Just think of it like Zwift racing, most people cheat, if you remember that that it shouldn't bother you.

If this is your biggest problem -- group riders not pulling or doing any work except to sprint and steal your STRAVA KOM -- then you are truly blessed.

The only inviolate rule that I think exists for Strava is that times should be set by a rider on a non-motorized bicycle (and I suppose without any purpose made motor-drafting or towing aids). Any other rule that you or your friends make up is likely to be ignored by the rest of the world‘s riders.

To the OP: if you’re going KOM hunting then don’t announce it to your riding buddies, at least not if they are strong and smart enough to draft and outsprint you.

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Less is more.

I shouldn't have told him. I did tell him he would not have bagged the KOM, if I had not told him. He laughed and said he would have anyway. I called him a cheating bastich. Lol.

I did tell him that I won't be KOM hunting with him on group rides anymore.

I agree 100% with your post. It would be nice for Strava to fix it as you described.

And focus on tour own performance. How you do vs others is just a fun bonus of interest.

There are plenty of equivalents for guys. I drafted off Mark Cavendish for a ride. He didn't do Strava.



My suggestion for resolving butt hurt, is to treat Strava for what it is: a fun social network that no one should ever get butthurt over. If you want to race, enter a race.

Never thought of that one. Then again, how often locally will that scenario happen?

Speaking of fun on this topic. Looks like it's time to even the score with the TT bike.

Bunch of local college team kids went out the other night for a cruise around town. For a 10 mi ride on fresh legs.

I think that's only fair, one guy on a setup TT bike versus a college team.

Part of me wants to do the uk hilclimb thing her in NA. No common around here.

There are a few.

But, go start your own!

Grab your best buds from your group ride. Everybody put in some kind of ante. Decide how it will be paid out. Come up with some kind of prize to with the pay out to the top 3... beer, a stick, a rock, your dog who grew out of the cute puppy phase, who cares. Decide if it will be TT or 'mass' start.

Don't forget to come up with some kind of non binding waiver to protect you from someone getting injured. Then, have the group conscience meeting that the waiver means nothing and anyone who is here knows what they are doing and are doing so by their own free will and if they cry about a crash then they get beat up.

And...drop the flag!

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"Outwork your talent." Kevin McHale

Oh man, if that happened to me I'd probably quit bike racing entirely. It's not worth it without the Strava KOMs.

Maybe i am thinking too much, but the issue is authorization/insurance. But open roads and strava make for an easy setup. I think the key is not to be official.

A local ride/race is similar. But they had to stop advertising as the police started asking around for the organizer.

Dude, you could start doping...

Lol

It’s a “game”. It is not real. You learned your lesson on the wheel sucker. If it is that important, than play the game and suck his wheel next time. Hell, 20 min before the Strava point, do your warm up and race the segment. You will get your wins back. Again, it is a game though.

I tried, just for a group ride for training and crap talking. Two people showed up once, then nobody after that. We've got some cute little 2 minute and 3 minute hills around here with some Strava street cred. Nobody around here likes rides like that.

The people who would do them around here are also the kind to throw the bike on the car and immediately go home and not stay for a round of beer afterwards.

Why is it that the cycling community would up and sue each other over an informal competitive thing like proposed but it's commonplace in the golf world. People get hit by balls and lightning in golf. People make side wagers. Etc.... Sure, the element of danger is apples/oranges but the liability arrangements don't seem nearly as "strict".

I feel like if there were the kind of "agritourism waiver" for bike races and group rides you could print from your state it would help spur more groups, clubs, events. You can show up to someone's farm and climb all over hay bales, touch animals, and do stuff and they're off the hook soon as you walk past the "agritourism" signs.

Could always consider this G rated option....

Instead of beers after an evening slugfest, how about a casual warmup ride with the Hill Climb race or tt and finish with an ez cool down stretch that finishes at a coffee shop?

That ^^^ has some training pop on different levels. And, this could work well into most weekend schedules.

Anyways, sorry to the OP for getting off topic!

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"Outwork your talent." Kevin McHale

I use Garmin Connect and I didn't even remember signing up for Strava but I guess they talk to each other.

I did a few hill tests when I modified my moped to validate different performance parts. I even logged them in Garmin as "Moped Test".

Some guy from Strava sent me a nasty email. I explained they were moped tests. He said something about "we have rules" I think he lost his KOM or something. What a douche bag.

You have to update the activity type in Strava. You're only giving a "permission link" when different services talk to each other. They don't know what you're doing, they're just playing telephone.

So, you can log whatever on Strava, but you have to remember to go in and update the default "activity type" and/or make the activity private or for followers only.

I never message anyone. If I see something like a "left gps in my car".......you flag it with an explanation and see what happens.

I think I'd only message someone if they bragged about using an e-bike in the manual-bike activity section.

From what I gather, it's pretty hard to "unflag" an effort that appears even slightly suspect and get's challenged or flagged.

In other words, if you want to keep your new KOM.......you need valid HR or power meter data. If your junk is eff'd and it shows a HR of like 100bpm or no data.......don't expect a popular segment to not get contested.

We had a guy from Canada post up like 3 fraudulent rides when he was here. I got curious and started reading comments to a ride of his. It had a few hundred comments.

He wasn't too bright and had modified his files to adjust his speed, but didn't adjust it only in areas he wanted. So, what you saw was a non-stop 35mph ride going over sidewalks, up stairs, around corners. Perfectly 35mph the entire route.

Come to find out, dug into his Strava before he made it private and he does this everywhere he goes and then bragged on Facebook about all his "rides and records".

I never posted on any of his stuff, just flagged it and moved on. I assume someone from that huge comment fest finally called him out online and his Strava and FB went private and deleted.

Ehll Ohhhh Ehlll......talk about issues in life.

Got a new e-bike.

Love Strava with all those cheaters accusing me of cheating....

When on a real bike, I only race myself or others on the road at at the same/similar time.

I feel the same way.
The running CR's are way more fun, the only issue is getting that email when someone rode their bike around the local 5k course.
This would be so much easier if Strava would add the "flag" button to the app, instead of having to switch over the full website to point out that Chad didn't just run a 25 minute 10k during his "afternoon run".

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I swim fast because I'm afraid of sharks.

I’m planning on the month of December in Kona with partial objective of slaying as many segments as I can . I sat down in Strava the other night and found 4-5 that look fun... so excited.

Started a mini training block this month to lead into the effort. Also gonna try and get 50 mpw for the month of Dec which would be a PR for me!

I read the first page of this thread and see that is a bike Strava segment thread. It is not running segments thread but I set a goal early in the year to break the 1:01:15 course record for the Veterans 15K run in Talihina, OK this November. The race was made virtual so I can't get a certified race/course record so I asked a family member that lives five minutes from the race course and runs it frequently in training to set up a segment for the 15K race course. That was done last week and I was happy to see that the 2014 course record holder had his time come in at 1:01:19 (4 seconds off from his official race time). Not everyone is a Strava user, so some of the faster times on the race course are recorded on Strava but it is one way for me to still get some visibility with my course record attempt that I will be doing this weekend. Virtual racing or Strava racing is not the same as head to head racing. You are in different race conditions you can jockey for positions through the race etc., but it can give purpose to you virtual races and it does make your times visible to others in your local community. Segment hunters can ruin some of the fun. Especially if you set a KOM on the 1 mile 8% grade segment as part of a 50 mile ride and the segment hunter do it as a 1-mile sprint. I wouldn't recommend becoming a segment hunter yourself to steal the KOM back. Use the segments to show your progress not to show your ego.

Hellen Keller could pick more accurate results on segments and Zwift racing, way too many variables for anyone to take the results serious.