Smart trainers and software

[Mr Purple]

Won my first 'A' grade race today - on 'Break-fast Crits and Grits' which is a rolling hill course finishing on a climb that suits me quite well.

I'd checked the field beforehand and there was one rider I'd definitely already flagged as suspect. I led most of the race before accelerating with him about 5km from the end, making a two man break and then he absolutely destroyed me on the final hill - dropping me by 11 seconds.

Checked his account afterwards - level 22 Zwift with 3500km all time, no linked Zwiftpower or Strava account, a race score of 920 (meaning he wins literally everything) and an alleged weight of 59kg. Given no-one is going to believe any of that I think I'll happily claim the moral victory. Old school weight doping there - I suspect an 80-90kg rider looking at his numbers.

[davehirst]

You sound like an English cricket player.
;-p

[Mr Purple]

You sound like an English cricket player.
;-p

Yep! I have to take my victories in 'A' how I can. Because after all I'm only there to entertain people...

7th out of 782 in TDZ today amongst a bunch of A+ riders. Interestingly there's a Ventoux in that series coming up - time to target 296W for the first 20 minutes just to get upgraded to A+. Then explode.

[Mr Purple]

Another one today. I think at this stage I'll just accept that in every Zwift race there's one obvious cheat.

Today's was aged 50+, had a four race history, level 23 on Zwift, no HRM. 100% win ratio - 78kg with an FTP of 400W. Dumped a fairly decent A grade field by 1:30 on a 14km sprint race averaging 412W.

A bit frustrating to see in action. But I managed to outclimb the other A+ rider in the field for a three second win for second, so I'll take that.

Mind you I also had a Fulgaz KOM taken out today but some idiot doing 37km/hr up a 3.6% gradient with exactly 0W. All his rides are 40km/hr+ average with 0W.

[g-boaf]

Up to 166 Alpe du Zwift laps. That should be 5 so far for the year I think.

I did a tough group ride the other day on Innsbruck with the top female Zwift rider. She’s really fast on the hills - a total machine. Really feeling the effects today.

Outdoor riding is no go, too wet.

It pays on Zwift to try and ignore other riders, particularly the suspiciously fast ones. More often than not it’s a level-up bot or a dodgy trainer calibration or a dumb trainer. The sticky-watts folks are also still around.

Until the exploits are cleaned up I won’t go anywhere near racing in Zwift. Even if they were I still wouldn’t, it’s nicer to ride where I want and when I want on Zwift.