ZWIFT Racing Score Is Finally Here and It Is a GAMECHANGER!

[@RoadtoA]

What group will you start in when racing score launches next week? Comment below!

[@davidhofmayer1031]

As someone with very similar numbers and ZRS as you, watching everyone fly away on the Grade gives me shivers for my next climbing race

[@RoadtoA]

@@davidhofmayer1031 This was right after the reset, I had female pros and male A+ riders in the group. Honestly it is a miracle I didn't get dropped on the Titan's KOM. It should be way calmer by now.

[@AndrewBrown-em3ti]

Thanks for putting this out and great effort in that race, super tough parcours. I’m currently C Cat and now have a race score of around 365, it was lowered from about 430 in the last change. The new C cat banding has me right at the lower end, think there will be a lot of current B cats in those races too. Happy to see how things play out, the old system was definitely ready for a significant overhaul. Agree that the seedlings should look at the 1 minute and minute ranges too- you are right that most races seem to be decided or influenced in those power ranges. Good luck in your new category, look forward to seeing how you get on.

[@RoadtoA]

@@AndrewBrown-em3ti thank you, good luck to you too!

[@C.Connell78]

Thanks!

[@RoadtoA]

@@C.Connell78 Oh my god, dude, thank you very much!

[@C.Connell78]

@@RoadtoA I really admire your attitude and tenacity - ride on. I look forward to watching you progress, and your content is uplifting in general. Thank you.

[@RoadtoA]

@@C.Connell78

[@tombarnes2652]

Problem now is you are potentially up against people who are head and shoulders above you in fitness, whereas before it was capped on what power they could do without getting bumped. So if 9/10 times they are just there for a good workout and don't race smart or just use a tt bike. Though this would probably only effect the front group so its not too bad, just a bigger spread of fitness in each race. The extra cat is the best bit out of the changes. As would detecting if someone has tried hard, but feel like those changes on top of fitness based cats would have been a better option. (they also need different scores/cats for different race route profiles/lengths)

[@RoadtoA]

It needs time to settle I am convinced.

[@cyclingcomputer]

They could have changed all this, keeping the labels Cat A, B, C, D, and E the same way Zwift uses w/kg to classify the riders into the current categories. Why does that matter? I don't know, but at least Categories are more aligned with Cat 5 to 1 outdoor racing organizers' use.

[@RoadtoA]

@@cyclingcomputer the letters will stay in place and correspond to the rating bracket exactly as shown in the thumbnail of this video;)

[@cyclingcomputer]

@@RoadtoA that is awesome!

[@RoadtoA]

@@cyclingcomputer oh yeah!

[@mfowler4651]

Well Done Adam! That was a killer race indeed. I really like that hill profile in the bottom of your screen. Are you now using a PC now? I print out the hill profile before each race, but the profile doesn't account for lead in or changes in the staring point.

[@RoadtoA]

@@mfowler4651 thank you! I use PC for racing and for work, for my personal usage (and video editing I'm 100% mac guy).

[@jamesengelsma3]

How many zwift races per week should I aim for to get better (was in C category before the new racing score was introduced). Should I just do zone 2 the rest of the time?

[@RoadtoA]

That's hard to say. Depends on your age, experience, current training load, injury resistance etc. I myself usually aim to do two hard rides a week (so if I do two races, that's it, if I don't, I add a workout). Then I add a long ride. The rest are easy rides.

[@jamesengelsma3]

@@RoadtoA Nice, thanks for sharing. How many days do you separate the 2 hard efforts by?

[@RoadtoA]

@@jamesengelsma3 At least 1 easy day between any combination of the following - race, workout, long ride.

[@blackflamesolutions526]

I really hate these changes. Worked really hard to get to A, can finish A races without getting dropped, but as I don't have a sprint my ZRS score is 615. So I'm basically back to B, even though I have definite A wattage for 20 and 5m. This new system puts high C sprinters in the same pen as A+ non-sprinters, in the name of ‘fair racing’. I have 4.5w/kg 20 min power and 5.3w/kg 5 min power and I'm going to be in same category as sprinters from C who have an FTP of 3 w/kg.

[@RoadtoA]

@@blackflamesolutions526 I think of you are truly an A rider you will get the rating back very, very quickly, especially with the podium finish bonuses

[@zwiftleavesnotyremarks]

You can always race up a level

[@davidgalbraith5550]

Just ride in A. Nothing is stopping you!

[@zwiftleavesnotyremarks]

@@blackflamesolutions526 think of it as an opportunity to learn to sprint this is now racing score not power numbers it's in the name

[@RuffRides]

Likewise I was fairly close to the top of B...legit couldn't get to A power, never won a race but could hold on and compete for the finale and regularly get top 10s in B. Now it seems I'm gonna get smashed by ex A riders in hilly races and smashed by good C spinters in flat races...Oh Joy!

[@brutalclimb]

I'm looking forward to being dropped for three months now. Racing score at 381 - which means very low in the third category. It goes all the way up to 520 so I'm so screwed.

[@RoadtoA]

@@brutalclimb If you continually get dropped so will your racing score (and the better riders in the cat will actually move up).

[@brutalclimb]

@@RoadtoA I hope so. I got dropped last week and I gained 1 point :D

[@RoadtoA]

@@brutalclimb but that's valid, too. Getting dropped can still mean you'll end up in the top third or even top half. The reality might be that there is a good portion of riders in your category who actually belong there but are actually better than you. It's up to you to get among them. :-) Hopefully though this system will solve the issue that strong riders are racing in lower category because they know how to play the numbers.

[@t-larsen]

@@RoadtoA It might work itself out as historically I will gain 0.3 w/kg or 0.4 within March or April next year. Long way to go there though. Looking at these scores at the moment, I know I will get dropped. They are simply better than me.

[@RoadtoA]

@@t-larsen and that's fine! The goal of a good racing system isn't to never have better riders in a group. The goal is to never have WAY better riders in a group. In every race someone has to win, someone has to lose.:-) As long as both is legit, it's fine!

[@robertnobles8189]

“Road to 690” KZbin channel now?

[@RoadtoA]

@@robertnobles8189 haha! I was told they'll keep the letter labels, maybe it will take some time though.

[@robertnobles8189]

@@RoadtoA I was upgraded to A two weeks ago and my racing score is just 617. So I will have missed two months of being in the overall results for monthly series once they make me a B again.

[@frannyyarina]

👏💪 For me it will probably remain an A, score is 760...

[@RoadtoA]

@@frannyyarina i don't doubt that!

[@nikblyth8047]

ZRS is a joke. I'm a Cat D with a ZRS of 313. This puts me against Cat C & B riders. There's no way any Cat D can compete against a Cat B. I'd rather have a one cat, mass start race. At least you'd be racing people of similar abilities after a couple of km's. Also, any rider returning to zwift will get a lower score meaning they will start in a lower bandwidth. Zwift could have kept the current categories but changed the limits each month. They should also do this with the ZRS bandwidths.

[@RoadtoA]

@@nikblyth8047 it will take some time to settle but it will adjust. In the beta it was skewed because there was very little data (as everyone was racing in old cats).

[@nikblyth8047]

@@RoadtoA There is a female proteam rider with ZRS of 60. When ZRS was first introduced I had a better ZRS than Richie Porte (ex team Sky rider). Zwift could have started by ranking Cat D from 0-300 based on FTP. Cat C 200-500, Cat B 400-700, Cat A 600-900 & A+ 800-1000. From there scores could be adjusted based on results. Why should returning riders have their scores lowered? Let them start again with whatever score they had.

[@RoadtoA]

@@nikblyth8047 I agree with the flaws in the initial placement system. My only point is that after few weeks it won't matter because riders will get to their true level quickly.

[@egardner1096]

@@RoadtoA It wont as they are using 30 second and 10 minute times to rank people, the score you have can only degrade by 15%, am Cat D with 353 racing score so am stuck racing Cat Bs and Cs who dont have a good sprint, willing to bet they change back to watts per kilo by Christmas but maybe with a couple more pens.

[@RoadtoA]

@@egardner1096 but others that are stronger will go up. And like I said in the video - they should be exploring ways to make the seeding better, it's just not ready yet.