@blader1611 try amazon basics. Think that’s what my one is.

@big yim Good work. That was a brutal, brutal course! Was going OK for me in A (other than tired legs out of the saddle) until the first time up the reverse KOM. Tried to shift onto the big ring near the top and dropped that chain. Lost about 30-60s and more importantly the group I had been with which was very annoying. Had to work hard to catch back up with another rider who had dropped and then hard again to escape the group that caught us in the final stages. Finished 39th though without the drop think I could have been 4-5 places further up. Most importantly though I was ahead of those I’m currently measuring my performance against :D.

Just did the Team Italy race. 14th in A category working in a group of 5.

Felt like I did way too much time on the front, the cheeky feckers slowed down every time I backed off instead of taking their turn.

So, I use an Elite Turbo Muin B+, which shows up as ZPower.

I read some people referring to ZPower riders as the enemy on the basis that ZPower = easy.

I race Cat c (occasionally Cat B) and although i don’t use a power meter, I know from my real world race experience that this feels about right. Real world = former division road champ (a long time ago), nat squad selection (also a long tme ago) and now a TLI road racer (occasionally)

Am I missing something – why does everyone seem to think ZPower = p1$$ easy and why does Zwift occasionally penalise me just because I’m ZP?

Because the power returned for a classic trainer is a guess compared to measured output from newer trainers. The trainer you have has poor accuracyv so zwift have decided to classify it as as zpower rather than a power meter. It’s obvious why race organisers would favour more accurate devices. It’s not that zpower is easy just that the power values can’t be trusted. Zwift don’t penalise you, all that kind of work is done by ZwiftPower who are separate.

It’s pretty fair in honesty, even if your ZP is 20w out, that’s the difference over the course of a race between say winning it and being 5th. I would do a lot better with say 20w more that’s for sure. So it may seem a little harsh, but many take the racing very seriosuly.

I’m thinking the 11:45 race today, mostly because it’s an A/C race only and split start, so in theory it’s me V C’s only…. I much prefer it when i’m racing people who are in theory true Cs, although that doesn’t always happen as you still get some newbies who should be an A or some sandbaggers, but with luck i’ll get a decent race…
Admittedly though i’m 50-50 regarding the race or a longer cruise…. had a day off yesterday and the legs are having day after blues…

@Velocipede – regardless of the points above, I’m fairly certain an Elite Turbo Muin B+ shouldn’t show up as ZPower. This model has a power meter, so should show up as ‘Power’

You need to look at your setup

edit
I think it also transmits speed/cadence, so check that as well as these you’re reading the ‘power’ output. When you log on and Zwift is ‘finding’ the turbo, it should show that it has found the ‘power’ output, useually this is in the top left.

@phil56, There is a thread in the ZP forum that explains it. Basically that model is inaccurate so Zwift have decided it will be treated as ZPower. Seems it does not have a power meter but estimates power from other measurements.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5211

@nixie, I’m not sure that one comment on a forum constitutes an ‘explanation’ – either way, in the real world I have a couple of mates using them almost daily and they’re not classified as Zpower.
@velocipede, I just asked one of them – the power meter you need to pair with is named Elite PWR 520

@phil56 the comment comes from one of the ZP team so I’d expect him to know more than the average punter.

Also for the Kiss Super league they’ve banned that model. The Wattbike Atom and a high end Tacx model as they aren’t accurate.
The top Zwift sprinter was really struggling last week in the race as he was on a new trainer…

Anyway the Elite Turbo Muin is well known to make up numbers. Seems fair to ban from podium spots and you still get a good workout.
Can you borrow a power meter to do your own check against it?

And a link to that info. No idea how I came across it the other week.
https://www.beredatraining.com/kiss-super-league-round-2-ed-hopper/

Distinctly average today, or maybe even not quite that… LOL.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=152409

Lot the group at the end of lap 8…. but by then i was cooked and even if I’d held on i wouldn’t have made the next 2 laps up the hill without dying…. So i’d have finished in the same place.

Either i’ve lost legs and form or others are better and faster than me… .not sure which. Either way, i’m off the pace at the moment.

Stopped my sub today. Having bought a new Tacx Flux at the end of last year I expected to be on it all winter. As it turns out, I much prefer running in the wind and rain to sweating in my garage.

I picked up a DQ in todays race. My HR strap was in the washing machine… Ooops.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=151979

Shame as i got 3rd lol. Wasn’t too bad a race, went of gently as i thought “well i’ll get crucified on the hills” and TBH i did OK on the hills picking up quite a few places today.

Put a new turbo tyre on my bike and I am going suspiciously well in Zwift races. And the calibration of the trainer looks fine. Is tyre doping a thing?

To be fair, I did replace a 2-year old Halfords trainer tyre with a Vittoria one. The Halfords one always took a few minutes to warm up and was a bit noisy. The Vittoria one is lovely and it’s red, which has just got to be faster than black.

Power back up to where it should be.
3 laps London Classique. Hard start to stay in the front group and held them to the first time up horseguards. Slipped out with a decent lead over the next group and one dangling in front. Too much effort made to catch him and then got caught by the next group up horseguards. Went too hard up Horseguards on the last lap and led it up there as I was expecting a bit more action. I’m sure it hurt a few though :0)
Children appeared with 1km to go so after they stopped trying to talk to me I had an audience for the sprint. Missed the start of the sprint which seem to be going pretty early recently. Couldn’t raise it above 500 watts for any length of time and came top half of the group. 9th on ZP which I’m pretty happy with for now.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=152020

First club chain gang of the year this morning; they end in a smash fest sprint the last 2-3 miles … so will see if Zwift through winter has helped🤞

If I’m a c can I enter cat b races? There’s a b race tomorrow that I fancy a crack at but I’m a cat c.

Yes you can.
You can upgrade and downgrade at will but if you are categorised as a B in Zpower you will be filtered out of C race results on Zpower. If they categorise you as a C you can race higher if you wish and come back to C.

Cheers

Having only ever zwifted with a mountain bike, is there much difference in terms of performance using a road bike instead on zwift? I’ve never ridden a road bike before.

Yes, but mostly from the tyre.

I’m using a tacx turbo tyre, so cant be too different from that respect?

Yeah really minimal then. Same setup I have

Having only ever zwifted with a mountain bike, is there much difference in terms of performance using a road bike instead on zwift? I’ve never ridden a road bike before.

Potentially the ergonomics on a road bike – stuff like the relative angles between pedal and saddle and your hips and feet and could be more efficient on a road bike, but it all depends on the road bike and the mountain bike. If you’re using a trainer tyre though, the most obvious possible downside of using a mountain bike is running out of gears at the top end, road bikes are just geared higher. If you find yourself spinning out in your highest gear on the mountain bike, a higher geared road bike would probably be quicker, but the rest of it is all marginal. In real life a road bike will be quicker partly because it’s more aero, but on Zwift that’s not an issue.

Would changing the trainer difficulty adjust for the lack of a higher geared road bike?

On hills yes, on flat I don’t think so.

I run a 38t front and that’s good for 300w at 90 cadence on a 11/12 rear smallest cog

I’ve only had a road bike on mine briefly to check the accuracy of my power meter. Wheel off smart trainer. Can’t say I noticed any real difference.
If you ride a MTB most of the time then a MTB on the trainer makes sense as the riding position will be similar or the same.
I might switch a road bike onto it in summer in the lead up to Hill Climb season for this reason but as it’s shared with the wife it’s easier to use the MTB on it.

Gentle DBR cruise for 60 min today to bring my legs back to life after outdoors yesterday in the slop.

Quite liking the look of a Richmond Flat Roads 15:15 tomorrow for a 50km race. Could either be a cracker or a long solo slog, time will tell. But it suits my timing tomorrow and the rain that seems to be about most of the day here.

Just did a couple of workouts this weekend no races. Had a week off as a rest week. Workout today I did part way up AdZ just to see what it is like.

Wow… .going to be a proper sized field this ! Currently 132 entered with 47 in C and 44 in D.

Brilliant.

195 ! Wow… .Don’t recall being in such a large race..

Goign to be hard not toe get carried away in this one and go nuts off the front with the A/B then did about 30km in !

^^ was signed up for that, but the mrs was late back so i couldn’t jump on

today, it all seems such a mess now the companion app has results, trying to hold wheels and being passed by D’s – winner of D did a 4.0w/kg, C’s all above limit, C winner did 5.7w/kg, yer ok, B had riders finish on 4.7w/kg and 4.5w/kg to name a couple,

of course ZP sorts all the out, so was 11/13 in B – 3.0w/kg

then did 2 Lap Richmond Hilly, didn’t push hard, 7/8 in C used it to compare my Neo with a Quarq DFour91

Totally destroyed in today’s flat race in NY. Averaged 4.4W/kg but couldn’t keep up with the group and got dropped on the last lap.

Don’t weigh enough to do fast riding on the flat, which to be fair I already knew from real life.

Shall be sticking to hilly races in future.

Well the plan this morning was for a group ride at 09.10 but I was running a bit late and missed that group. A quick look on Zwift Power showed that there was a 3R race on the London Classique route, it was only 4 laps so I decided I’d give it a go.

The race didn’t exactly start well, I felt like I was struggling to hang on to the group I was with and I noticed that we were only part way through the Lead-In and hadn’t even started the first lap!

As the race went on everythign seemed to settle down a bit. I ended up riding for a good part of it with a group of 8 or so cat C riders. Everyone seemed to be riding well together and I was starting to feel like I was getting the hang of Zwift drafting and group riding. The I lost a bit of concentration and the group I was with, which had dropped down to 4 by this point, rode off and put a gap of about 9 seconds in to me. As the gap was creeping up I decided to have a push and see if I could get back on. I had a PB of 3.6w/kg and eventually got back on to the group. I was pretty much done for by this point but pushed on to the finish anyway and ended up outsprinting one of the group to take 7th in category according to Zwift Power.

I reckon the legs might be aching later when I get to work!

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=155550

Well sadly we’re back on Zwift time today as my lad gets home from school. I may see if he fancies a cycle out, but i think after riding yesterday he has plans of Fortnite today. I’ve had 3 days of riding outside which has been brilliant but needs must and i’ll jump on the turbo for the 15:15 2 lap Insbruckring today and then a gentle cruise to put in the KMs.

8th in yesterdays race… .only 1.5s off 3rd.. But didn’t quite have it in the last 500m. I think i went about 150m too early but arguably i wasn’t putting out enough power anyway.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=157635

These new ZP cats are killing me though. I was the only in the top 10 with less than the Cat limits of 3.2w/kg. I even set a PR on the last Innsbruck kick hill thing, but sadly it wasn’t enough. It’s a weird hill that one, one second you’re 30m behind the guy in front, next thing you’ve crested the hill and are 11s down ! I tried to sit in a group after it which helped me… but then we were 9-10 riders into the last KM… i beat a few but took a beating from several others.
1min power was a PB though @ 4.8w/kg ! I just need to make that my 5 min power.

Considering your were nearly 3rd and you are only pulling 2.8w/kg you’re doing great if you ever get up over 3 consistently you’ll be favourite for most races!
The front 2 were heavyweights with big power numbers.

I’ve not worked out how the times between riders are worked out.
I think it’s to do with distance to the next rider and speed or power output. Pretty useless metric when the course is up and down constantly as it seems to bounce around.

The weird thing is, there’s no way they climbed it 11s quicker than me… I was watching their outputs and it wasn’t much higher than mine, it certainly didn’t LOOK that much… but then boom… gone… Eeek.

I get a little frustrated with the hill aspect… but that’s just how it is… LOL. A lot of the ride i was cruising as i’ve got enough power in me… but not for a breakaway. I could drag the bunch along yesterday but instead sat in 3-4 place of our group saving energy… but then the hill comes in and i simply can’t put the numbers down at 5+w/kg… Not sure how i’d actually do it… If i get out of the saddle it doesn’t seem to help… the HR wasn’t maxing out so clearly there’s some left in me… but how i get that out … i don’t really know.

2.8w/kg you’re doing great if you ever get up over 3 consistently you’ll be favourite for most races!

I do get some PR’s but i’m never putting out my ‘best’ figures at the moment… Not sure how/why, but i’ve been better in the past.

Tried to do a short London race after going up the Alpe yesterday, was ok for the first minute but then had a data dropout so climbed off, second time yesterday

Still suffering fatigue wise, just from the trials and tribulations of life

Have dropped my road bike off at the LBS to be sorted, at least thats something, need to get out and feel the wind i think