After riding today I was looking at the stats on Strava. I got a new PR on a segment that I've ridden through 2-4 times. It's all well and good, I'm not fast, will never be fast and don't expect to have any KOM's. While looking at the complete leader board (my PR put me 100 out 111) I noticed how much faster the 2 KOM and QOM are, QOM at 1:52 KOM at 1:57 on the same day compared to my 4:56 for 1 mile at 1% grade. As I said I know I'm not fast but these 2 are so much faster than the fast people and then I notice they are listed at 731 watts for the QOM and 646 watts for KOM. Is that possible, to put out that kind of power for that long? It seems I watched a TDF champion do a power test and he could put out that kind of power for more than a few seconds at a time, averaging like under 500 watts IIRC.

Is it real power or strava estimated power? If it is strava estimated then it's not enough jack. With only a 1% incline I would assume there was a big tail wind involved which isn't accounted for in the strava power numbers. Strava power estimate will also be out if the elevation data is wrong.

Have a look at the Poggio segment (towards the end of the Milan-San Remo) and you can check out some of the power figures from the Pro riders:

https://www.strava.com/segments/626919?filter=overall

Kwiatkowski was putting out nearly 500 watts this year for the KOM and with a HR of 179bpm I'd say he was hammering it for those 6 mins up the climb. If you look at the full analysis for his ride you can see quite a few segments of about 1 min long where he was generating 700 watts.

https://www.strava.com/activities/521397411/overview

So yes, 650-700 watts is definitely possible for a couple of minutes for a top rider.

Tailwind.

I don't do Strava so I don't know where the Strava power numbers come from (probably an estimator), but I broke out my bike speed calculator (includes grade and aero effects). The power estimates are high- you can get close to those times with aero equipment for about 450 W, which is very doable for 2 minutes by a lot of people. Add in a slight tailwind (5 mph) and you can beat them. Add in about 20 mph tailwind and you can do that with about 200 W output. You could probably also do it motorpaced.

For reference on what people do for power:
Jamie Staff (former BMX and Keirin world champion) can do 2300 W for a few seconds on a standing start.
Top Kilo riders average something like 750 W over the course of their ride, but they start at ~2300 W and are barely putting out anything at the end.
In a top level team pursuit (low 4:00 4 km), the rider at the front is doing about 600 W for ~15 s and then recovering in line at about 400 W
An elite hour record ride works out to about 500 W for an hour.

There's a lot of "cheating" on Strava. The only useful numbers are comparing you against yourself.

There is something not right with the time/speed of the recorded ride. I looked at some of the other rides the rider has and it looks like he is a consistent 12-13 average speed with 130-150 watt averages. Is it possible there is something in the area that could cause Strava to be flakey? I ask that because very near where this segment is Strava showed me to have a top speed of 59.9 MPH once and I KNOW I wasn't over 35MPH.

Like a motorbike?

I'm 56 and my best 1 and 2 min power is 660 and 490W so someone younger and/or stronger could easily do 600+ for 2min. For any popular routes at 1% and under grades there's no way to hold a KOM without wind aid or riding in a group. I've managed to hold onto a 20min KOM on my commute for the past few years but I've also riden that stretch of road a couple hundred times a year in all conditions. If I have a decent tailwind I'll take the opportunity to do a 20min power test.

650 watts for sub 2 minutes is not TDF power. As a mediocre Cat 3, my one minute power is in that range. Not that big of stretch for someone faster tahn me, and there are many, to do that for 50 seconds more.

I think it's a Strava mistake. Like I said, I looked at a few rides one of the riders has (the other one doesn't seem to ride very often. He had no other KOM's and seems to have consistant 12-13 MPH average speeds and 130-150 average power.

Has anyone ever gotten stats from Strava that they know aren't accurate?

If it weren't for tailwinds, I wouldn't have any KOMs at all.

(No, I can't hold 650w for 2' but I know and have ridden with guys who can.)

Of course...that's why they call it "estimated" power. What do you mean?

Note TdF pros may have lower short term and max power, so not the best to compare to. Alberto and Andy (S) both claimed their max was 900W. Or - guys riding shorter rides may have more power.
Most measure W/kg.
This is just a chart I Googled. Any idea where they would be here?

I could do it long enough for a KOM on a little hill on my commute. Someone who thought it was impossible flagged it as a car-KOM. Don't be that guy.

this guy can hold 700W for one minute.


if you still have activity files that have power data, get golden cheetah, import your activities, and generate a power curve to find out what your 1-2 minute power is based on empirical data.

It's always possible he went for a ride, forgot to turn off strava and then drove home. Look at his ride analysis. It's easy to spot if he has done this when you look at the ride analysis and the speeds he records, they get a lot higher and a lot smoother. Not so easy to spot when you can't see the analysis (like everyone here replying to this thread).

Lots of reasons.
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...l#post18633537

650 watts for 2 minutes is a CAT1 category. At least according the the fancy w/kg chart and assuming ride is 150 pounds/68 kg. That's 9.55 w/kg. Which is 1min numbers for CAT1
https://www.cyclinganalytics.com/blo...he-power-curve

Don't see where you're getting this, but I do see that in the example chart at that link, there's a 25% drop between max watts for one minute and two, and in the chart above, there's between 33% and 50%+ difference between one minute and five. In other words, if a guy's max for one full minute is 700 watts he's not going to be able to crank out anything near that for two or more. Sure, many recreational racers can manage 650 - 700 watts for one minute, but 700 watts for two full minutes is getting into world class territory.

That said, going back to the original scenario, the 646 w for just under two minutes for the KOM may well be legit, but only by a very accomplished rider/racer; the 731 w for the QOM 1:52 time (off the charts for a even a single minute for women) is bogus, and would be highly suspect even if by a man who wasn't an international pro.

I'm surprised no one has said this yet. Based on the description and without a link, it's very likely the times he was referring to are in a car and can be flagged.

Everyone is talking about how cat 1 guys can hold 640 watts for 2 min, but what about the QOM he mentioned? The top female road pros absolutely cannot hold 731 watts for that period of time. If there are any that can, they most certainly aren't doing group rides in northeast Tennessee.

Post the link, it's easy to see when someone did s bit of a route in a car, happens all the time especially near mountain bike trailheads.

I'm not going to report it, I'm 100 out 111, it's not like it has anything to do with me. You have to figure if it took the riders 2.5X longer to ride it I'd still be 100 out of 111. It just stood out and I wanted to start a discussion on it.


The male rider if 200+ pounds and 55-64 age group when I start filtering it by age or weight.

https://www.strava.com/segments/9530951?filter=overall

^This. Since both KOM's were set on the same day, it seems likely to me there was a serious tailwind that day.

This incident brings to mind a KOM that bugged me when I encountered it. On a rather long group ride, there was a notable hill that I found myself speeding up. Sure enough, the day's results had me at or at least within reach of the top place. But for all time? Not even close. The time was SO fast, anyone would have sworn it was from a car. But then I noticed that the others who ranked highly had done so not only on the same day, but technically on the same ride, namely a Gran Fondo. I don't recall whether that portion of the course was closed to traffic. Maybe he got a draft - he was going up a 5% grade at 30mph. Or it may have been a glitch. The guy had impressive times throughout his ride, but nothing so spectacular. Then again, I figured if it was bogus, at least one of the others in contention that day would have flagged it.

As others have mentioned unless there's a lightning bolt beside the power number it's a meaningless estimate. Those were both clearly driven.

They were both clearly done in a car. I flagged them both and they no longer appear on the leaderboard, the new KOM looks like a legit effort during a group ride.

The KOM effort looks real, as cadence is matching speed. The power is estimated, so it's complete bull**** number. There was probably just a very strong tailwind that day, and he wasn't putting out the huge watts that were reported there.

Edit: I'm referring to a KOM from someone named david. Maybe others have already flagged the efforts that were "clearly driven", and we're not looking at the same things.