Noooo! I got upgraded in the sprint! HAHAHAHAHA!
I knew this was going to be a tough race. Lots or cruisy types and way too short to make people tired. I’d say the route favors a heavy’ish rider too. 80-something is a nice figure in cat C-D here.
Anyway, don’t you just love it when the organizers, who have more than one cruiser signed up in the race, announce before start that all sandbaggers should leave the race immediately (you know, those guys that are going to get a UPG from ZP anyway). And then they go cruising with me. Priceless!
So for something like half the race I was in this group with five other cruisers. Standard scenario. People try to mess with each other a bit but nothing really works since everyone is too strong for the performance ceiling and no one wants to get a DQ. So after the last turn around l’Arc de Triomphe my average was at 186W and I should have leeway up to something like 194-195W. So I thought, hey, I’ll go hard like everyone else (not everyone did, wisely enough, or more cruisers would have got an upgrade tonight). But the approach to the finish is so damn long! It never ends! And you don’t look at your meters when you’re hammering or sprinting. And, to make things worse, I was one of the lightest too. The Watts racked up somehow. I saw 197W on the average just past the finish line, coming in 2nd from that group. Uh-oh…
I can’t be arsed to sit out another 90 days just to keep proving the point. I think I have made it clear here already, over and over. Just go back through the blog history and read. It’s all there. And it’s not lies or exaggerations. You can verify yourself.
I’ll go back to cat C and actually start working on my fitness again. It’s about time, I guess. And now, since I have already sullied myself by cheating openly, maybe I can allow myself to keep reporting on cruising in cat C too here, although I won’t be able to cruise in C myself. No names of course.
Cruising works, still does, as long as you don’t screw up like me. And you should still try it yourself just to verify what I say. And no, it should never have been possible to cruise in Zwift. Or sandbag for that matter.
It’s still possible to fix this. Zwift just needs to do it. Every voice counts. Don’t rely on others to get things done for you. You need to speak up too. Once the topics I have covered are the talk of the town, then Zwift can’t hide anymore. They will be forced to do something. Right now the complaints are just a trickle beside a stream of nonsense. Yes, it’s inconventient that you need to exit the application to start a new route, but I don’t care! I can live with that! But we need fair racing, not just for us but also for the health of the community as a whole and for Zwift as a brand name for the future. And more people need to talk about this openly. So in a sense it’s not in Zwift’s hands (since they are masters at doing too little, too late). It’s in our hands. We just have to assume individual responsibility, as many as possible. And speak up!
Three things need to be done:
1. Enforce categories
2. Remove the performance ceiling and stop the after-the-fact DQ’ing of people you let into the race
3. Scrap the W/kg cats and introduce a results-based categorization
This will solve all sandbagging and cruising problems instantly, although you can also scale into it and do 1-2 first and add 3 later. It will also remove unfair advantages for people who never asked for them, like the heavies, the ultra lightweight etc. And it’s on you to make it happen. Can we count on you?
Anything for a fairer and healthier Zwift, right?
FUN IS FAST! FUN IS FAIR!