I agree that with current w/kg categories, lightweight, build specialists, all-arounders etc. can be misaligned in race types. Rigid w/kg grouping may not reflect diverse strengths or rider preferences. Looking at available groupings, I like ZRS and vELO better than A-C Cats. I wish I had raced the series based on age to form an opinion. IRL, like Gail says, is age-based, aside from USA Cycling Cats 1-5, which are based on experience/results. I personally like racing other people my age.
The use of the word “fairness” isn’t the best one in this context, because as long as the rules are the same for everyone, fairness is subjective and thus subject to individual interpretations.
Similarly, “ensuring everyone has a meaningful role” is nearly impossible in Zwift racing. People need to accept that they will probably suck, a lot, for a long time. That’s how it is with all sports. I suspect the closest you can get to having roles for all racers is in Ladder races. The annual Fearless race format last December was also good in that riders had different roles.
In terms of diverse racing formats and specialization, it’s a nice idea and one that I bet Zwift has no time or resources for. So it would be up to the community-organized racing to come up and implement these.
The post indeed does not offer a solution, and I don’t think that was the intention.
My only comment on the post on the website was to say that, as long as drafting and group dynamics in Zwift continue as they are (i.e., nothing like IRL), esports will be nowhere close racing IRL. To me, THAT is a bigger fairness issue. I have countless real life examples of people who are fast and win all the time in Zwift who can’t handle their bike outside and/or would be left in the dust by the people they smash on Zwift. It’s VERY frustrating for IRL racers to experience that in Zwift racing. And if I post this comment anywhere on any Zwift discussion group, people will tell me “it’s just a game” and “it’s just different take it for what it is and have fun” - which renders the whole discussion about Zwift racing and fairness a mute point.
PS - at the start of the article, the author seemed to present the topic in the context of women racing, but as it went on, it seemed to relate to all racing. Was the intention to have it be about women racing?
See also this related discussion.