Zwift Race | 3.5w/kg in Cat C- Too much? Cheating? 

Sandbagger !!!! 😂😂😂

Great to see you just go all out and enjoy the race at the end there 🎉 And a great result as well

great ride max, watched the whole vid,I felt u shd have conserved more energy for the end and sprinted a bit more...but it was quite an effort man... *great effort* 👍

Prime Time is the only time to race on Mondays. Great racing with you. Messed up on lap 1 and needed to catch up. Of coirse then had nothing left for the end. Already signed up for next Monday.

i am a cat b racer (category enforced) and that was a legit tough race. good job -- be proud of those gains!!!

Good going dude, you lot certainly laid down a strong time challenge! Can't believe you've only just got a fan, mad man, you'll definitely find it helps with body temp in longer races with that on your front 👍

Yeah that was a great effort. 🎉🎉

I have for the last couple of days just binged through most of your zwift race videos, kudos to you for the content! I have cycled for some years and want to start race on zwift from now on. I have tried a few and I'm considered a B rider. Do you announce when you go for a race? Cause I would love to join you on a couple and race with you!

Hi Max, thanks for giving me the link to discover your channel. I think you should continue to race in C for a while and that with the new zftp class calculation...you are not cheating. If you want to be 100% sure do an iTT on Tempus Fugit and you will know for sure if upgraded. Otherwise since you are an endurance athlete you might always struggle at winning sprints as this is all about your 15s...but one thing you can work on to be competitive at the top C and later in B is your 1mn power, This is a key figure on zwift to follow all accelerations etc and this is what stopped you from making a top 10 in this race (don't ask me how to train for it, all I do is race😄)-cheers

Between your new fan and moving your screen to straight ahead you'll be a mid-pack B rider, no problem. Keep up the good work.

I'm in a similar position - it's tough to figure out fair categories for these shorter races (are the category watt ranges based on ftp averages, or averages for what you can put out for the 20-30 minute race?). I consider myself solidly Cat C and did Stage 3 a few days ago and averaged 3.5 - finished 30th-ish. I figure if I'm not winning often I'm probably in the right place! Nice race!

3.5 in cat c is NOT borderline mate. Just join cat B and stop beginning the race while sipping on your powergel 😂

Great effort. It'll be interesting to see if you get bumped with repeated efforts at this level. The reward for improvement is square one in the next category. Hopefully you will grab a couple of podiums before getting booted.

Hi mate. I also averaged 3.5w/kg. ZP has now bumped me up to Cat B but I'm not sure on what basis. So long as you are pushing hard in races and not trying to game the system then just let the algorithms decide when you are a B.

Hi Max. You're seeing great results from the training. Every effort like this is going to compound for " That Day", and yes "That Day" is coming with efforts like that. Is it cheating?, no - you rode in the group you were assign too, but going by zwifts numbers , 2 more efforts like than and i'll be seeing you in the B pens. Playing the top end of a cat is a bit of a game. You can push but you have to pick your spots. You got about 3.5 matches to burn, use them wisely, But don't get carried away and burn 4 matches, that will start a fire you may not be able to put out.

Keep up with the daily training plan over the long term that will be key in overall ride and rider improvement an weight training will help.Just be very careful racing twice it week you can fall into the trap of burning the matches is at both ends. Which is why I only race once a week max is my efforts are hard during the week Friday is recovery do race intervals blow outs for a few hrs or race a hard fast zwift but command the whole race at least when I was B I could fly up the road whenever I wanted an blow the group apart no more in A races an got the follow the right moves an started to get catogrory enforced out of Bs now. Make sure you get a few long days in as well will help with the base. Maybe we can race in the future.

Yes its too much. My mate was in that race, he had 3.5w/kg and was promoted to B category off the back of it. There were quite a few sandbaggers in that event. My mate is traditionally a B ,but was coming back from outdoor season after serious hip replacement. He's pleased to return to B- I think

Well done...

3.5 w/kg for 21 mins is quite different to holding this for one hour. In any case it's not cheating if the zwift algorithm will eventually bump you up as you log better performances

Just a suggestion, I would put the screen right in front of me. Now you’re constantly looking sideways. I don’t think that’s a good posture.

Too much? Cheating? If you’re holding 3.5w/kg in a C race and avoiding a large group B ride because it’s too fast, yes, it’s cheating.

Great ride! You don’t need to apologise for being in C. That’s where the system says you can ride and it’s not like you sit at the back of the bunch the whole race before sprinting through to win at a 1000w and overall race of 2.8w/kg, which is much more annoying 😂 When you’re winning all these races then start apologising 😉 anyway, with these numbers, it won’t be long and you’ll be in the Bs and you can join me in not being able to sprint at the end 🤣

Great effort hanging on until the end. I don't think you are sandbagging. I think you are at the very top of the C cat and will be bumped up to B after a couple more performance's like this. 95% of 3.5wkg @ 20mins = 3.2wkg which is how the cats are calculated, I think.

On the high side. I average that in B. Try saving more energy by coasting more in the group.

On a flat course it's more about the Watts, not the W/kg. So you might be at a disadvantage against heavier riders this time. Why do heavier riders ride in Cat C, when they can average 350+ Watts for 15 minutes? Because the disadvantage on climbs is huge. It's like riding without draft just to stay inside the draft for the descend.

Great effort - still have to work on your patience. Sitting in for another 5 seconds at the end would of benefited you a lot instead of leading out. Looks like you'll be getting into B soon.

You're in that blurry line between categories. It's good that you're embracing it by joining B races, as opposed to fighting it and trying to sandbag for as long as possible, haha. It is not cheating because as you pointed out you got a 20-minute PB, so it's not like you've been producing this power consistently before, but once you do, Zwift should be putting you in cat B moving forward. Also keep in mind that 20-minute power is not the only parameter when deciding categories, there are other numbers that are relevant. When are you doing another B race? Maybe I'll see you there. Cheers!

LOL Cat C is 2.5-3.1 W/kg . So yes. All those infront of you were also entitled winners..

i'm at 3.5w/kg also and have been seriously smoked in some C grade races. Oh and you went to early

over such a short course, 3.5 is reasonable, but the guys putting out 13w/kg after such a race are clearly cheating. dont know why they feel the need to race in cat c.

Not cheating imo. Averaged 4.7wkg in a B race and no one was bothered.

Many time I found the best times on c cat rather than a and b, 😅😅😅

You will prob get bumped to B after 3 similar efforts to this... with your rate of improvement that will happen quite soon. No bad thing. You will also find there will be plenty of C's quicker than you once you get to B on certain courses, ie, 85-100kg guys pushing big watts on the flats. They can also be quick up short climbs, but you should be quicker up the big climbs and the kom/radio tower routes. Even at top end of B the C's can still give you a rough ride.

Wkg is not everything. Very much depends on the weight of the rider. A 60 or 90 kg rider with same wkg on the flats, huge difference. Everyone think they are podium material after a few months of zwifting and if they are beaten, the guy was cheating/sandbagging. Fascinating. 😂

Not at all. Just like riders have to have 4.5/kg+ for 5 minute power in cat B to be competitive, same is true for Cat B, just at 3.5w/k…Zwift racing is just hard. The CE enforcement details actually make sense. Just a game right?!

In my opinion, if you're against other riders putting in over 270w average and 4.1w/kg, you're not technically cheating. The category system is a bit funny, and all races below catA are necessarily 'fixed' if you're at the very top of your category, it stands to reason you're going to look like you're sandbagging. I'm borderline catC and regularly finish in the bottom 20%, but after winning most of my carD races, I couldn't stay there in all good conscience. In the end, you're only riding against yourself, and 'winning' is just a motivational concept. If you're cheating, you're not properly motivating yourself to be better.

Give us cat c our own category. We cant be lower. Now we keep bein dropped by B's

You ONLY got a fan!? CRAY CRAY!

Time to ride with the Bs

I am not zwifting. Never did never will. I don't like VR in general (no computer games whatsoever) and the fact that people can cheat their weight makes it even less interesting. Good music or watching a biathlon or bike race while cycling is all I need. I race against my PB when I feel competitive.

Me, I ,for me ,I’m 😂😊

PUSH THE DRAFT BUTTON! 😅

Some pushing 3.9wkg by the end of that race.

Come to cat b, we will only ride at 4w/kg the whole race. 🤣

just do a 5m 4.3w power. youll upgrade

You really take energy gel for a 10 mile race... You should learn to draft more to, you put out way more w/kg then others. If you get the drafting game right you can easily follow in B I guess.

Absolutely cheating if you can hold 3.2 or higher for an hour. I believe for a 20 minute race you would basically be doing close to an FTP test. So your obviously going to be 5% higher than your FTP which is to be expected

Yup...cheat... not fun for the real C's

Yes its cheating