Originally Posted by
Hypno Toad
Based on your description, I assume you are looking at the "flyby" on Strava, I don't totally trust the flyby data since it's an estimate of relative position at a given time. It could be as simple as the clock setting on his device is ahead of yours by a minute or two.
Did you check the key segments and the results for the day? You can only do this on the day of the ride. The segments would be a better way to ID data tampering.
And then there's this:
How to tell if someone used Digital Epo to cheat on Strava | ScarletFire Cycling
I think Hypno Toad is on to something here.
Also, just because you were ahead of him on the segment in real life, doesn't mean he didn't do it faster than you. You stated yourself, you were two miles ahead and soft pedaling. So you soft pedaled a segment at 15mph, he did it at 20mph...you were still two miles in front of him, but he was faster on the segment.
I have this happen plenty in a paceline where someone behind me went faster than I did on a segment.