Originally Posted by
DrIsotope
The two women in the example are a world-class professional racer, winning $1400 at the Tour of Flanders, and a gardener from the UK who won $7800 for riding without moving. Amateur racers might not be in it for the money or the acclaim (as there is none of either to be had) but this is professional gaming mixed with exercise. People are absolutely going to find a way to cheat.
My first Smart Trainer read about 20 watts higher than it should and I crushed it in Zwift Racing. I was top 5 in a 200 person race, and usually got on the podium in others. It was a small enough discrepancy and my form was good enough that I wasn't sure; but after testing them side by side its was consistently 18 watts higher. Now I have a Neo that's about 10 watts lower than my power meter.
Zwift Racing is fun, but I was far from the only guy with a inaccurate PM, and about half the server lies about their weight (tbf I'm 140 in Zwift, 144 irl). Some PM companies (cough Stages) I just don't trust outright. Many have a bad pm every once in awhile. My teammate does close to 400 @ 5.6 w/kg in our Worlds Climb, and I drop him at 300 @ 4.6. Swears up and down his PM is dead accurate.