There's already a name for people who get paid to ride their bikes: pros.

Hopefully it is a joke--that's what first crossed my mind. Regardless, I think it breaks the spirit of friendly competition for ego massaging. Sort of like masters who dope, going there is just pathetic.

http://www.digitalepo.com same sad, less effort.

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https://www.pbandjcoaching.com
https://www.thisbigroadtrip.com

Damn right. Strava is fucking sacred!!

Or jackmott?

>Or jackmott?

Mott is Cat 3. If you have to hire a middling Cat 3 to get your KOM you've hit rock bottom. And per Spackler, that's a California Cat 4.

Hiring Jack is smart business. If you want return business, you don't subcontract out to Juan Pelota to put Heartbreak Hill out of reach - you put incrementally push the KOM higher and higher by using first the local Texas Cat 3's, then the local Texas Cat 1's, then you "offshore" to CA Cat 1's, finally, you hire Juan Pelota as the final nail in the coffin. At that point, you maximized your potential revenue on a particular segment.

I need to hire a pro to get some KOM's. My neighbor is a Cat 1, I can't even get a KOM going out of my driveway. FML.

ha, that sucks and is funny at the same time. At least you won't get cocky.

WIN

So if you hire a pro to pick up KOMs for you, is he exclusive, or can he be hired by someone else to assassinate you? It's a dangerous game LOL.

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> you put incrementally push the KOM higher and higher by using first the local Texas Cat 3's, then the local Texas Cat 1's, then you "offshore" to CA Cat 1's...

That's good thinking. Plus the incremental approach causes the most psychological damage to the victim. They're constantly crushed, yet never completely lose hope until you unleash the EndGame.

My personal favorite (legal) Strava game is to go out and get all of someone's KOM's over the space of like a month. But don't upload them right away. Wait until the end of the month. Then they get like a dozen of the maddening "Uh-oh Some Total Douchebag Stole Your KOM!" emails all at once. Brutal. I did that. But there's been serious payback. In actual races.

A couple of months ago, a buddy of mine beat my KOM on a flat road with a massive tailwind. I knew he was going to try and beat it that day. I gave him time to download and bask in all the Strava glory, then I went out later that afternoon and broke his new KOM. There's nothing more satisfying than knowing your buddy received the "BBB1975 just stole your KOM" email notification twenty minutes after he was awarded the KOM.

Indeed, but when they win, they get the credit. Taking another athlete's Garmin out with you, recording a KOM on it and handing it back to them is genius and I can't believe I didn't think of it first.

For an extra $Beer I'll start at your house, ride (up to 5mi to the segment), and ride home.

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I tweet!

Now, this whole line of reasoning is awesome.

Ha, good call. I guess if someone is going all-in, they should go ALL in.

Looks like they're already in business - http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/...-s-strava-times.html

quick question here - what if you have never had a KOM but would like one?

A year or two ago here in Nor Cal this guy named Mike Gunn started obliterating the KOMs. Like taking 2 minutes off a ~15 minute climb set by a legit cat 1 racer-- crazy amounts. Turns out "Mike" was the Juan Pelota of Santa Rosa (Levi).

And what happens when the d-bag who hires these clowns goes out on a hard group ride and gets spit out the back?

Pathetic.

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What are you people, on dope?

—Mr. Hand

I feel that pain, one of the top cat 1s in NM lives a quarter-mile away. He's KOM on ~95% of the segments in the area. I have taken a couple of his KOMs, but they were kinda soft and he took them back easily (i.e. I was hammering while fresh, he took them back at the end of a fast 100 miler).

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http://ironvision.blogspot.com ; @drSteve1663

I didn't get it...so let's see...you're upset because a domestic pro rider happens to set a local KOM (in the course of a hard local group ride, BTW), so you go get ANOTHER pro rider to take it away in a "one shot" effort? Ummm...ok...what was the point again (besides the fact that most things Strava related are silly, that is?) :-/

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

I'm just happy getting 'respectable'. My marker at this point is hitting the top 10%.

Summarizing what we've established here: you can get by half-cocked in Texas, but there's always some California dude with a bigger Gunn.

No.

I think that lots of people take Strava WAAAY to seriously and I think that's funny.

There are Strava KOM's around here that I own and some that are within my reach. Others are well beyond my reach and owned by pro's. Some fall in the same bucket except it's just a shit hot cat 1. It is what it is. Instead of whining about it though you can go after it anyway. There is one around here owned by local pro Nate English. It appeared out of reach (and may still be), but since it's short and on the route of our normal Sunday ride I periodically take a run at it. It's gotten to where I'm not all that far off and that motivates me. Maybe it's possible so I dig deeper. That makes me a better cyclist.

On the other hand, Nate probably did that with a relatively hard effort where as for me it's a full gas thrashing and I usually I get a couple of friends to set the pace at the bottom of the climb for me. (It's a bit under 4 minutes.) So, even if I actually do beat it Nate would get an email and maybe pedal with both legs next time he heads that way and take it back.

But that's what makes Strava fun.

Though I have to admit that I think that what the video is asking for is a good idea. From a marketing perspective it makes a lot of sense. Otherwise at some point all KOM's are going to be owned by either Ted King or Laurens Ten Dam. :-)

For myself, I'd still rather compare myself against everybody, but I can understand why a lot of people would like the pro filter.

Though I have to admit that I wondered if there wasn't some way to sneak my Garmin into a pro's back pocket at the bottom of Diablo in last year's ToC. :-) "Holy Shit! Kevin took 6 minutes off of his Diablo time!" :-)

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Kevin

http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com
My Strava

If you really have lots of $$ piled somewhere, you can just invite Euro pros.