Planemaker

I entered a Garmin Group that had a challenge this month for the most miles ridden. The rules were very simple all miles had to be logged through your Garmin Connect account and no manual entries. The winner will get a substantial prize.

Through yesterday, I was ahead by 103 miles

Today I log into the group and to my surprise the second place person is 114 miles ahead of me. I was thinking that this guy just did a double century and I started looking in the activity log for the ride. I couldn't find the ride but, I did notice that there were a lot more rides in previous days that had not been there before (going back to May 1st). It took a lot of digging but, I was able find 13 instances of 2 rides that were started on the same day, exact start time and two different Garmin devices (the miles were not exact but, within a few 10ths). The total miles doubled was 227.

It seems as though there are two devices connected to the user and there is a double syncing issue.

I like to think the best of people but, it seems odd that these duplicate rides are just now showing up because it took a lot of time to dig through the details.

What do you guys think?

FYI - I am going to contact the sponsor of the challenge tomorrow with my findings

Biker395 

On the facts, I'm certainly suspicious.

OldTryGuy

Certainly seems questionable.

MinnMan

The other rider is probably a cheater.

And you shouldn't let it bother you.

You are the one with the real miles.

Think of all the miles the other person is pretending to have,
but didn't have the opportunity to actually experience.

DrIsotope

I've seen double dipping on Strava a few times now. People will run the phone app concurrent to their dedicated GPS device, and then auto-upload will double the ride. Perhaps they do it for double coverage and then delete one manually... or not. But if it's the end of the month and the doubles are still on there, I'd call for an umpire on that call.

Planemaker

I would really like to think that the second device belongs to the persons partner and that there was an accidental sync (I did it once because I have two devices). The thing that makes me believe it's a mistake is the rider is way better than me (judging by his ride stats) and he's perfectly capable of beating me (I was actually expecting him to beat me).

CliffordK

Any way to contact the other rider and ask what's up? Also, can you see the actual rides?

Even just an e-mail, and he/she'll know you're watching.

Mobile 155

I have done something similar myself one several of my century rides but I never post both devices. I will run my Garmin with full color maps to follow the course and my smaller Garmin for MPH and time. The only time it got messed up was one time when I used the smaller garmin for a group ride and downloaded it to my computer before deleting my other rides. One old century was still in history and added to my mileage and I had to go in and manually delete it.

highrpm

This guy sounds like a friend or someone you encounter often, so definitely do not go in with an accusatory tone.

Just tell him that you found a mistake, and you think it's probably a double sync issue.

It gives the guy a chance to correct it and everyone saves face.

Planemaker

I have no clue who this guy is and he lives in another state. I have posted a general comment in the Group stating the it appears as though some have synced more than one device (there is one other who has done it once). Hopefully, that will take care of it.

Planemaker

No email addresses are provided in the Group and I can comment on one of his rides but, I feel like that is calling him out in public. I don't want it to get nasty and I still feel like it's an honest mistake.

deapee

He may be doing it on accident. I had an issue where my Garmin watch and my Edge would both automatically upload the same ride to Strava. I'm pretty detail-oriented, so I noticed right away, but those dashboards are confusing, especially if your Garmin Connect automatically syncs it and sends to Strava -- the guy may not even be checking Strava.

If the ride showed up later, his watch might be auto syncing with his phone, which automatically syncs with Strava...then when he (at a later date) plugs his Edge in and syncs it, it also uploads a ride.

I contacted Garmin Support for a way to merge the two files, then upload as one -- since one file has heart rate and one file has GPS data (now keep in mind depending on his devices, that may not be an issue with him, as I just have the Edge 200 -- and even when I had a garmin watch with GPS I left that off on rides because my Edge handled the GPS -- AKA no need) -- and Garmin basically said I was out of luck. The only way I could fix it was to unsync my Garmin Connect account with Strava, and upload my activities manually from my Edge to Strava. My Garmin Connect app still gives me double credit for every activity I log on both...so essentially I've stopped using that as a tracking tool all together...it's just too confusing.

bakes1

Seriously?

CliffordK

Maybe your post to the group will help.

I haven't used comments on Strava yet. Can you edit/delete your comments later?

If the guy hides/deletes his duplicated rides, it should also hide/delete your comment, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Here's to hoping that Strava gets an E-Mail system working soon.

Planemaker

This is not a Strava Group but a Garmin Group.

I can see mistakenly double posting if you have an activity tracker and Garmin Edge (I have a Vivoactive HR and Garmin Edge 810). This guy is double posting with an Edge 520 and Edge 810. for the life of me I can't figure out why someone would be using two different Garmin Edge devices to cycle with.

MinnMan

um yeah. It's not as if there's a cash prize or anything, right? The competition is just for fun, and, IMHO, the chief fun is actually riding.

Or, as per the rest of the discussion in the thread, it's not cheating but an innocent mistake, in which case, so much the better.

CliffordK

No definition of a "Substantial Prize", but I read it as meaning more than simply an electronic token added to one's profile page.

Planemaker

Not a cash prize but, the winner gets a $1,000 shopping spree at Garmin.

Bottom line even if there wasn't a prize, I want to win or lose fair.

GSJon

My FR920xt and Edge 520 will double post if I have them both going at the same time and save the results. However, you are indicating that he has a 520 and 810, maybe he just got the 520 and was doing some testing/comparing against the new one vs the old one.

CliffordK

It will be easier next year when you get that second thousand dollar Garmin

Planemaker

I've gotten in contact with the sponsor of the challenge. They are going to contact Garmin who actually runs the challenge and if they find any anomalies (I think it's clear there are), they will reach out to the other participant and ask them to correct the problem. I am not hopeful but, I've done all I can do except to ride and enjoy my time on the bike.

The good news no matter what the outcome, I've pushed myself beyond the limits of what I thought I could do.

My Garmin Vivoactive HR is the device that syncs to my Garmin Connect account but, all of rides this month are also saved on my Garmin Edge 810. I suppose that I could just turn on the Edge 810 bluetooth and let it sync with my Garmin Connect account and go back in the lead. Just kidding, I would never do something like that, I want to earn every one of the miles I ride.

Hypothetical question:

Suppose I'm correct the other participant realizes his mistake and wants to correct it. How do you actually correct it because there are the obvious duplicate rides but, there are also rides that are unique to the 520 and the 810? My thought would be that the participant gets to choose one device to sync and has to delete all of the rides on the other device. Of course, that works out in my favor so, there is some bias there.

deapee

"but, there are also rides that are unique to the 520 and the 810"

It gets stickier here now -- because who owns both. I bet he owns the 520 and his wife/friend/whatever owns the 810. He's double dipping -- and he accidentally uploaded a ride from both that they went on together.

FBinNY 

We all speak of cheating in the pro peloton, and it's a serious problem. But the pros at least have something serious at stake so while we can't condone cheating, we can at least understand the reasons.

OTOH - the sad thing is how little people will cheat for. I'm not talking about high stakes motivation, but an anything goes as long as you're not caught mentality. I don't know if the person the OP references is cheating, or the "victim" of some sort of glitch. But realistically if it is a glitch I'd expect an honest man to report it himself, or take himself out of the running. So, IMO, it's just another cheat in another venue, and one more reminder of how low our society has sunk.

rando_couche

My thoughts exactly.

John_V 

I have friends that follow my rides that are on Endomondo so I post my rides there for them to see. This sort of stuff happens there all the time. Someone will start a new challenge and you join it the same day it starts. Three days later, you check the standings and there's always some body that's got 1,000+ miles in those three days. When you look at his/her training log, it's always private so you can't see the entries or the route. Not much you can do with cheaters when there's no money involved other than grin and bear it, even thought it's not right.