Mad Monday: The home of split category racing on Zwift...

Race with 8 categories…  More groups mean a narrow range of abilities in each start pen and more competitive racing for everyone.

Category limits are different…Our limits are designed to overlap the traditional Zwift limits to deliver a different race experience.

Races have intermediate sprints, team and a series GC competition for both teams and individuals.

Category Enforcement is used to help you get to the right start pen using your zMAP and zFTPSign up is easy – no registration with TFC is needed. 

Race in 2 time zones… US Series: 8:00pm EST / 7:00pm CST / 5:00pm PST. European Series: 7:20pm UK / 8:20pm CET.

Our Current Race Series:

Races are designed to last between 45 minutes and 1 hour. There are no power ups and knowing where the intermediate sprints are is essential! Lap counts are always per the in game lap counter and all intermediate sprints are on a “first across the line” basisFor the latest results and standings see:  Mad Monday Results

The series will start December 4th takes us through Christmas and into 2024! We will be running our 1st Individual Time Trial to kick us off and host a special New Year’ Day epic up Alp du Zwift. In advance of the main series there will be two pre season outings to keep your legs sharp!

 DateCourseLapsTypeDistanceBonus Primes
20 NovemberWatopia: Hilly Route3Rolling28 kmSprint on laps 1 / 2 / 3
27 NovemberNew York: Lady Liberty2Hilly25 kmKOM on laps 1 & 2 / Sprint on lap 1
14 DecemberBologna: Time Trial Lap2Time Trial24 kmAll bonus points on finish line
211 DecemberWatopia: Mountain Route1Hilly30 kmKOM (double points) & Sprint
318 DecemberCrit City – Downtown Dolphin18Flat34 kmPrime sprint on laps 5 / 10 / 15
425 DecemberWatopia: Canopies and Coastlines1Rolling28 kmTitans Grove KOM / Woodland & Acropolis Sprints
51 JanuaryWatopia: Road to Sky1Hilly17 kmAll bonus points on finish line KOM
68 JanuaryNew York – Astoria Line 83Rolling35 kmSprint on laps 1 / 2 / 3
715 JanuaryMakuri: Twilight Harbor5Flat35 kmAlley Sprint (reverse) on laps 2 / 3 / 4
822 JanuaryWatopia: Volcano Climb1Hilly23 kmKOM (triple points)
929 JanuaryInnsbruck: Innsbruckring4Rolling35 kmSprint on laps 1 / 2 / 3
105 FebruaryWatopia: Triple Flats Route1Flat36 km1st Fuego Flats sprint / Watopia Sprint x2
‘;

Our Scoring System:

Racers will score points in all categories with a maximum of 100 points awarded for 1st place down to 2 points for 54th place. All racers who finish the race will be awarded 2 points. Each week there will be up to 60 bonus points available. Bonus intermediate sprints are always based on a “first across the line” basis.

Finish Line           
1st – 100 points16th – 4431st – 2546th – 10
2nd – 9017th – 4232nd – 2447th – 9
3rd – 8518th – 4033rd – 2348th – 8
4th – 8019th – 3834th – 2249th – 7
5th – 7520th – 3635th – 2150th – 6
6th – 7021st – 3536th – 2051st – 5
7th – 6522nd – 3437th – 1952nd – 4
8th – 6023rd – 3338th – 1853rd – 3
9th – 5824th – 3239th – 1754th – 2
10th – 5625th – 3140th – 1655th – 2
11th – 5426th – 3041st – 1556th – 2
12th – 5227th – 2942nd – 1457th – 2
13th – 5028th – 2843rd – 1358th – 2
14th – 4829th – 2744th – 1259th – 2
15th – 4630th – 2645th – 1160th+ – 2
Bonus Sprints           
1st – 20 points4th – 137th – 710th – 1
2nd – 175th – 118th – 5
3rd – 156th – 99th – 3

Team Competition:

The top 4 riders in each team will contribute to the team’s score for that week. Where a team has more that 4 finishers an extra 2 points per “extra” rider in excess of the top 4 will be awarded. The team with the biggest total wins…

In races will smaller attendances the number of point scoring riders will be reduced from 4 as follows:

  • 30 or less finishers – only the top 3 in each team count.
  • 20 or less finishers – only the top 2 count.
  • 10 or less – only the team’s top rider counts.

The Season Competition:

Team leagues – The team’s total score from all races. Scores are tracked at the category level (e.g. US series Mid C) and at the series level (US series overall). If, in a given category, of a race there are less than 3 teams competing, then only 1/3rd of the points from that category will count towards the overall team competition for that week.

Individual leagues – An individual’s top 7 scores from the season’s races will be used. Scores will be at the category and series level.

Mad Monday Rules & Regulations:

Above all else, play hard but play fair. Where you have “observations” please raise them with impeccable manners via your team captains to the organizers whose decisions are final.

  • We use Zwift’s Category Enforcement to run our races. This is described here: Zwift Category Enforcement FAQ. The difference is the category limits we apply are our famous split category limits, not the standard ones. Both your zFTP and zMAP are used to classify you into one of the 8 pens. See below for more info.
  • The race organizers will review the results for unusual performances. In particular for any riders who’s performance indicates an FTP 0.2w/kg in excess of the category limit.
  • At our discretion, if we see riders consistently podiuming or winning races in their category, we reserve the right to require that rider to race in a higher category in future.
  • All riders must wear an HRM and use a power meter or smart trainer. Data must be visible in ZwiftPower.
  • No TT bikes or hand bikes are allowed (except TT races).
  • There are no powerups in our races.
  • Riders who have not joined ZwiftPower and agreed to data storage / sharing conditions will be excluded from results.
  • Z-power racers will be removed from the results.
  • Steering is enabled for this race series. 

Some background to Zwift category enforcement and our custom categories:

TFCs origins are in some of the very earliest races on Zwift. This was before races even had start pens and we just sat on the road and started at the agreed time. Working out who had won was also a bit tricky! As Zwift evolved so did the racing scene and we finally got our start pens! One of the biggest weaknesses of it was a rider’s ability to select their own category and race well below their potential. It only takes one sandbagger to ruin a race and Zwift, frankly, was a sandbagger’s heaven.

Enter the fray ZwiftPower! Thanks to the determination of a few individuals to protect the integrity of our race experience a system of automated result reviews, 90 day power output tracking and rankings evolved. ZwiftPower became, and still is, the official results for Zwift races. Whilst a material step forwards from the days of the wild west the well documented and relatively simplistic nature of critical calculation involved still left gaps for the sandbaggers and cruisers to exploit.

In 2022 Zwift took the game forwards another step with the launch of the Category Enforcement (“CE”) regime. This, for the first time, blocked riders from entering races below their demonstrable capabilities. With access to the game itself it also captures far more data points than ZwiftPower ever could. Our racing capability is no longer defined by our best 3 efforts in the past 90 days but by a full power curve based on all our Zwift activity.

An important facet of CE is that no one outside of Zwift HQ knows exactly how its key parts are derived or used. The precise mechanics of how one’s zFTP and zMAP are estimated are deliberately kept under wraps. Likely to avoid the sandbaggers understanding and then gaming the situation as was possible with ZwiftPower’s 3 best 20 min effort approach.

Most of us would agree that CE has further helped eliminate poor behavior (pockets still exist…) and this is part of TFCs decision to fully embrace it in our Mad Monday race series.

It has, however, given race organizers some challenges. The strength of CE is that it’s not clear how it works. The disadvantage is that race organizers do not have a clear understanding of how it works! As such some of the rules that we have applied before (such as UPG and WKG) are no longer as enforceable in such an objective manner.

As such while embracing the CE framework we thus accept that the post race review and moderation of race results will need to evolve. We can no longer just apply hard “transparent” and “publicized” rules (e.g. +0.2 w/kg tolerance) because no one outside of Zwift has the required transparency of CE for us to operate in the same way.

Our commitment is thus as follows:

1. Mad Monday will embrace Zwift CE as it is a superior way of maintaining the integrity of races. The benefits of using it far out way any drawbacks around transparency.

2. We will continue to monitor race results in ZwiftPower and reserve the right to challenge / remove racers with abnormal power and HR signatures.

3. Were we feel compelled to take action to protect the integrity of our race we will do so and communicate with relevant riders / applicable captains. Such interventions will be a last resort and final.

 

For this series our applied Category Enforcement limits are as follows: 

Category Limitz MAP w/kgz FTP w/kg
Mad A
Middle AUp to 5.81 w/kgUp to 4.84 w/kg
Mad B< 5.24 w/kg< 4.37 w/kg
Middle B< 4.74 w/kg< 3.95 w/kg
Mad C< 4.30 w/kg< 3.58 w/kg
Middle C< 3.85 w/kg< 3.21 w/kg
Mad D< 3.41 w/kg< 2.84 w/kg
Middle D< 2.77 w/kg< 2.31 w/kg
Note that for especially light riders they may be able to compete in a lower category than indicated. Zwift’s CE regime will guide you to the most appropriate category based on your Zwift performance history.