I had been riding off and on since I had kids about 8 years ago. Two years ago, I found out about Zwift and was immediately hooked. I was determined to be the top Category A+ racer. I was a Division I runner in college and I figured “how hard can it be to beat these people?” Of course I am old, I have two kids and a full time job and I really wasn’t a very good Division I runner, so I quickly pivoted to “What does it take to be the top CATEGORY B racer?”. Below is what I found after cranking through the data.
If you don’t know about ZwiftPower and how they rank races, check out the top 20 riders in Cat B, which I used as a basis for analysis. (Only race data considered; group rides and tours were excluded in the analysis.)
After analyzing the data, it is clear that if you’re looking to move into the top positions, you should try to emulate the below:
- Race Experience: These people race a lot and get very good at it. Zwift is a skill. It also gives them more chances to pray to the powerup gods.
- Pretty High 15-Second Sprint Power: 10+ W/kg
- Very High 1-Minute Power: 6.5+ W/kg (most likely the 45 seconds before the sprint, then 10+ W/kg at the end; you have to be able to get into a position to let your 10+ W/kg sprint rip)
- Top of Category 20-Minute Power: 3.7 to 4.9 W/kg; overall average 4.1 W/kg
- Be Light: ZwiftPower states that to move to Cat A you have to have three races/group rides above 4.0 W/kg 20-Minute Power and your power from those rides must be above 250 Watts. So if you are light you can exceed 4.0 W/kg and remain in Cat B.
- Race in Category A: Higher Category = lower points
If you’re curious about the specific data I used, check out all the data details at the end of the article. Otherwise, let’s jump into the number details.
The Numbers Breakdown
So let’s start here… the data table:
20-Minute Power
This one isn’t a mystery. You must have a high power to weight ratio. All of these riders except one are capable of riding 45-60 minute races at 4.0 W/kg or above (except that pesky Rider 11). They may not do it every race, but they can, and I am guessing they are all experts at sitting in the draft.
Six of the 20 riders have W/kg that averaged over 4.0 W/kg. That is because they are small enough not to trigger the category upgrade where you need to be above a 250 W FTP.
5-Minute Power
You need to be able to hang with the group up the hills. About 4.7 W/kg will do the trick on average. I did some spot checks on races and that is about right, except for the light people who average higher. Hopefully, I will be able to figure out a better way to get actual data for individual races and I can expand on this.
1-Minute Power
I think this is the most important part of placing highly. As you can see in the table above, you have to be very good at 1-Minute power. If you can’t average 6.5 – 7.0 W/kg across the final minute of the race you won’t even be in a position to use your sprint. This is skewed up because it likely includes the 15-second sprint power – to correct for this I extrapolated 45-Second power in the table.
Or more succinctly: you have to sprint for 45 seconds at the 45-second power and then 15 seconds at the 15-second power.
15-Second Power
My initial hypothesis was that the person with the max 15-second power was going to win the race. This is partially true, but it seems like a combination of 1-minute and 15-second is the key. You have to be good at both. As you can see in the table, you need to be able to average at least 10 W/kg, and realistically 11 W/kg to get into this upper echelon of B category racers. If you want to be the top B racer you need 12 W/kg to hang with the sprint in the A category where you need to race to get a low enough ranking.
Races Per Week
If you want to get a good rank you have to race a lot. Don’t underestimate the power of learning how to race well and the luck of needing an aero to place high enough to get that race ranking.
Podium Percentage
This is how often a racer is in the top three of their race. Lots of these people race in the A category so their ranking gets better while still classified as a B rider. In general, the lower podium percentage racers here usually race in Cat A, and the higher percentages race more in B. I was surprised the percentages were not higher – it might go to show how hard it is to get in position and have the right powerup for a Zwift sprint.
Other Tidbits
- The racers seem to be clustered around 50 and 75 kg.
- The lighter side makes sense – they can exceed Cat B W/kg with an FTP right below 250. They must be just heavy enough where the flats aren’t too bad and the sprints are fast too. It also might just be the lower limit of what men (I believe these are all men) weigh – I found a calculator that said 50 kg was in the 1st percentile of 30-year-old men.
- I’m not sure why 75 kg. I’m guessing it provides enough strength for a good sprint with a low enough weight to keep a reasonable FTP for normal people. This might also just be the weight most men end up around when they are biking a lot.
- 11 of the 20 riders race primarily in Cat A, 4 of the riders race in a combo of A and B, and the other 5 riders primarily race B.
- 5 of the 20 riders have fake names.
- 1 of the riders (Tom Gakes) looks like he used to be a pro and is a verified rider on ZwiftPower.
- 3 of the 20 riders are under 20 years old, 2 are between 23-29, 11 are between 30-39, 2 are between 40-49. 1 person is not registered at ZwiftPower (I don’t get why the person is in there). 1 person mysteriously disappeared from ZwiftPower since I ran the data and 3 days later when I looked up the ages.
- 6 of the people are from Europe, 5 are from North America, 8 are from Asia and one has vanished into the ether. Japan and the US are tied with 4 each.
- A huge portion of the races these people do are short and flat like Crits.
The Data Details
- Data Source: ZwiftPower
- Data Curation: Manually downloaded. I would love to pull more data and do other analyses (see other articles I’m planning at the end) but I haven’t found an API to download all of the data from ZwiftPower. (Guys who run ZwiftPower – hit me up.)
- Data Filter(s): Past 90 days of racing from the Top 20 category B racers as of July 26th. When you look at the rider profiles you will see higher power than what is shown below because the data I used is only from races where the rider achieved a rank of under 250 for the race ranking. Our goal is to identify how to become a top Category B racer in Zwift, not to see what everyone’s max wattage is during a 2.0 W/kg group ride with a sprint in the middle. Also, cutting off at 250 is arbitrary. Looking at the best five races from some of the riders between 15-20th it looked like a good cutoff.
- Analysis Tool(s): Google Sheets and Excel. If I can get more data I will do better analysis in R, but this data is easy.
- Additional Notes: Rider 11 seems to be an anomaly. That person has consistently lower power across all categories.
Let Me Know What Else You’d Like to Know About
Below are additional data-focused articles I plan to write, also based on data from ZwiftPower:
- Cat A+, A, C, D (Next in Line)
- Women Specific article – I’m not sure of format and Categories
- What it takes to win a Zwift race
- How to win on each course
- Zwift Rankings and Category Improvements
Let me know if this has helped you and what you want to hear about next. Just keep in mind that I cry easily and if I don’t see any comments or votes below that my kids will ask me why I am sobbing at my computer looking at Zwift Insider and I will have to explain how cruel a place the world is. So please just comment so I don’t have to burst my kids’ bubbles at 6 and 8 years old.
Enjoyed the article, very informative and funny
Thanks for the feedback!
My comment: nnarr!
You mentioned 4 W/kg as the limit for 20 min power a few times, but the limit is 95% of 20 min power isn’t it?
I.e. the actual limits for 20 min power are 4.2 W/kg and 263 W
Matthew – Great Catch – I didn’t even think about that. It looks like the 20 minute data I used above is actually the 100% power for 20 minutes. I supposed that would make the 4.1 W/kg number even more applicable! Hope you liked the article!
Masters info would be appreciated
just use a wheel on trainer, and you’ll be there in no time
Fun article, Rick! I enjoyed the data breakdowns. Totally agree on 15sec / 1min power FTW when racing A’s with B legs. As the father of a youngster, I can appreciate that both workout efficiency and competitiveness an both be embraced in short races every week 🙂
Thanks Jared!
Nice view into how racing is in a different class than the one i race in. Many races however has PU’s disabled so the effect on finishing position might be overstated a little here
Joakim – I agree, some even have specific power ups disabled. I hope at some point I can get more data and be able to dig into some of those differences. It would be cool to see if powerups make the races more random or if they add extra advantages to people who are already really good. Thanks for the kind words!
Hi Rick, that is a nice article, where are you getting this data? I am data scientist and I was looking for some data from Zwift.
Laurent – thanks for for saying you liked it! I had to manually copy and paste the data from ZwiftPower. I would have liked to make a scraper for it, but it was too much work for what I was doing and it would not have been obvious to me how to target only the riders I wanted to see (ZP urls for riders are numbered). I am hoping one of the ZP people see the article and give me access to the data…there is so much more I want to do!
I enjoyed your article and look forward to the same type of information on Cat C Riders and Womens’ Races too.
Thank you Taryn!
This might be a bit cynical but I think you basically need to be sand bagging. I worked pretty hard to be a good cat B Zwifter and I got a 1st, 1 second a Dq then ZP upgraded me to A. The only way I could have stayed in B when I was competitive would have been to monitor my 20 min power in races and make sure I don’t exceed the limits. To me this is cheating, riders just soft pedal and save their energy to the last 1 minute to take the win. The only solution to… Read more »
Yep, pretty much people just riding hard enough to stay in the group, but not actusllt pushing themselves. So they are fresh for the sprint without too. Pretty easy to do race after race, just treat it like a group ride… I moved up to A cat, and often see B riders hanging in pretty easily without breaking the B cat limits.
Will – I agree with the points upgrade system, that is actually going to be a recommendation in the rankings and cat article I’m planning. Its also why I included podium % in the article, there are some people that clearly need to move up, and others who aren’t winning all the time. There is also some nuance – a lot of people may prefer to be a good Cat X racer instead of a mediocre/bad Cat X+1 racer (if that makes sense). The cool part is the amount of data that Zwift has on us should make this more… Read more »
Hopefully they do love to a point system. If you win 5 cat B races IRL nobody asks what your max 20 min power is. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is your race performance whether you won consistently because you have big numbers or you are a good tactical racer you are clearly to good for Cat B.
If Zwift insist on using thepower duration at least don’t tell people the limits. Everyone should be doing everything they can to win and if you are go over them you are upgraded.
The other issue with knowing the limits, is opposite weight dopping. Adding 1 or 2 kgs of weight so you don’t get booted from B cat.
Points system will be much better. A 95% of 20 min cat classification makes zero sense, if the same person also does a 1 hour race at their 20 min power, but it doesn’t result in a new w/kg pb….
I know it was just a stop gap measure originally, but it’s a highly flawed way to rate cat levels.
it’s also kind of annoying for longer races, cos you might have a 3,1 w/kg 20min time but in a 1hr race that comes down, however the winners will be doing 3.1 w/kg for the whole 60mins and there’s no way their true 20min w/kg is also 3.1. as mentioned earlier, there are a hell of a lot of people who chill around at the cat limit for an entire ride, then blast it in the final 60sec to get an easy win, when in reality they are way stronger than the average rider in that cat.
That is something fundamentally wrong with the Zwift system. I recently went from C to B on ZwiftPower but I had been trying B races for a couple of months beforehand. I found that riding in C cat I was sometimes worrying if I was going to be over the cat limits (I never was). In B cat I could just race without having to worry about going over 3.1w/kg. Sandbagging to win a virtual gold cup doesn’t make you a better cyclist. I’d rather finish last doing 3.3wkg than first doing 3.1wkg.
well said.
I’m a B racer that is able to top ten and podium often. I resent that people will think I’m either sandbagging or reverse weight doping for results. I’ve figured out what it takes to win and am doing it. If you’re a B racer and frustrated because you’re not winning, it’s because it is HARD. I agree that a points based ranking system may be the way to go, however. I love zwift racing and am so thankful that it exists.
If you are consistently finishing top 10 and podium, then why aren’t you a category A rider?
Hey Matt – When I was finishing pretty high in cat B the main thing was it was so much more fun to finish high in a Cat and being able to actually use tactics and sprint. When I would jump up and race Cat A it was basically sit in until I got dropped on a hill or if the course was totally flat I would just get dropped the last 1k when I didn’t have the power. I think James Eastwoods idea of having races separated by “abilities” instead of Categories makes a lot of sense. Here is… Read more »
Yeah i doubt if there is a lot of sandbagging going on here (assuming you are honest with your weight). If you are racing multiple times a week in Cat A/B you are going to be putting out some max 20 minute power numbers. The current system benefits power profiles with high 15 sec, 1, 2 min power, and an ftp below 4.0 W/kg. I agree that a point based category system would be more appropriate for zwift. Hopefully zwift adopts this in the future.
Poochiemoomoos (currently ranked 11th on zwift power for Cat B).
Just for clarity you aren’t the 11th rider in my data 😀 I agree I think sandbagging is overblown. It’s tempting to say that because you can’t see the people everyone who beats you is sandbagging, and I think the Z Power riders make it seem worse than it really is. I also think people say “well just try harder and you will be over 4.0 W/kg” but if you move up to A you might just get dropped on the first climb if you are a 4.2 W/kg rider and end up soloing at much less than that, so… Read more »
Great article. Really interesting to see the statistics and your thoughts around it. Not sure whether I am one of the 20 riders in your analysis, but it reflect my own numbers and experiences pretty well. Agree to the points above that a points based system has the potential to be more “fair” than the current 20min w/kg. Even a system looking at a combination of 1, 5 and 20min will be better than the current system. I heard rumors Zwift has also investigated this setup together with ZwiftPower. I am not a sprinter but I have a pretty good… Read more »
Kristian – thanks for reading! I checked and you weren’t in the data, but I am pretty sure you were close when I pulled it, I remember seeing your name. I’m in the same boat about getting dropped on longer climbs but can hang on most punches.
Great data to digest! I agree that the 1-minute power is key. Take the “Leg snapper” course for example. The hill is in the middle of the course but it splits the field long before the sprint. Richmond the same thing. A solid 20 minute w/kg will help for sure but nothing stings like a strong 60 minute power surge!!!
Thanks Mike!
Let me correct myself. I meant to type “a 60 second stinging surge:) You get it
Heh, so to be a Great B rider you should ride in A… makes perfect Zwift sense
My 20 min power (and so also my calculated zwift ftp) is much higher than my 1 hour and true ftp. I can bite on a wheel and hold on for a while, but not enough to last a full race of say 40km in a higher cat. But because of the higher 20 min power, zwift puts me in the wrong cat. Any ideas on that?!
That describes most people….. 95% of 20 min power is usually way over your ftp.
Very useful and interesting insights, for racers and enthusiast’s alike. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Ross!
Alternative title: “How to be a Pro Sandbagger”
This was a great read! As an aspiring top B grade racer I found it quite informative. My recommendation is to widen to the top 50 or 100 ranked on Zwiftpower for the comparison. I think it can be concluded that some of top ranked riders do not accurately represent the Category as whole. I understand that is a big ask with having to currently manually input data. Second, it would be great to get some distances involved and the number of league events participated in. I think B grades racers commonly go for things not to long but also… Read more »
Mason – I am hoping to get the data to do a better analysis on more riders and try to determine better what the categories should look like. I have the distance data for the races I pulled, but surprisingly there was no correlation between distance and any of the power numbers. I agree with the league race comments as well – I always try to find the best B racers I can and follow them around.
I agree 250 W is arbitrary. As arbitrary as cutting at 4 W/kg.
In my opinion, it should be split by age – or by achievements. When you are at C Level and start a performing well, get points to be promoted to B Level. Not doing well, relegated back to C Level.
Thus, make racers to be happier to get in the middle of a Level A race than winning a B Level.
Great piece of information. First time I visualized the gap to the top racers in my level.
Thanks for the kind words Filipe!
waiting for cat C data! Nice art
We have the same aged kids! Love the analysis and looking forward to all you’ve outlined for the future! Meanwhile, happy as a C! 🙃
Thanks Angie! They are fun ages aren’t they?
Fascinating numbers. Me, I’ve never cared much about my Zwift ranking, except to use it to look at race signups beforehand to learn who the stronger racers were, and how I stack up. Probably I talked myself out of caring early on because I know I don’t stand a chance of being in the top 20 (or 50, or 100) B’s! 421st, that’s my current rank. 😜 But I’ll say this: even ranked in the 400’s like I am, I can hang with the pointy end of pretty much any flattish B race I join. It’s just a question of… Read more »
need me some of that PR lotion 😀
You gotta try it if you haven’t. It’s the real deal! https://www.avantlink.com/click.php?tt=cl&merchant_id=7d4bfb71-24e3-4bfb-87db-953d4acf0150&website_id=4f31bdd0-c9ff-4fea-b573-46e2226236b5&url=https%3A%2F%2Famphuman.com%2F
Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far!
Some people have asked about average HR for these races – the average is 160.9 BPM for the same criteria used for the data above. Minimum average is 148 BPM and Maximum average is 171 BPM.
I think I’m missing something obvious here: The Zwift race categories say that B is 3.2~3.9 w/kg. So anyone above that should be an A grade racer. All bar three of the “top 20 B grade riders” you analysed were at 3.9 w/kg or above. How does that make them category B riders? My own w/kg sits at around 3.3~3.4 (I’m over 50). So I have to race category B. And I will always do badly in these races. But there’s always a group of riders who get dropped of the leading bunch, and when I join them, the racing… Read more »
Hey Lachlan – Most racers go by the Zwift Power categories, which says over 4.0 W/kg AND 250 watt FTP, so light people can get away with being much higher. The other people are who are at 4.0 exactly are probably just under but the ZP data has them rounded to 4.0.
If you take a look at my power numbers I’m only around 3.6 right now and I am able to keep with the front groups on flat courses.
3.3 – 3.4 over 50 is no joke…I hope I’m there in 10 years! Way to go.
Hi Rick. Great read. I’m new to zwift and got pushed into the B category fairly promptly. Which is odd as I race cat-4 (D grade) in real life. Thanks to articles like yours, I can see what it takes to be at the pointy end in Zwift B. Solid 20min pwr, good final 60 sec and luck with PU. In on road races my low weight helps ‘hurt’ sprinters when there is a 3+ minute climb. There is a similar experience zwift. However, in zwift I can’t tell who is a big/heavy sprinter and who is a greyhound (avatars… Read more »
Thanks for the feedback! Do you mean a <8 W/kg sprinter who still has a good 20 minute W/kg?
I was the same when I first joined – in Cat B pretty quickly. I got shelled in those races for a while until I learned how to really sit in the draft and conserve energy.
Yes. Low power spring but good 20min w/kg.
Learn to draft = still learning.
Thanks
if ur good at distances you gotta make a break for it with <10km to go and pray to god that someone goes with you. 9 times out of 10 though, u'll be hung out to dry, and the pack will reel you back in. hence why you need good 15/60sec power to excel in zwift racing and you can't just ignore it..!
Is height doping a thing? I read it was a thing. Maybe your Rider 11 is very short…
I checked him out and it looks like he is 183 cm (almost 6 feet). I don’t know how the guy does it. There isn’t much data for him, so it may just be skewed by an outlier performance.
Great Data Points! Lookin’ forward to what you find for top C racers (which I belong to). I’m willing to bet we put out decent power, but are a lot heavier.
if you put out decent power, u’d be in a higher cat ;D there’s just as many light riders in C as any other Cat. getting >3 w/kg 20min power is no joke and takes a significant amount of training for most, weight doesn’t really have much to do with it (until the highest levels of cycling).
You dont know anything about zwift or sports if thats what you think. Weight moves weight.
I like how you pointed out the fact that a certain percentage use fake names. i bet the same percentage don’t have strava accounts linked. although i get my butt kicked in the A’s now, i like that the top riders all practice transparency. real names, strava accounts, hardware setups described, dual recordings, weigh in videos etc. i feel fine getting crushed by them. I just inherently don’t trust people at the top of leaderboards with fake names and no way to verify if they have any real world ability. and i’m not even talking about the clowns on the… Read more »
Thanks Josh – If I had to guess I would say that there are a certain number of people who don’t want their real name out there. One of my recommendations in future articles is going to be around this very topic and requirements to be ranked.
Good article, thanks for the breakdown! I’m looking forward to seeing what it takes to get to the top of Cat C 🙂
Thanks Rob! So far Cat C is winning for the next article!
step 1) weigh 100kg step 2) ??? step 3) profit!!1!
I was already thinking I should try Crit City as A. It actually happens that group is even slower than the Bs.
Do it and report back! Would love to hear how it turns out.
How to win on each course sounds fun! I’d also be interested in doing some writing for you, if you have the capacity? Happy to send a CV offline…
Steve – I just emailed @Eric Schlange with the article idea and I was off and running. Thanks for the kind words!
They are all cat A or A+, but they manupalete theirs 20 min power to stay in B category and win.
If you take theirs 75% 1min power as in the ramp test for FTP, you can see what they really are,they are all around or well over 5W/kg.
It’s because of the ridiculus rule on zwift race that they can do that.
With that said, I really enjoy to race in Zwift, simply because every time I can do my over the best result, because of the adrenaline and other factor.
your maximum 1 min power and the maximum 1 min power achieved in a ramp test are completely different things.
And then you get the people who are like: How to win a B race? Make yourself and A+ rider and comeback to B.
Rick, don’t you find it a little concerning that the typical rider weight is in the range of 50-75kg?
Most men in the Western World (certainly those with turbo trainers and Zwift) are overweight.
The reality is that people are lying about their weight.
In my opinion Zwift need to have international ‘weigh ins’ at bike shops. Get your weight verified FOC and only then can you race in Cat A or B.
Weight Doping is rife in Zwift and it seems that many men have decided 75kg is a ‘safe’ weight to choose, even when many are higher.
Jon – I love the bike shop weigh in (I was planning on a neutral weigh in part in one of the future articles – I’m gonna use this!) I picture a line of people in bike shorts out the door of the local shop waiting to get weighed for Zwift. I also heard a cool idea on the podcast with Holden Comeau and Matt Gardner about having your trainer setup weight you each time you get on. I looked up the average weight of a man and it is 89.7 kg in the US. If you look at the… Read more »
I’m 5’11” and weigh 158lbs (71.5kg). Most of the people that I know that bike a lot are with 5 kg +/- of me and are built about the same. I don’t think there’s as much weight doping as some do. Sand-bagging is a different story. While I understand the motives for being a big fish in a little pond vs little fish in big pond, it does make it hard to win. After reading Coggan and Hunter’s Training with a Power Meter book, I don’t think there’s that many people who are true sprinters and have power profiles that… Read more »
I still use zwift as an training platform, so if people choose to alternate wight height dum trainers wrongly calibrated stuff. its up to them, agree i sux to loose to cheaters but it is still out in the real world im comparing myself to others.
In zwift it is what it is 🙁
The weight is what jumped out at me as well. Kentucky Derby jockeys weight something like 54 kg. I believe the 75kg weights but the 50kg??? I wonder if certified truck scales could weight a vehicle with and without the driver and be able to certify the difference.
These aren’t typical riders. These are *the best* out of the thousands of riders in Cat B from all over the world. Doesn’t mean somebody couldn’t be weight doping, but you also have to keep perspective of just how many people there actually are on Zwift.
Maybe, but 50kg pretty-darned light – my 18 yr. old daughter who races weighs about that! Just seems a bit extreme, unless they are really young or short.
Thanks Rick. Very nice article. Zwift is and will be a computer game. Like all computer games you become more proficient with experience. But that also applies to real life cycling. Any sport. PU is part of the gaming. We should not compare Zwift cycling with road cycling. This is a power to weight ratio game. But still tremendously enjoyable and good exercise. And fun to get better at.
Thanks Johan!
This is incredible work. Thank you!
Thanks Justin!!
Thanks for a really informative article, I agree with a lot of the comments below about a points based system. I am 65 years old and am near the top of cat c power bands but struggle to finish with the front group in races with any sort of hill so would be good to know what I need to work towards to get to the point where I have a chance on anything other than rolling courses
Martyn – Thanks for the kind words! I’m the same with the hills but only 39 years old. Good on you for being that fast!!! I want to be like you when I grow up 😀.
Oh no the secret is never to grow up, keep the child like sense of fun in your riding and racing
Great info! Was there any data on the types of races they enter – Mass starts or staggered? In mass starts you tend to see 1 or 2 strong B’s hang with the A’s all, or most of the way making a sprint irrelevant to win on ZP. In staggered starts, mid-level Bs with a good sprint (like myself) stand more of a chance.
Dominic – I would have had to click through all of the races to see and I just don’t have time to do things that manually. I am hoping to find a way to get more of the ZP data and have it automatically. I agree with your analysis, I try to never race the combined Cat races if I can help it.
HA – yup, can imagine that taking a LONG time! Thanks for letting me know. Wish there were more staggered starts, does anyone know why 3R (how seem to put on 50% of races) choose mass starts every time!?
I gotta say; why do I have to feel bad about winning cat B races on zwift? It is something I’ve worked very hard to achieve. While I try to race A every now and then, my w/kg is just not there yet (although hopefully it will be someday).
I hope my article didn’t make you feel this way. The whole reason I started looking into it is that I want to be in the Top 20 of B and get to the point where I am on the podium a good amount of the time.
I think something people forget as well – someone has to be the best B cat racer, it can’t always be everyone at the top gets moved up, just like on the roads! Thanks for reading and I appreciate the feedback.
Your article is great, its more the general sentiment surrounding zwift racers and why they don’t deserve to be winning. I’m sure you see a lot of it as well.
This is an interesting article and highlights that basing races on FTP is pointless as it misses the fact that 1 minute and sprint power is what actually determines who wins and not the FTP. My FTP is currently 4.4 w/kg and I am classes as a Time-Trailer in WKO5 and as a result my sprint power is quite low which means that I don’t have much chance of winning an A cat race and even struggle at the end of a B in the sprint which means that based on the current Cat system means there isn’t really anywhere… Read more »
Thanks Colin I appreciate it!
Great article, Rick. I enjoyed your analysis and insight.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks Renzo!
Great read and some top analysis. I have been teaching myself a bit of Microsoft Uiflow recently and have managed to web scrape my Team Rider data into Excel using WinAutomate. It works pretty well and runs weekly 🙂 I would much prefer an API though.
Peter – thanks for the kind words! I may have to give that a try. I really appreciate the tips!
i do not want you to cry, and enjoyed the article. Good work
Thanks Nuno – no tears today!
Fantastic work! It would be interesting to see a statistical distribution of Zwift racer masses, not filtered by performance, to see if there’s any anomalous deviations from normal. Instead of this approach, of max(250W, 4W/kg ⨉ mass), a better approach would be to use a line: max power = 250 W @ 45 kg, 300 W @ 75 kg, which works out to 175 W + (5/3 W/kg) M. Plug in 45 kg to this formula and you get 250W. Plug in 75 kg into this formula and you get 300 W. But in between, and above, it does a… Read more »
Dan – Thanks for the kind words! I agree it would be awesome to be able to run more data. In an ideal world Zwift is doing this statistical analysis behind the scenes to determine categories. My best idea on preventing cheating in Zwift is along these lines with statistical deviations in each power band (15 second, 1 minute, 5 minute, 20 minute) being an indicator of who might be in need of an upgrade. I am planning to write more about it in a future article. Thanks again!
Hi Rick,
I am a small female and race A women’s/ B mixed. I have recently been focusing on improving my race ranking and have read the ZP system for ranking a couple times. I think I have a good understanding of it but still trying to figure out when choosing a B race, how do I know the “quality ” of racers signed up? I did a Dirt Doozy B race and came in 3rd which I was incredibly happy with but my points weren’t as good as other races. There were over 24 B riders in the race.
Joy – First of all I knew your name from somewhere…you dusted me last week in Dadurday! Nice Race! Now to your question – To see the quality of the other racers you need to check the races in ZwiftPower and see who is signed up and their race rank. I always check to see how many people have a rank better than me – ideally 5-7 will. That way I know if I am up front I should move up. Since ranking takes the top 5 ranked riders in the top 10 spots to determine race quality, that pretty… Read more »
That is what I am noticing. As I improve, I almost feel during the ride B is too slow but then they out sprint me in the end. I was curious if I could sign up for A and just try and hang on. Today was fun, it seems to be a good race for me!
It was a fun one for sure. I was watching you a little, and this is totally unsolicited advice but I think you could have broken away from the B’s on the hills on the last lap and tried to TT your way home in front of the whole group. I don’t know if that would have worked, but I think you were easily the strongest in our group. Take a look at Laura Matsen Ko on ZwiftPower – I watched her race today in Cat A and I think you could have hung in that race up to the… Read more »
Iscthere any correlation between fake names and weights. Interestingly someone i raced recently was 47kg. I thought i was light.😅
Hey Stuart – Honestly it is hard to determine a correlation with only 20 data points. To determine a correlation between fake names and weight I would need to pull all of the ZP data (or at least quite a bit more than 20 points). Implied in my data about power is that the other racers power is lower because they are lower ranked, but the same doesn’t hold for a fake name/weight analysis. Thanks or reading!
Great article. Really enjoyed it. Just getting into the idea of regular racing after getting on the podium a couple of times (there weren’t that many racers racing but it still felt good) and I like this whole idea of improving rankings as a mid term goal to keep the motivation going…….so, I’m really looking forward to your C cat. Analysis. Thank you!
Jonathan – Glad to hear you liked it! I appreciate you reading the article and commenting. Cat C coming soon!
would love to see the stats for A and A+ riders next..!
I am literally working on it right now! Thanks for reading!
Really interesting article- thank you for doing the analysis. I’ve typically been in the B top 20 since I started zwift racing, although I think I was an A when you did this analysis and so didn’t form part of your dataset. I have a couple of thoughts that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned in comments or the article, apologies if I’ve just missed them. I’m a little surprised that the weight distribution of the high-weight-succesful-B-racers isn’t higher. I’m 87-88kg with a 20 min power generally right on the B-limit- around 370W. What this means is that in flat… Read more »
Tom – thanks for the kind words and the comment! Good to hear from another of the Top 20! Your last paragraph is what I was trying to get at a little bit with the “race a lot” comments. So much of this comes down to luck and course selection along with the ability to take advantage of the luck when it comes (like you can). I wish I could get the data to run that analysis. I have been looking at race ranking a lot since Eric posted his article. It would be cool to see how many race… Read more »
A while back, I made this graphic when trying to understand my progression through the B Ranks. I wanted to see what sort of watts per kilogram improvements I had and how my finishing positions improved over the year plus I was a B racer. I am ~70kg and 170cm for comparison to other top B’s. https://imgur.com/GiLLNf2 I think I peaked at #3 for B’s in terms of ranking, and was in the top ten for a few months for the end of 2019. I certainly started winning consistently in flat races when I got to over 12.0 w/kg for… Read more »
Ned – that is really cool! Awesome to see an individuals data matching the article over time, plus I am sensing another data nerd!
I’m with you on the climbing races, I can make it up the smaller hills with the B’s and my sprint is coming around, but the long hills do me in. Now I just never race courses with long hills!
Thanks for reading!
Great article. Really interesting. I do feel that the 250w minimum ZP categories A on is a tad high. On ZP I’m 248w and therefore in B (just), I find B races comfortable as my 20min w/kg is 4.9, even on flat courses, and my results just depend on my positioning (or lack of) at the end of the race. If there are sandbagging A’s in the wrong cat, it’s even easier as I am able to hold them to an easy win. Because of this, I almost always race in A, and don’t find myself disadvantaged at all by… Read more »
ollaolla – thanks for the comment and feedback! Its a tricky situation for sure.
Hi, thanks for the great article. I have also read your recent article on Cat C top 20, too. ZwiftPower has me at Cat B – I have not raced that often (yet!) and only a couple of times in B but get dropped in the first minute or two and find myself cycling alone – which is isn’t that fun! The average power and wkg in B races is beyond my capability (for now). I have also raced in C (off the Maap Race 3) recently just to see how I would fend and this also was a challenge… Read more »
Hey Tim – Thanks for the kind words! I don’t think it is wrong to do whatever you think is most appropriate for you. If you can’t finish in top 5 consistently in C no one is going to be upset if you stay there, it’s just annoying in ZP to get DQ’ed every time. I would also encourage you to do some of the flat Cat B races and practice staying with the front group on the start and drafting. I have averaged very W/kg doing this (you can check out my ZP profile for some if you want).… Read more »