From C-Grade to A-Grade in 1-Week? Racing Zwift's New Categories

[@rasmusriis2126]

Hats of, you are doing so well Tilly! Putting up a good fight with all the males, just shows how strong you are, you will get back on top level soon!

[@tillyonabike]

@@rasmusriis2126 thank you 😄

[@christophecontant4856]

So happy to see you well after a long time and a hospital's journey for you, cheers mate :-)) and nice 2025

[@E.M.B.R]

I will say that ZRS right now is a strong improvement over the old CE system. Also, starting today, Zwift are doing some things with score ranges, variable pens, and elite categories that I think will further refine they system even more for the better. Given that the scoring system is based on OpenSkill it will definitely gain more confidence / do better with riders that race more often so your intuition on that point is largely correct. ZRS as a system is grabbing performance data from outside of races as well though for seed/baseline score so, as long as people spend time on the platform and do honest efforts, it should get them in a category within a margin for error. It's those edge cases where injury like yours or someone being away from the platform for an extended time where the seed score may be further afield to start and then rely on race results to shift them to the right location. Good stuff, though. Hope you get to feeling better each week. I know its as tough mentally as it is physically when you lose fitness to an injury but I also know you have a history of doing hard things to fall back on and you'll get back to where you were.

[@vonbrockone]

Hey very impressed with your positive outlook. Fortunately I did not get taken out by a car door (I hope your fully recovered). But I rode the last 2 months of the season riding Crits in Belgium & ignored the new racing score as it was pre emptied. Hence like you I dropped like a stone to Cat C....And have been climbing back up. And funnily enough, as I type im on 513 & I believe your on 514 ! One of your videos just came up on my feed. Funny a lot of the Guys I did race with are miles ahead of me now in A or B. Very impressed with your Race craft. Keep up the good work. I will keep my eyes open for you in de B's. Regards keith

[@tillyonabike]

Hi Keith, well done on avoiding those doors! haha. Yes, just when I thought my score was getting up, I raced an almost empty A-Grade race and score went down when I "won". Whoops. Think it will take time - see you out there!

[@ivoadf]

That looked like a nasty injury, happy to see you back on the bike and posting again. I'm always surprised how hard you go on these races, you look cooked 6k to go and managed to do an impressive sprint at the end.

[@tillyonabike]

@@ivoadf as a tomato face, I’d like to say I look worse than I feel…. But that’s probably not true haha. Amazing the limits your body lets you push it past!

[@bee_whisper]

happy new year

[@adamanderson1212]

First off, glad you're okay after the medical situations and that you're back on KZbin. Secondly, I wonder if the new ZRS algorithm is looking for consistent performances in categories from riders to move up their score. Since the ZRS has been rolled out, I've been promoted and demoted from D to C and vice versa a few times. My last Zwift race was a ZRL in Cat C where I finished fourth. That promoted me officially to Cat C in the ZRS as my score is now 356. While the fourth place for my race was nice, it beat my previous high Cat C finishing spot of 12th and my score went from 349 to 356. So I finished 4th in a category that coming into the race, I hadn't even been promoted into yet and my ZRS only went up 7 points. Hence my theory about needing consistent results in the categories.

[@lambd0r-d4g]

It's just shit and doesn't work properly.

[@CBRMackie63]

Great race Tilly and a good sprint! As for the race score, I think it's fair, much so now. Being an A+ cat rider nothing changed for me because they started me at 850 so no chance for me to fall in any lower category. I think the biggest complaint early on was riders with higher w/kg falling in lower ranked score groups and demolishing the fields. I think they fixed that when they rescored everyone. After the rescore the race that had me at 933 suddenly went to 951. I think they went back and weighted FTP higher into their calculations. They have also split the groups up more narrowing the range on some races.

[@tillyonabike]

Thank you! Aah yes that's probably good weighting the FTP higher. You don't often exercise a full "FTP effort" in racing so good that's more accounted for in a racing score to eliminate riders abilities to break and stay away too easily (as often happens like in this video). You've got a great score!!

[@MilanMolnarr]

Good effort Tilly! I race twice a week in 690-1000 ZRS on top of my traning and I found it very difficult. Pack dynamic has improved slightly though

[@tillyonabike]

@MilanMolnarr good on you. Ye I have definitely enjoyed the dynamics lately too

[@christianCarbstrong]

Lol this was like watching me race. I always take everyone on the climbs. I felt this video. I'm still working on my legs and where I'm at these days. 😂❤

[@mattgilmour9761]

Nice work champ

[@christianCarbstrong]

Wait. We raced the other day! I was all jacked up on MTN DEW!!! Pedaled like a spider monkey!!! 😂😂 Funny I came across your videos. ❤

[@nathanmelvin8780]

Ference was an nhl pro hockey player on the oilers lol. Super strong on the bike!

[@Rob-zombied-b3q]

Good show!

[@ravennexusmh]

it's good they've adjusted how the catagory's work. i don't race much. i'm still quite a heavy dude, but with decent power, but quite savy on the timings. i'd just moved up to C group, but zwift had put in the new racing score groupings with many B and A group riderrs and my racing score was 50-70% higher then many C group riders. but since they re-calculated them it's back down to a sensible C group level

[@schism8286]

Incredible!

[@tillyonabike]

And Always fun 😁

[@schism8286]

@@tillyonabike A serious push. Love to see it. Have a great new year!

[@robertgale8694]

Over 4wpk is cooking!!

[@dmv4554]

Good recovery. I was surprised by how high your cadence was

[@tillyonabike]

@@dmv4554 thanks! I just checked my average.. 87rpm. Probably about right for efficiency. Is that about what you noticed?

[@dmv4554]

@@tillyonabikej thought I saw your cadence almost hitting triple digits sometimes. Nothing wrong about it. Just curious.

[@JeyDeee89]

@@tillyonabike Hi, is your average rpm the same in training? Just checked my average as a beginner, and I'm at 116W@77rpm 😅

[@jemsmay2167]

Great work Tilly! You are in good company too “Ference” is Andy Ference who had a 20 some year career as a pro hockey player most of it in the NHL. He is well known as a steady defenseman and good teammate, having been a captain on 2 NHL teams and having his name on the Stanley Cup from his time with the Boston Bruins. Good to see he is keeping in shape. Always interesting, the people you run into on Zwift!

[@imprezaaudi]

I've moved down a category from C to D. I was a top 30% in C, now I'm slightly higher in D maybe top 20%. The power you have is also calculated in the race score along with results. You have jumped up significantly in just a few events. You will probably end up in the highest group soon but at the bottom area. There are some new categories being released in January. This will allow low ranking in a group to be placed top by shifting the boundaries several times a day.

[@K114LED]

Amazing power, I’ve been riding for 3 years and cannot get 200 watts average on an hour.

[@robertnobles8189]

I’m bouncing back and forth between the top two categories. I do a race below 690 and it bumps me up above, then I do poorly in a 690+ race and I’m back down. My natural score seems to be around 700 for TT’s and longer mass start races, but in the second category for the short sprint races.

[@tillyonabike]

@@robertnobles8189 hm that’s interesting the category diff for different power profiles! I “won” a top category race yesterday (all the other competitors dropped out) but my score went down? It was still a 260W+/4.3kg effort (old A grade)

[@robertnobles8189]

@ In the old categories, I was solidly a top 3rd Cat B. There was less confusion for me and it didn’t matter if I won TT’s and got blown out in road races unless the breakaway was successful. My sprint is non-existent. lol

[@MyAriandro]

the score is also about 10 min and 30 sec power and how strong the field is. it not just the result in the race.

[@lambd0r-d4g]

You're talking about the seeding score. And it's not 10m and 30s anymore since a week a or so. It's now only 5m.

[@rodstevens7452]

Looking at the WPKG wow… that’s a 350-520 race?

[@dmv4554]

I don’t have a problem with the system. I think the impetus behind it was to force riders who keep winning to upgrade and not sandbag as you say. On the other hand you might find yourself in a race with much stronger riders. I hope that in time things will settle and riders will be back in their natural categorues

[@tillyonabike]

@@dmv4554 definitely a good shake up! Categories seem to be moving around a lot more and the big difference of being able to see it change with each performance will have huge effect. But yes hopefully stabilises a little more!

[@colinlittlewood9613]

For my first race with the new categories, I was caught on the line after an attack at 800 metres to go with a time gap of 0.00 seconds to the winner.

[@tillyonabike]

🙈 it’s picking favourites. Did your category stay the “same” in the changeover?

[@bitminerbob6731]

If you make it into the top tier group, please race with us in the Thursday nights CHOP race. We could do with the firepower. 🎉

[@tillyonabike]

@@bitminerbob6731 AEST? 😃 let’s hope I get there.. last race put me backwards 🙃

[@bitminerbob6731]

@@tillyonabike yeah 6:15pm AEST on a Thursday night. Hope you're recovery is going well.

[@EkremHamiyet]

That’s scary

[@rodstevens7452]

4.3-4.1 gets you 1st to 3rd in 350-520 racing score… wow… never raced but that sounds broken for a so called 3rd group

[@nikblyth8047]

Zwift has really screwed up the lower categories with the way they seeded everyone in ZRS. How can Zwift give a Cat B and a Cat D the same score, basically saying they are equal. Based on the Fresh Outta 24 results, to win in the 0-180 bandwidth you need to be able to hold Cat C power. 180-350 bandwidth you need to producing high C, low B power. 350-520 is high B power. As an old Cat D with a ZRS of 273 the best result I can take from racing is that I am usually the highest placed D in the race.

[@christophercoutu4166]

Just so you know - you were racing NHL Stanley cup winner/ Boston Bruins long time defenseman- Andrew Ference who won the race - not surprised he rode away solo - always had a great motor on the ice.

[@xjeanxflipx]

Was about to comment this, heard he really got into cycling, no wonder he went at the front the whole race, guy always had GREAT cardio.

[@Th3Toppi3]

Zwift's new racing score sucks....plain and simple. I love Zwift and have been using it for ages and this new score is rubbish!