Anyone else just see their Zwift FTP and category enforcement go bonkers?

[Chris Stratton]

Zwift seems to have just introduced a secret in-house category
enforcement overriding the very public and transparent one on
zwiftpower.

Worse, it's producing obviously erroneous FTP figures.

Yesterday, at the end of a ride, zwift thought my FTP had increased to
230. But today - without riding at all - suddenly they're absurdly
saying I have 250.

That's just insane - it's higher than my best 20 minute power ever.
And if I look at my graph on zwiftpower, my curve through that whole
region is almost linear, and intercepts 40 minutes at 233 watts.

Sure, I have high 1-2 minute power from getting up steep bumps doing
singletrack on the gravel bike. But my heart rate data clearly shows
that's not sustainable, and my ride data clearly shows what is.

And yes, getting bumped from cat D to cat C was inevitable once I was
back to summer weight.

If they wanted to consider things beyond FTP in category enforcement,
that could be defensible as well.

But having them post absurdly wrong figures for FTP itself is not right.

Really hoping they realize they have a buggy algorithm and revert...

[Lynda Gauthier]

Zwift Insider is the quintessential source for everything Zwift. It's my morning coffee read. Here's the last post on categories.  https://zwiftinsider.com/category-enforcement/

I'm glad they are at least trying things. So many zwifters had no interest in joining zwift power or checking to see their category before joining a race. It was ridiculous to see the wattage numbers of folks that would race my category. Often it was merely because people had no clue. Zwift wasn't telling folks what they could and couldn't join as a race category and people would just think, I'm not a racer, I'll join Cat D but on Zwift they have decent numbers that put them in higher categories. They seem intent on enhancing racing so I'm sure that changes will be continual. The zwift insider post was from Dec 29th so the latest attempt at category enforcement is rather new.

I'm not sure what trainer you are using but super important to calibrate often. The hard core folks (and requirement for cat A) run separate power meters to compare the numbers.  GP Lama has some great videos comparing and illustrating the differences in trainers.

[Chris Stratton]

On Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 6:37 PM Lynda Gauthier <lynd...@gmail.com> wrote:

> So many zwifters had no interest in joining zwift power

Zwift power requires sharing personal data one should have the right
to keep private ; that's appropriate for racing, but not for zwifting
in general.

>on Zwift they have decent numbers that put them in higher categories

Except that they don't. Zwift is using a SECRET and quite obvously
BROKEN algorithm for FTP determination.

That's a drastic step backwards from zwiftpower's very public one,
where you can see exactly how the FTP and category is determined, not
only for yourself, but for anyone else eligible to place in a race.

> I'm not sure what trainer you are using but super important to calibrate often.

It's nothing to do with calibration, given no NEW data, they
re-evaluated the old under a grotesquely broken and SECRET algorithm,
in contrast to the old scheme where we could all see exactly how
anyone ended up where they are.

[Jeremy Coleman]

I thought that racing category in Zwift Power is based on maximum 5 minute power, but maybe that's overly simplified.

Jeremy Coleman

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[Chris Stratton]

On Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 6:53 PM Jeremy Coleman <jcolem...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I thought that racing category in Zwift Power is based on maximum 5 minute power, but maybe that's overly simplified.

No, it's not. It's largely based on best 20 minute power in the best
3 recent races.

But zwift itself has suddenly over night started using a completely
different, SECRET and very BROKEN algorithm that prevents you from
registering where zwiftpower says you belong.

Zwiftpower's assesment is backed up by a very nice power vs time graph
where you can see what anyone - yourself or others - is capable of,
and see if there's something that makes that use of 20 minute power
suspect.

But since sometime in the last 24 hours, Zwift itself is using some
SECRET nonsense at odds with even the privately viewable data they
claim to be basing it on.

That's two huge steps backwards:

1) no transparency of others' determination

2) no explanation of how they're calculating an FTP for you grossly at
odds with the data they tell you they are basing it on