint, have high peak power but am a low C and that seems right. On the new scores, get dropped very quickly, lose touch and interest! That was on a flat course. No point even trying on something lumpy.
Got to say it was a masterclass in wheel sucking Schlangster 😂
No idea how all this new system works but it was a nice little workout with some decent folk 👍
If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s being lazy!
I’m not sure if it’s a wheelsuck exercise. I think if you know your strengths and ride to them you can compete. I had, by far, the highest FTP in my race but there was no dropping the other riders with good FTP and in the end their sprint overcame my efforts to wear them out before the end of Le Intestine; and I worked hard at that. I averaged 4.3w/kg for the entire race and there were only two guys at 4.1. I like it so far…
It was more a joke than anything. I watched the video and didn’t realise how much time I’d spent on the front holding the pace, closing attacks and creating a bridge for everyone to get back on. I’m never that serious about Zwift races. It’s just good to get a workout in every now and then. I was a bit under, numbers wise, where I usually am for cat A races. Next one should be back to normal as I got bumped from E group to B group 🤣
Tried the high /low-race with 10 categories. Terrible experience! I have never experienced such a large span in w/kg. I’m a low C, and had to race plenty of B’s. Got dropped after 2km. If it stays like this, it’s likely the end of my racing on Zwift.
Curious, Hans: are you a heavier rider? I’m hearing this sort of feedback from bigger riders it seems. Like they’re seeded higher than they should be…
Not sure about Hans, but, at 107 kg, I did a ZRS-scored Downtown Dolphin race yesterday with mainly B’s (and an A) even though my FTP is sub 3.00. Seems they weight raw W a bit more than the old system, which makes things challenging for us heavier riders – especially when things get hilly. Same was trued when different series used something that was 5 min raw^2/weight (is that zMAP?) last year.
makes ABSOLUTELY NO difference on weight. all C’s are disadvantaged because of the 175 gap. its 50’s above that – WTF are zift smoking. this gap, all the C’s are racing with mid B’s. the C’s who can hold are the sandbaggers who should have been in B already. i know lots of them. the front bunches in C always coast, then “magically” become monsters in the last mile.
I agree Hans. I’ve had the same experience
Same here. High C, barely promoted to B and now have to race A riders who do 4.5 on average.
Did the same race in another pen. There were 24 riders and only one got dropped at the Aquaduct. All attacks were neutralized, so it was pretty predictable, that almost the whole pack arrived at the finish together and it ended with the expected bunch sprint.
Our group consisted of high Bs and low As and it seems that really everyone had more or less the same ability. So the ranking seems pretty accurate from the start, it just wasn’t a very interesting route to do. If it wouldn’t have been for the curiosity about the new race score, I would never have signed up for a race on RGV. 😉
My score increased slightly, but interestingly decreased again today after doing the hill climb race – although I won it (only rider in my category 😉) and put out a decent 5 min. power.
I rode the 1510PDT event in Cat 3 (450-600, I think…) on Monday. My ZRS was 535 so I was at the top of the cat scoring wise. I was also the only ZP Cat A rider in the bunch attesting to my big 20 minute diesel-like (4.5w/kg) power profile and complete lack of a sprint (7.7w/kg for 15 seconds) and well below A one minute (5.7) and five minute (4.7) profiles. I was one of those guys attempting to thin out the field with long pulls and along with a coupla other riders with similar predilections we reduced the group from 45 at the start to 18 at the right turn into the Marina sprint where my less than stellar sprint yielded a 10th place.
For me, the race was great. I was in the mix for the entire event, rode as hard as I could (literally on the rivet for 35 minutes) and animated the field. Racing any A race is an exercise in frustration for the most part because without the requisite shorter power I get dropped in almost every race I’ve done when there’s any kind of burst required to stay on. It was a bit better in the B’s but those punks still have solid short power and I can’t bring my strong FTP to bear enough to make up the difference at the line.
I’m looking forward to the Tiny Races on Saturday! Obviously, it’s going to be 4x 8-12 minute Z7 efforts…
Apparently B is the new A. Of the 39 finishers in my race more than half had 4w/kg or above for 20 minutes. 8 of those had 4.4 or 4.5w/kg and the highest was 4.8w/kg.
Looking at the ZRS for some of those people it seems Zwift is adjusting the seed scores for weight. That’s kind of understandable for flat races where lighter riders lose out due to low watts (it’s why Zwift has used the watt floors for categories) but where any sort of climbing is involved their superior w/kg is going to give them the advantage.
Looks like I will be joining only dead flat races in the future.
Only 1,141 races??? 😉
Well, 1,142 after this one. 😜
Ok this is a bogus system. I’m a fairly new rider only been riding seriously since Sept of 2023 I have like 70 races total. Low B rider. I’ve hardly ever cracked the top 10 on any race and they scored me at 631. The author has over 1100 races and he didn’t even break 600. I’m going to be out with people beyond my skill level. I’ll have no chance. It seems like an even worse system then before.
That’s because it’s based on specific CP levels. Past race experience is not taken into count. New races however will start affecting your score – the numbers should equalize over time a bit. The over performing ones from any group will be promoted to the next one, might take couple of weeks / months.
In my opinion the new system is better than the old. Of course there will be outliers, people for whom this is much worse. For example all ultra high sprint, but no maintain / pursuit capability (beyond their own group) -> you’ll have really hard time keeping up with your group and get dropped easily.
I myself were a high D cat – inches from nudging to C before the ZRS change. And now I’m 440 zrs (started off at.. ~390), and I ride in the low end 375-450. I’m a heavy rider, with much more sprinting than other capabilities, but I just dig in deeper and try to improve on the non sprinting front. I’m enjoying my races, currently still chasing a front pack finish, but getting very close (12/31 yesterday, with top 5 just 0.5 seconds away, top 4 was the front pack which did an unmatched breakaway)
@Eric Schlange – any idea if zwift could show the racing score history for each rider? I think that data might be interesting (or even just for yourself). More data we get, more colorful the spreadsheets are!
They are tracking the history, for sure. Whether they decide to show it or not is up to them.
Sorry to be a complete muppet but how do I see my current score?
Ignore that, found the article that shows how
ppl gonna find out ‘power isn’t the only skill’ sounds awesome.
@Eric Schlange Those that feel their score is inflated maybe have better power metrics and less racecraft on how to utilize it, you think? In other words, maybe Zwift thinks they should (potentially) do better in races based on their outputs.
The inflated scores seem to impact those who have both good 10 minute power and good 30s power, but who aren’t able to produce both types of effort in the same race. The model only looks at what the internal was, not the circumstances in which it was performed.
Someone being good as both time trials and sprints doesn’t mean they have bad racecraft.
That would make sense to me, Monty. It’s the most sensible way of saying “your race results don’t match your power numbers.”
I raced it yesterday having just finished another race, so I back to backed it. Bad idea. Racing with the new categorization was very even, maybe one person was dropped and there was a constant slew of attacks which tested everyone.
New system pros:
racing will be more evenly matched
Gonna get to race with same people frequently
Racing will be more serious
New system cons:
Racing will be more serious
Flat vs hill vs mtn courses will have different people in them
Racing will need to be more planned.
I can’t understand how this makes sense physiologically?
Why would you take into account 60 second and 10 minute efforts which are more slanted towards anaerobic fitness/power zones, then group riders against each other and then race then in an aerobic fitness zone over 30-40 mins?
This is heavily favoured towards endurance athletes and will inflate performance date of power riders (typically heavier) and put them in groups than they should not be racing against.
Why not compare apples with apples and use output over 20 and 30 mins, as the race conditions will be?
I’m cat D, level 278, just done those mini races and absolutely got my arse handed to me in all four races. Finished bottom 3 every time. The leaders were doing 4w/kg , what a load of bollocks this system is.
Hi, does anyone know what time frame is being used in determining your seed score?
Probably 90 days.
Hard to say at this time. RGV is a tough course to start with imo, you need a lot of diesel power and sprinting on the back end to deal with the bumps. I would guess that my two races on RGV were harder than I’ve experienced the past month. But might also be biased as folks with a competitive mindset are trying to score early. Our races has lots of attacks, especially in the second half. But in the end most finished about the same time. I thought the power distributions I saw at the end were fairly even. Still open to exploring it more as the ratings normalize.
I don’t race often, 18 races in the last year. I bounced from D to C then back to D. I have not raced since Northern Hemisphere winter. I signed up for Vive La France Stage One in the “Low End” 200-300 category.
It was a small but fun race. I ended up 6th out of 24 (5 of 21 on Zwiftpower). I tried surging twice, but couldn’t hold my advantage, and paid for it at the sprint finish. Too many matches already burnt.
What I don’t understand is the following: My race results have an up-arrow and a racing score of 274. When I look at my profile screen on the companion app, it says my racing score is 326. I’m not sure which is correct.
So today, I did Stage 2. I ended up 23 of 25 according to Zwiftpower. I was put in with Cat B and C racers. I’m upper quarter of Cat D in the old classification system. The winner averaged 4.0W/kg. I averaged 2.6 and cracked after 20 minutes of drafting in the front bunch. I was thoroughly outclassed. The only good thing that came of it is my zFTP increased by 15 watts.
So you got dropped on the Aqueduc KOM? Or maybe a bit before that?
I wouldn’t say you were THOROUGHLY outclassed, if you hung with the front group for 20 minutes. But it does sound like you’ve got your work cut out for ya. (So do I, BTW…)
Hey Eric, was gone from Zwift for a couple of weeks. Is there a link to how all this works and everything? Or is this one the first you’ve posted. Need to get up to speed on how everything works as far as where one starts and what the different levels look like.
Yup. It’s the first link in this article!