Zwift Cheating

[Ironnerd 809]

Two Pro's have been busted for fake power files.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/11/zwift-bans-two-pro-racers-for-altering-data-an-explainer-of-sorts.html

[Bored@work 3,989]

Link won't work for me? I assume they are from WA? 

[Ironnerd 809]

1 hour ago, Bored@work said:

Link won't work for me? I assume they are from WA? 

I wonder if Robbo has a Zwift account and is racing as a 50kg cyclist.

[parrdog 4]

His article was just as long as one of his power meter reviews, haha 😁.

 

[IronmanFoz 1,633]

Firstly - I never understand why people cheat. What is the point of cheating.

Secondly - a cheater is only kidding themselves. Whilst others may never know the cheater will always know themselves that they cheated. Where is the satisfaction in that.

We all need to be realistic in our endeavours. If we do well, then great, if we get our arse kicked, then look at why and make the appropriate changes to improve. Don't cheat!

 

[IronmanFoz 1,633]

As a side note to the above. my son has a friend who just cheats all the time at everything. And you can bet I pick him up on it all the time. My son some times gets a bit upset when he loses and knows he been on the back end of multiple dodgy calls (Tennis). I tell him to call him out - and also know that he is playing a cheater.

It is even funnier when I take them to play golf. If there is me and 3 kids or sometimes 4, I am constantly counting shots in my head for at least 2 of the players. (I don't have to count for my son as he is too honest, or my daughter doesn't give a shit how many strokes she has), but my sons mate and his brother I definitely count for. How many did you get on that hole I say. Response got a 5. I am straight back at him... No... you got a 7, remember you went over there, here, there, here etc etc and 3 putted...... Response...oh yeah...that's right... And it happens on every hole.

Some people are just cheaters. 

[BarryBevan 1,493]

zwift cheating is often accidental, with calibration errors etc. But I have raced a local coach who is the fattest mid 70kg person I have ever seen

[Peter 4,045]

Its no Different to people on e bikes taking KOMS on Strava. 
 

at the end of the day, who care other than people that’s life is Strava or zwift.

most hero’s complaining on Strava have never done a real race. 
 

its like the guys that do the NRR here.  They never pin a real number on. 

[BarryBevan 1,493]

27 minutes ago, Peter said:

Its no Different to people on e bikes taking KOMS on Strava. 
 

at the end of the day, who care other than people that’s life is Strava or zwift.

most hero’s complaining on Strava have never done a real race. 
 

its like the guys that do the NRR here.  They never pin a real number on. 

I am racing in the real and virtual world. Finding Zwift pattern of racing a bit blah recently as its the same every time.

Hammer for a minute hold best pack you can find at or around your TH, hold on and try to have a sprint.

[Rob 365]

51 minutes ago, Peter said:

its like the guys that do the NRR here.  They never pin a real number on. 

I think of the NRR standing for North Road Ride.  Maybe you're referring to something different.  I only do the 'long' Wednesday version up to Mt Eliza.  Possibly the shorter version is different.  I've never seen you on the long Wednesday NRR.

Yes there are riders in the NRR who never race, but they would account for less than 30% of the group.  Of the 40 to 50 people I know who ride in the NRR, only 2 don't race and I haven't seen them in the group for a few years now.  I know of a couple of NRR cyclists who progressed to Domestic Pros and are now riding Internationally.

Maybe you are referring to Cycle Racing rather than just Triathlon.  In which case probably 15 to 20 of the 40 to 50 riders I know haven't done a pure cycling race.  But still, well more than half are active cycling race competitors.

Sorry to go off topic

[BarryBevan 1,493]

1 hour ago, Peter said:

Its no Different to people on e bikes taking KOMS on Strava. 
 

at the end of the day, who care other than people that’s life is Strava or zwift.

most hero’s complaining on Strava have never done a real race. 
 

its like the guys that do the NRR here.  They never pin a real number on. 

Have you raced recently? (Taking COVID into account)

[Peter 4,045]

3 hours ago, BarryBevan said:

Have you raced recently? (Taking COVID into account)

Not raced since the crits got stopped. But it looks like we will be back this Sunday.  
 

im a c grade hero. Haha. 
 

d grade in zwift.  Never won. 

[Peter 4,045]

4 hours ago, Rob said:

I think of the NRR standing for North Road Ride.  Maybe you're referring to something different.  I only do the 'long' Wednesday version up to Mt Eliza.  Possibly the shorter version is different.  I've never seen you on the long Wednesday NRR.

Its too far from me and I usually race Thursday evening at VUT in hoppers.  
 

blowing my legs up Wednesday and trying to race Thursday wouldn’t be the best decision. 
 

and from what I hear there are too many crashes on the NRR. 

[BarryBevan 1,493]

6 hours ago, Peter said:

Not raced since the crits got stopped. But it looks like we will be back this Sunday.  
 

im a c grade hero. Haha. 
 

d grade in zwift.  Never won. 

Riding c you should be able to win d in Zwift. 
 

 

[Peter 4,045]

1 hour ago, BarryBevan said:

Riding c you should be able to win d in Zwift. 
 

 

I don’t care. Zwift isn’t real racing. 

[BarryBevan 1,493]

20 minutes ago, Peter said:

I don’t care. Zwift isn’t real racing. 

It is a bit blah after a while. 1 minute burst, ride at Threshold then try and sprint. It is too hard to break away

[zed 1,463]

I've actually found some of the Zwift racing pretty realistic. I've done a few crits IRL and they played out pretty much like a Zwift crit. Multiple people try to breakaway, but eventually get hauled back, the pack may split at some point, but it inevitably comes down to a sprint. Crits IRL are more exciting however.
 

[BarryBevan 1,493]

1 minute ago, zed said:

I've actually found some of the Zwift racing pretty realistic. I've done a few crits IRL and they played out pretty much like a Zwift crit. Multiple people try to breakaway, but eventually get hauled back, the pack may split at some point, but it inevitably comes down to a sprint. Crits IRL are more exciting however.
 

Zwift racing is physically harder than a crit, in crits you can use race craft to make up for fitness and you even get to free wheel at times.

In a short zwift race, you must keep the pressure on the pedals at all times

[Rob 365]

11 hours ago, Peter said:

Its too far from me and I usually race Thursday evening at VUT in hoppers.  

blowing my legs up Wednesday and trying to race Thursday wouldn’t be the best decision. 

and from what I hear there are too many crashes on the NRR. 

Yeah I struggle on the Wed NRR if my Tue training session was too hard.

Maybe I've been lucky.  Ridden with the NRR well over 100 times and only seen 3 crashes.  All were single rider incidents, none were serious (ie. rider got back on bike).

[zed 1,463]

1 hour ago, BarryBevan said:

Zwift racing is physically harder than a crit, in crits you can use race craft to make up for fitness and you even get to free wheel at times.

In a short zwift race, you must keep the pressure on the pedals at all times

Yup. My first crit wasn't hard. Pace was slow, but impossible to make a break. The guy that pipped me to 3rd looked like Homer Simpson. He just sat at the back the entire race and then came through the last 300m when everyone was cooked.

[BarryBevan 1,493]

You have to watch out for fat bald guys with bandannas under helmets

[BarryBevan 1,493]

29 minutes ago, BarryBevan said:

You have to watch out for fat bald guys with bandannas under helmets

Or become one

[Rob 365]

Bald and wear a bandanna under my helmet (nothing like helmet vent shaped sunburn), but I'm not fat (yet)

[BarryBevan 1,493]

1 hour ago, Rob said:

Bald and wear a bandanna under my helmet (nothing like helmet vent shaped sunburn), but I'm not fat (yet)

I wondred why they wear these sweaty things on their heads and then it clicked bald dudes, initally mistook it for fashion

[Peter 4,045]

3 hours ago, zed said:

Yup. My first crit wasn't hard. Pace was slow, but impossible to make a break. The guy that pipped me to 3rd looked like Homer Simpson. He just sat at the back the entire race and then came through the last 300m when everyone was cooked.

Crit racing is tactial.

Its why its funny when a wind trainer hero turns up and gets destroyed.

[Rob 365]

1 hour ago, BarryBevan said:

I wondred why they wear these sweaty things on their heads and then it clicked bald dudes, initally mistook it for fashion

Middle aged men on bikes.  Closest we get to anything resembling fashion is arguing about sock length.

[altayloraus 10]

3 hours ago, Peter said:

Crit racing is tactial.

Its why its funny when a wind trainer hero turns up and gets destroyed.

Even worse when they turn off and ride off the front and stay there. Few guys I know went that route - turned up, rode off the front and got upgraded, found themselves in A-Grade with a month or two, then had to learn to ride bikes.

One ended up Pro-Conti, one NRS. The second is still known for not being able to ride around corners. 

[Peter 4,045]

Ive seen heaps of guys turn up and race d grade.  Ride off the front and win by a lap. 
 

week 2 go to c grade and get dropped on the second corner. Never to be seen again. 

[BarryBevan 1,493]

45 minutes ago, Peter said:

Ive seen heaps of guys turn up and race d grade.  Ride off the front and win by a lap. 
 

week 2 go to c grade and get dropped on the second corner. Never to be seen again. 

This, I think doing that is a little disrespectful to those in the grade and they miss an opportunity to learn.

I'm still utter rubbish, manage to avergae 290 watts for a d grade crit and can't win

[Peter 4,045]

I’ve lobbied for years that new people can’t win money for the first 3 races with a club. 
 

they come to learn. Not win money and piss off never to be seen again.   But also so they learn. 
 

there was a guy this last season that turned up and raced d grade. Lapped the field 3 times.  When we looked him up, he had previously be racing A grade at St Kilda. A series no longer run. 
 

came the next week, did the same in c grade. The following week won b grade. 
 

it was just purely taking the piss. If the 3 race rule existed he would have been either graded correctly after 3 weeks or would have had to have 3 totally shit slow races in a lower grade before he could win. 

[Rob 365]

13 hours ago, BarryBevan said:

I'm still utter rubbish, manage to avergae 290 watts for a d grade crit and can't win

I have a relatively high FTP.  Can time trial and climb really well, but have no top end power.  Have never cracked 1,000 watts.

Wouldn't matter what power I averaged in a Crit, I would never do well in a bunch sprint.

[PeterW 162]

15 hours ago, BarryBevan said:

This, I think doing that is a little disrespectful to those in the grade and they miss an opportunity to learn.

I'm still utter rubbish, manage to avergae 290 watts for a d grade crit and can't win

In the words of the great profit "Robbie Mcewan" - it's not the cyclist that can expend the most watts that wins the races, its the cyclist that can SAVE the most watts!  

It's actually quite interesting how a triathlete/time trialler/individual trainer has to change their MO to race in a crit because they are so used to putting it out there constantly.  When the penny drops you'll be counting the prize money!