Ha. In the only Zwift race I did I got dropped when my speed/cadence sensors dropped out going uphill. Sprinted back on and hoped to recover on the downhill... nope! Turns out people race down the hill too!
Some of my best race results have been from hanging on during the climb and then nailing people on the downhill. I used to push harder on the downhills than the uphills for this as the momentum you can build up can create huge gaps, gaps on the climb are generally closed by pacing and surging over the top, gaps on the downhill are almost impossible to close due to the speeds. The drag effect is huge but overtaking riders are generally so fast you can't jump onto their wheels with enough of a kick to get the benefit and grab their wheel.
I have 60-65kg teammates who although they can really distance people on the climbs, need one of us heavier 75kg+ riders to tow them on the downhill otherwise heavy opponents can drop them. It works both ways!
I've seen people purposely push super hard on the downhills that immediately precede uphills - to make the uphill less hurty, but then also the lag comes into play which really messes with your head - so sometimes you get this comical situation where you've just sailed up a hill because you've had the mother of all run-ups, but then when you get to the top of the hill suddenly the turbo gives you the pain of the hill you just got up, despite on screen being well clear of it. On rolling hills it's just ridiculous. You do eventually get tuned into the 2 to 3 seconds lag, but not before learning a few hard lessons.
Yup, much of the delays of power from my on-wheel Vortex I learnt to use to my advantage, being able to spin it up for surges that those with more responsive trainers (with higher power curves) just couldn't react to. Also being able to kick at the bottom of climbs to surge while others where slowing up... Then generally by the top when their resistance eased, I had to learn to continue pushing, in such a way attacking over the summit of a climb also became another tactical 'trick'. Now I've switched to a direct drive I have none of these tricks up my sleeve and I'm having to relearn how to ride certain courses. For example I can't hit 'The Esses' hard on Watopia with my delayed power surges to distance people before the sprint. But get it done to me instead! The response of the DD just kills speed there, the delay of the Vortex meant you could really attack them as it couldn't ramp the resistance high or fast enough.
So I guess Zwift is meant to work out your speed and resistance based on your power and weight. So if I was to put in 10kg as my weight I'd find it really easy?
You'd get flagged as a weight doper!
Weights below 50kg I think need to be approved with
ZADA ('Zwift Anti Doping Agency'), along with results over 5w/kg. Most race organisers and Admins will do their own vetting of results and work with ZADA. That's generally why Zwiftpower is the hub of all racing on Zwift, it used to be a separate site totally unaffiliated with Zwift as they didn't want to get involved with that side of it. They now fully support it and work with organisers & admins.
Zwiftpower now requires Zwift users to register and agree to T&C's which the majority of race admins require for you to even place. With the agreement you consent to them keeping your ride data, your FTP, your power output, your Strava details and even your weight 'history' from what you input. Admins can access all of this through ZP to help them quantify racers results.
There is such prolific 'cheating' on Zwift (Fliers, Sandbagging, motors etc) that most race admins require all of this information and riders 'opt in' before allowing them to even place in their results. As of yet, Admins & Ride Leaders do not have 'in game' tools to eject riders from their rides or due to the riders history, but it will probably come.
Much of this belongs in the Zwift thread anyway guys!
With the
rankings in ZP now becoming a thing, along with
'CVR' points (which has quickly lead to the CVR World Cup leagues). Now riders data, results and verification is getting quite a hot topic. Especially now with real team racing, results and real world prizes at stake.
It's quite a recent thing so data is still a bit screwy, but
here's my CVR points from various Zwift races. Points are calculated by those riders you raced against and your position relative to theirs, then position alone. At WBR rather than DQ'ing riders (which removes them from results & therefore having an effect on other valid riders' CVR points) the admins now add 10 hours to the finish time of none-ZP authorised/registered riders, so although they place in race results they can't 'win', yet riders racing against them are still rewarded points based on 'racing against' them.
Here is my ranking within the current CVR Zone E bracket C Winter '18 league. End of league rankings are currently taken from your top 6 race results points from 8 weeks. I've missed 2 weeks already so quite low down, my first week was also mess as I was entered in the wrong bracket and requested to be changed. I'm racing the rest of this league in support of a couple of teammates quite high up and to keep my position in C ready for next season.
