Me? I didn't start or admin the thing.

I started it.

It's free so why not? Some guy is riding around Mexico and posting pictures. Its fun.

By the way, BFRC @ https://www.strava.com/clubs/bikeforumsroadcycling

LMK if anyone wants to be admin.


-Tim-

That's how many I get for Epic rides.

I hadn't known about this one, so now I'm in TWO clubs with y'all.

I feel so special.

There's a super secret 2nd BF group.

I checked half a dozen segments and the site confirmed my suspicions that no matter what direction I ride in, I face headwind.

Oh, yeah, I've been using that wind analysis tool for awhile. Interesting info. But I mean Strava should adopt it into their metrics as well.

Of course if they did a local woman pro would hold several prized KOMs, not just QOMs, because many of her efforts either lack any tailwind or were into headwinds. And that would hurt our dainty masculine feelings.

It isn't a secret if there are only 6 cyclists in [MENTION=418438]TimothyH[/MENTION] 's group and I can see who is a member of a second BF group...

I usually get a <.5% difference, not 5%. But the basic problem is that Strava seems to sample GPS more frequently, but less accurately, whereas Garmin (Edge 25 for me) is more accurate but less frequent. So Garmin calculates a more straight-line route around curves whereas Strava calculates a curvy line along straights. the latter is of course longer.

That would drive me nuts and I would fix one or both segments. Probably would fix the downhill one to start just past the beginning of the drop. I'd give it a very similar name, append [fixed], and then hide the bad ones from my feed. Then hope new riders gravitate towards the new segment and the only one gets downrated. (I aggressively hide bad segments - it's the only way to downvote a poor segment).

Got that all-too-familiar Dethroned! e-mail this afternoon... and I got to flag what I'm 99% sure is the first doped file I've actually seen. But if anybody can think of what other factor would make a file look like this, I'd be anxious to hear it. The entire activity looks like this, but I find it especially conspicuous on downhill sections.

We all have our favorite type of segments I suppose, but what's so bad about these "bad" segments that you want to kill them? Unless it's a mountaintop or something, why should a climbing segment necessarily end at the crest, and why should a descent necessarily not begin before the road heads down? I just think it's important that descents end well before any T-intersection, stoplight or the like. Also, the start of a segment can ensure that the best times aren't the result of an unusually advantageous start, and that the riders came from a certain direction.

Cheating at Strava

Pathetic

Yeah, those speed spikes are really weird. I wonder if it's the speed governor kicking in as it bumps up against the max speed. Or are you suspecting something other than mechanical doping?

The more files I look through, the weirder it looks. Every single one exhibits the spikes, even when coasting, and there are sections of rides where he's coasting on flat ground, for several hundred feet at a time, at speeds at or above 25mph. I just don't see how that's possible. This guy has been consistently fast on local segments for years now. Something is off.

Digital EPO.

That dumb file doping "service"? I would think that it would smoothly pad the numbers, not leave incredibly conspicuous spikes, no?

That's a telltale sign of digital doping. I caught someone doing a few years ago, reported it to Strava, and they cleared it up.

Huh. Well that's dumb.

Yeah, Strava is dumb.

So, yesterday Strava provided me a little consolation.
In the morning I participated in a time trial and placed third from last in a field of twenty (four mintues slower than the fastest, but still four minutes faster than the slowest ) After getting home and having a nice snack I headed out for another ride on familiar roads. On the return I decided to dial it up to 400 watts and drope the hamer on a few segments - good for three new PR and a repeat of another! Not only that, they put me in decent standing, too - top 2-3% for the year, top 5% all-time among thousands of riders, moving up the leader board as many as 280 places, and in once case off the main route, best of the day - best of ten, but I'll take it. . And what a day it was! Gorgeous spring day, so tons of cyclists were out - many segments showed nearly 500 for the day when I checked in the evening - that's 20% of all the attempts for the whole year.

Well I can't exactly singlehandedly "kill" a segment . . . Anyway, a segment's a segment, and it shouldn't depend on which direction a rider came from. If there's a reason to have a limitation like that then the segment should be a lot longer. Otherwise it just feels like an intentionally "hidden" segment. As for where to start/stop on crests, IMO it shouldn't be past the logical stopping point for someone taking a breather - besides, at that point it's not a climb! Descents are silly, but why would it make sense to start a descent segment before the descent actually begins?

Anyway, my bigger peeve is your point re segments and stop points like lights - I've come across a number in my regular riding area that do just that, although the worst was the one that started in a parking lot just before a stop sign and continued on through another stop sign before it ended. (The parking lot was close enough to the road that it got picked up by pretty much everyone riding by).

Well, when it's not really any kind of monument like a mountain pass or some hilltop with a scenic overlook, extending a segment well past the crest (on a flat, especially) is probative. In order to do well, one has to have the strength and stamina to keep going and it rules out those who blow up and have to "take a breather" when it's just the end of a positive grade in the middle of an ordinary route. Here's a great example: https://www.strava.com/segments/5440091 or better yet, if you have VeloViewer: https://veloviewer.com/segments/5440091 This is the uphill side of a little bowl on the return to the George Washington Bridge, so VERY well traveled by folks returning to the city from long rides. Just about everyone in the area with even the slightest awareness of Strava is familiar with it, but many experienced Stravatizers fail to notice where the end is and blow up prematurely in their attempts to get a PR - until they take a closer look.

As for where they start, sometimes one can approach a climb from more than one direction, and one of those directions is advantageous. For example, there are a couple of fairly short but steep little climbs near me that begin at an intersection. The most common approach in both cases is via a right turn. However, if one approaches them by coming straight through the intersection, one can get a terrific advantage. By starting the segment shy of the intersection approaching the turn, one can exclude the riders who come zooming up at it from the other direction without making the approach portion any more significant than that. As it happens, the popular Strava segments for these little climbs have not been set up that way - they don't start until one has gone through the intersection - but they could be, and I think it would be fair.

No harm in having two segments, then - and you can figure out that way who didn't get the advantageous start.

Some or most of you may have been aware already, but I made a pleasant discovery recently: Crowns and trophies persist on the rides where they were achieved, even after they've been taken by others.
When I first checked the results from Sunday's ride, I was delighted to see I'd achieved 2nd and 3rd all time trophies on a couple of segments. Later, when I checked the leader boards to see just how many others I'd beaten, I discovered that a couple of riders had subsequently posted faster times and knocked me off the better virtual podium. Looking back at the ride itself, I noticed nothing had changed, achievement-wise. Figured maybe it just hadn't updated. So just to check, I tracked down a segment where I got a KOM a couple of years ago. Sure enough, when I went to the ride where it was achieved, the crown was still there. Makes sense, but I'd sort of feared they were all gone for good.
With VeloViewer, you can sort all your segments according to current leader board position, and according to prior position, i.e., position before the last change. However, it would be cool to see best ever placement.