wphamilton

I didn't think I had a Strava sin but this reminds me of one. I got almost flag-happy on a silly half mile segment. The stupid part is that I didn't really care, and was hoping to get somewhere on the first page. But I really killed it by my lights, and when I looked at it at home I was #4 behind three obvious car-KOMS. 60 MPH uphill low HR obvious. I knew that a good rider could crush my time but heck it should be a KOM so I flagged them all. But one didn't seem to take, until I noticed that the date was changing. He'd done it every single ride for who knows how long, and here I was flagging them. Ridiculous.

RPK79

Same, and luckily I live in a town with a small, but dedicated, riding community. It's a little group of riders who are all competing for the various KOMs and none of us take it seriously enough to bother cheating. Besides, we ride together as well so are well aware of our skills.

modelmartin

What is strava?

ovoleg

When I started training to win races I stopped caring about Strava segments, but I still saw where I ranked on the leaderboards. When I would be far down the list I would just say, "Man my interval ended 75% way into the segment, lucky SOB if I would of continued"

furiousferret

Segments for me are a good way gauge where I'm at. There are only about 3 I care about; my 1m interval loop, my FTP test hill, and my TT course.

We have three guys that go out and KOM hunt, and they'll blast up a climb like Team Sky and blow up riders until the last guy goes up and gets the KOM; they're all pretty legit climbers so for mortals, its untouchable. Then there is the pro race in town (Redlands Classic) where they show up and steal our KOMs. There are so many variables involved in getting a KOM that don't involve actual effort (rider support, wind, temperature) that its more a game than anything.

JameB

I've created a Strava segment that involves a lot of back tracing (I got lost). Noone does that so I get another KOM

K.Katso

I have pretty much the same view

hit the nail right on the head there - it is a fun game though...

Chi_Z

All my kom segments started from my house

joeyduck

A 1 meter loop?

But I agree it is great to see how I am performing. There is a labeled TT interval set on my commute, straight and flat. I am happy if I get in the top 10% of the 2000 riders, on my commuter. I know I will never get anywhere near the top.

It is a fun game though.

Elvo

Proptip: Use the flyby viewer to see who you've passed then feel better about yourself when you see that their average speeds are 1 mph lower than yours.

Leinster

I created a segment that passes through the coffee shop on our regular Saturday ride, to see just how much time is spent faffing about there.

The kom on it has an average speed of 35mph. Looking at his route, he didn't actually go in, just blazed past on the frontage road, so I feel a bit aggrieved about some of the "lost signal" incomplete climbs that Strava hasn't given me credit for.

Darth Steele

yep, I feel the same way

gl98115

I created a segment in Seattle and named it "Hipsters in Baggy Pants". It got deleted. Apparently there are things you can't joke about.

thehammerdog

I will often attempt to "pad" my time/speed and start the recording on a down hill section. I have one 20 mile route were the 1st 5 miles is down a long hill then becomes flat where my average speed appears Godly.......the other is a crazy long 3 miles decent toppingout at 40 mph.....Not proud but....gotta impress the fans.

joeyduck

Yeah several of the sections I push on really depend on making traffic lights and merges. That starting speed makes all the difference. I do not even check one whole stretch of my route since it is too busy and obviously people blasting through stops and traffic circles at 35 km/h on a MUP.

One segment I was thinking of having my wife sitting and waiting and trigger the light so I can make it without the stop.

RPK79

Get her a police uniform and have her direct traffic.

Leinster

If your wife is wearing a police uniform and your first request of her is "can you direct traffic so I can get a PR on this road?" then you definitely need to spend more time with her and less with Strava.

joeyduck

That was kind of along the line I was thinking. Aside from the illegal and unethical aspect.

I said we need to add something to the bedroom. She bought a throw pillow. Sad face.

ovoleg

When I lived in Ohio, me and my friends didn't KOM hunt but since we would do ride together most of the time, we would sometimes lead eachother out on the climb and fall off as though we died while the fresher guy takes it. There are a few there that we set that are still beaten by the local ex-pros.

Around here I've tried to take a few KOM"s and I swear the people getting them are getting massive tailwinds. I did 1030W on a flat road for 23 seconds and I was still 1 second down from the KOM. I need to be freaking Mark Cavendish to get some of the tailwind KOM's that people get.

basqueonacaad

Especially if she is wearing bike boots and an ammo belt.

joeyduck

I think we are getting a bit off course the sin topic...

Dan333SP

Tailwind or a motorpace... One of the local guys here who is now a collegiate national champ took a popular segment by having a university van pace him down a 1.5 mile flat road at 34 mph. He's a competitive cat 2, but he still only needed to hold 250 watts for that stretch thanks to the van. Even the big shots troll strava sometimes. All in good fun.

nkfrench 

Darn straight I will save my hardest efforts when I know I'm in a position to use a tailwind for a fast time on a strava segment.
I am very protective of one of my QOMs on a flat 2.8 mile segment and if there are favorable winds I'll make a point of doing that route.
The segment has 4 90-degree corners. Two have gravel and two are blind, and one other I generally have to coast to avoid pedal strike due to road curvature.
Few women ride it using strava but I'm still happy to hold the QOM as a 58-year-old Athena averaging 21.8 mph. (That day my entire ride averaged less than 14mph.)
My closest challenger was a female stoker on a tandem with a strong male captain. Foul!

ovoleg

Yeah thats why I don't care all that much about it. I'm usually happy if I top 10 a segment here in SoCal. To be fair, me and my friends in Ohio basically crushed all the segments because we rode in a paceline and would attack each other on the segments as if it was a race. Since all of us were Cat 2-Cat4 racers, it wasn't very hard to take practically everything, especially since hardly anyone rides in NEO.

Hypno Toad

This is one reason I don't get excited about KOM... I know as a solo rider, I'm competing against a paceline or somebody on a TT bike. My top KOM rides are on limestone trails - this gets rid of the pace-line riders and TT riders.

But I still consider top 10 on a segment a big success when you have over 1,000 riders competing.