Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

That happens because "they pay their money" and on Zwift forums someone will always say either "they are having fun" or "fast is fun".

It's hard to get a big effort against the cheaters. Rider weights and heights should be visible to all, so the folks who are 39kg or strangely short versus IRL can be more easily seen and reported. Visible weights and heights might also be a deterrent. It used to be there but was removed.

g-boaf wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:40 pm

It's hard to get a big effort against the cheaters. Rider weights and heights should be visible to all, so the folks who are 39kg or strangely short versus IRL can be more easily seen and reported. Visible weights and heights might also be a deterrent. It used to be there but was removed.

The obviousness of it annoys me. And the fact that this idiot runs a fake Zwiftpower account that he just shuts down when he gets caught. It doesn't help to have a publicly available height and weight if your Zwiftpower account is a month old despite you having a level 100 Zwift account with 45,000km on Zwift.

There's two explanations for that. Either you put 45,000km into Zwift at the point you decided to start racing and immediately dominated as an 60kg A+ rider with an FTP of 5.8W/kg. Or you actually weigh 80-90kg and your Zwiftpower account gets shut down routinely when someone sees you making repeated 7W/kg breaks off the front.

You'd think someone at Zwift would be able to see 'hey, this is the 8th account made under this name' and permanently disqualify him, but he's a paying subscriber so no. It's pretty simple stuff.

Someone did tour de Zwift stage 5 in 13:53 at average power 762 watts… 13.4km.

A friend sent me a screenshot.

I don’t race in Zwift but do ride ADZ nearly daily and it’s the same, the cheating is annoying. If it’s a 1 minute segment you don’t care but to put in 40-50min of max effort and get beaten by a cheater is not good.

The thing I found interesting in this one was that I pointed it out in the chat (hard when you're surging between 4-6W/kg on the pointy end).

A couple of guys immediately said 'yeah, I've seen this guy too and he is'. And a couple more were saying 'stop complaining, it's all good training, you're only competing against yourself anyway'.

I do wonder how many defending that behaviour are cheating themselves. But they are right, although it is annoying to keep trying to chase down someone with otherworldly numbers who clearly isn't for real. And if you're cheating so obviously that multiple other riders in your event are pointing it out live, wouldn't you feel a bit of an idiot?

Mr Purple wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 4:43 pm

The thing I found interesting in this one was that I pointed it out in the chat (hard when you're surging between 4-6W/kg on the pointy end).

A couple of guys immediately said 'yeah, I've seen this guy too and he is'. And a couple more were saying 'stop complaining, it's all good training, you're only competing against yourself anyway'.

I do wonder how many defending that behaviour are cheating themselves. But they are right, although it is annoying to keep trying to chase down someone with otherworldly numbers who clearly isn't for real. And if you're cheating so obviously that multiple other riders in your event are pointing it out live, wouldn't you feel a bit of an idiot?

Sometimes those folks are the more generously sized veteran D graders in Zwift who seem to have resigned themselves to that level and seem to have a grudge against anyone else in Zwift doing better, especially those with genuine speed.

Sorry if that seems mean but there are a few of them on Zwift forums like that.

Probably a few cheaters there also in those events.


On better note, I did a 44:49 ADZ today. I thought that one would get away - I had a few segments behind my PR but must have recovered the lap on others enough to get 9 seconds. Then my legs started to feel like they were getting near cramping point at the last three sectors.

Those forums are a little interesting!

Found one which stated riders between 720-800 were all mid 'A' but will win when the field suits them (that's me!). 800-900 are all verified top riders, and anyone 900+ has absolutely no credentials at all and is probably cheating.

That's about right! Old mate above is 959.

Today's JETT race was 'Glyph Heights'.

https://zwiftinsider.com/route/glyph-heights/

Recommended if you like to suffer. That bit in the middle is the 'Mayan + Itza KOMs' consecutively (6.4km/2.2%) followed almost immediately by the top half of 'The Grade' (2.1km/8.7%).

In the conditions of a JETT race that translated to 10 minutes doing 5W/kg followed by 6 minutes of 5.2W/kg. Shame it didn't go on a little bit longer because my 20 minute there was only 4.8W/kg, just off A+.

At least in these events someone is policing the cheating. I'm pretty sure everyone who beat me was genuine - including the dude averaging 5.4W/kg for close to an hour! The best part is the field is so stacked that you can finish midfield in 'A' like I did and your racing score still goes up, 60th in Australia now.

Jett are usually good. I’ve done some of their group rides, they are super respectful and well mannered. Just good people.