Doge

Most are not going 20kph plus. I think I have a 30kph one.
I love the sport.

Doge

It is another discipline, like MTB, cross. A good segment is serious stuff.

canklecat

Is Starving the future of road cycling? I heard ketosisomethingwoosomething. Can I use Starving to keep track of what I don't eat before and during a century? Will I lose my Starving KOM if I drink electrolytes during a ride?

kbarch

VeloViewer came in really handy for finding the most frequented segments I've ridden.
Unsurprisingly, the first fifty most-attempted were all in Central Park, with between 33k and 44k attempts. Outside Central Park, the most frequented was kind of a surprise - First 500 meters of Campolongo Descent, which I just happened to do twice back in May (I think it must be on the Maratona course). Then it wasn't until the 181st most-frequented did anything outside of Manhattan or Italy appear - segments along roads to and from the George Washington Bridge in Jersey, then up and down 9W, with fewer than 22k attempts each. Strava must be less popular around here than I thought, because sometimes it seems like there are 22k cyclists on 9W in a single weekend.

Doge

This is the only way between Orange County and San Diego and 4 miles from my place. The attempts are over 100K and it is a TT practice route. I expect the top times are from a group ride with several group rides a week.
Sano.PNG

This segment was always my nemesis back in the 80s when I road this route weekly on the Como Street Ride. Many USA pros have done this at some time. I never made it over the top with the front group on a single. I did on the tandem. I put my kid on it about age 11 and seeing him not get dropped was an exciting day. It is still the highest attempt hill segment I know, but I expect there are others. My kid took this at 16. It will hurt when it goes.
CooksToSantiago.PNG

f4rrest

Do you have a link to the San O segment?

Doge

Both:

https://www.strava.com/segments/7672315

https://www.strava.com/segments/764232

canklecat

This is turning into a serious thread. Is that the future of road cycling?

Doge

I did mean it as a serious thread. I also expected the response. I've posted over the years some Strava KOMs are way more significant that some race wins. And...some race wins more significant that Strava KOMs.

Gaimon, who you mentioned ... was a World Tour pro a couple years, a US pro a few more. Did you know his name in 2014?
Look at his race results here: Phillip Gaimon

Do you think he is a more marketable brand now (although using for his own cookies), or when he was a pro cyclist?

I already posted. I think it is an alternative. Like cx, like MTB. It is watched. It can be part of a pro resume. Depending on segment and position, seems completely legit to me.

canklecat

Oh, you were serious! I just thought it was a tongue-in-cheek response to a few other Strava threads. My mistake. My responses were flippant because I personally don't take Strava seriously. I'll never be fast. I just use it for social networking and to gauge my personal progress on familiar routes.

Nope, hadn't heard of Gaimon until this year when I read about his quest to take KOMs from folks suspected of doping or other forms of cheating. I don't really follow pro tour racing. But I enjoy Phil's videos and admire his tenacity and honesty.

I'd agree that climbing KOMs are valid milestones for anyone. Not much teamwork involved in real climbing, other than blocking, or if there's a really serious headwind. So I regard climbing KOMs as significant achievements. I'm lucky to crack the 50th percentile on most local climbs.

But the downhill KOMs? Heck, even I'm fast on those. Just depends on conditions -- pavement quality, the right tailwind. Love the downhills. Lets me indulge in the illusion that I'm occasionally fast.

KOMs on mostly flat terrain, meh. Depends on conditions and riding partners. I'm more impressed by the top riders who do it solo without tailwinds. But not everyone posts wind conditions for their rides. And I suppose a competitive Stravist who desperately craves a KOM could recruit one or two partners to help, who'd agree to withhold uploading their own Strava data to give the illusion of a solo effort. Or doing motor pacing/drafting.

Doge

Kinda yes, kinda no. My wife says I have weird humor that way. I mean I did the 1X thread knowing it was both tongue-in-cheek and also made a lot of scene. Strava stuff is all over I thought it would be good to consolidate it and my kid does, along with other cycling things, uses Strava as a competitive discipline, as do other kids his age. It is serious, but it is just one thing.

Phil gives too much credit to doping. I'm convinced lots of riders that beat him were not doping. I do not think he is so convinced. Right now, he's going after about everything. I'm also convinced there are a lot of pro's not posting what they can do, while others do.

I like his cookie marketing. I respect his marketing more than his riding actually.

canklecat

Yeah, Phil's marketing savvy is subtle but effective. He'll do well in the future.

Regarding doping, I'm more familiar with the effect in boxing than cycling. Pro boxing is still in the peak Lance Armstrong phase. There's too much money being made for the authorities to try stopping it. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars for the major draws like Mayweather. That money is spread around far and wide. And instead of old school hamfisted Mafioso, it's now the major media and associated businesses involved in tacit approval of corruption.

So the boxing power brokers only make a token gesture at singling out unpopular boxers who dare to beat the guy they weren't supposed to beat (James Toney, after beating HBO favorite John Ruiz -- only true boxing aficionados like Toney for his skills, while pundits dislike him because he's a notorious trash talker; Guillermo Jones, after whomping the Russian-mafia-backed Denis Lebedev). There was no serious interest in discouraging doping by guys like Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez and others. And Marquez resorted to doping only after realizing it was impossible to move up from featherweight to welterweight just by drinking his own urine and actually be competitive against Pacquiao. And no sane person can believe Pacquiao moved up from light flyweight to light middleweight in the same career, while retaining the well defined musculature of a naturally bigger man. Ditto, Marquez, who looked flabby against Mayweather at welter, then suddenly looked like a bodybuilder against Pacquiao at the same weight. Not likely, not without the help of modern chemistry.

But bicycling is different and as the Team Sky philosophy goes, you can gain a competitive edge just by focusing on the tiny details of perfectly legal stuff: equipment, apparel, training, etc. Perhaps that's why Froome's more recent victories aren't particularly dominant or exciting. He's gaining 1% here, 0.5% there, etc., just through incremental improvements that would be cost effective only for a well funded team like Sky. So Froome probably doesn't need to cheat in this era.

Frankly, I'd volunteer to test the effects of EPO, etc., if legalities were waived. It would be interesting to see how much difference it would make to a nearly 60 y/o guy with a busted up back and neck, wonky thyroid, chronic asthma and COPD (from childhood illnesses, not smoking). I'd be a perfect test subject. I already work my butt off on conditioning and keep hitting the wall of physical limitations. If juicing suddenly broke me out of the 50th percentile on hill climbs, and enabled me to keep pace with the local fast clubs (I got dropped again Saturday morning, although I hung on a few miles longer than the last time I tried), that's a pretty good indicator of what doping can do. Heck, might even make for an interesting video series: Gimpy Old Dude on Juice. But it's not worth the potential legal hassles without waivers, so I wouldn't experiment on my own.

eja_ bottecchia

That’s evil...but I like it!

Doge

To take it back OT, that is the beauty of Strava. It doesn't matter.

canklecat

Hey, that sounds like me. Seriously, I begin many longer workouts riding the neighborhood for a warmup. Lots of half mile streets with 1%-2% grades, perfect for warming up creaking old knees and joints without strain. So I do about five miles along those parallel streets before heading out for longer rides or to tackle tougher hills. But I don't put much effort into those neighborhood warmups and often wave at folks or stop to chat.

I have one KOM in a nearby residential circle. Probably the easiest KOM in town. Just a 0.6 mile loop, almost perfectly flat. Found it serendipitously one evening back in the spring, just cruising around at 10-12 mph. After a few rides I noticed it was a Strava segment. Only 9 people recorded riding it. The speed limit is 20 mph, so I kept riding until I reached 21 mph, then quit. Now I'm waiting to see if anyone notices and takes the bait.

The tricky part is it's a residential street, so you have to watch for kids playing, cars backing out, etc. It's easily possible for a strong rider to do 25-30 mph there, but not necessarily safe. There are times of day with few cars parked on the street, few people home, etc., so eventually someone will notice that segment and kill it.

wipekitty

I was going to say...I'm surprised that nobody has flagged the segment yet.

Around these parts, there must be a small group of folks who go a bit wild flagging segments. There's a few flagged segments that are really perplexing - not unsafe in the slightest. On the other hand, nobody seems to have a problem with the twisty downhill segment, where it's easy to hit 15-20 MPH over the speed limit on the final stretch...

canklecat

Yeah, I just thought it was amusing that someone created a Strava segment on a flat residential circle with a 20 mph speed limit. Once I hit that, I quit.

Heck, there are so many inappropriate Strava segments here, flagging 'em is an exercise in tail chasing. As soon as a segment is flagged, someone will create a duplicate segment with a taunting title.

There shouldn't be any Strava segments on the MUP, but there are dozens of 'em, and hundreds of cyclists chasing KOMs, weaving between pedestrians, kids, etc.

And there are others that encourage blowing stop signs. Sure, most of us roll through those signs because it's dangerous to come to a complete stop. I have video of drunk drivers leaving the nearby bars blowing through those signs, to demonstrate why it's dangerous for cyclists to stop. But it's kinda dumb to name a Strava segment "Blow the stop signs". Looks bad for those of us who roll through those signs for our own safety, after looking all ways to be sure the way is clear. If we get ticketed, someone could claim we're flouting the law just because we have Strava accounts.

atwl77

Speaking of odd Strava segments, I've noticed a trend (not sure if it's only local or not) to turn an entire event/ride/sportive into one mega segment. I've noticed this on two rides that I have participated in recently -- one 120km and another 160km. I suppose someone wanted to be more competitive and see just how all the Strava participants did for that particular event, but will people even attempt to ride these mega segments at other times?

Sojodave

I saw a guy with a t shirt that had a saying upside down saying "If I crashed or passed out, please pause Strava".

drewguy

I've seen that too . . . but auto-pause!

Doge

What are the Strava rules?

I'll suggest some:
-No motors on the machine.
-Computer needs to be on the machine
-Anything that involves an intersection is lame.
-Downhills are semi-lame, but valid.
-Doping is allowed - per Strava.
-Holding onto something that pulls you is lame, dangerous and if it meets the below - might be valid.
-Anything goes so long as the page before you and after you did the same thing.

As per the above, drafting is fine, riding anything is fine if it does not have a motor.

canklecat

I have a few private Strava segments of routes up to 10 miles, mostly loops near my home. Some days I have only an hour to ride so those loops serve that function for me, but probably wouldn't be useful to anyone else. Just a handy way to gauge my progress over mixed roller coaster terrain and varying wind conditions. I don't need to dig my own data out of a clot of other riders, although most local folks who do ride that area don't ride that specific loop.

I wouldn't mind seeing entire local events with Strava segments published for others to try at another time. Although that would duplicate the purpose of Map My Ride and Ride With GPS.

The most peculiar Strava segments I've seen were splits of uniform, specific lengths. Yeah, I have those on Cyclemeter but I'm not sure why anyone would create and publish Strava segments from sequences of 1km or 1 mile training splits. Maybe a glitch and they never got around to setting those private, I dunno.

DrIsotope

Using the phone app for recording activities is basically e-doping. The GPS polling rate slash gross inaccuracies at speed will have phone app users taking KOMs at 2-3mph less than other efforts.

The upside is, they're so easy to flag, because they never have ANY sensors attached. Pardon my suspicion when I see a guy riding 5,000+ miles a year, taking KOMs regularly, on a fleet of +$10k bikes... no cadence, no power, no HRM, just the Strava Android App.

Doge

There is also a lot of error I think is innocent. Might not be, but bikes in car is #1 taker. Gaiman Got the Palomar KOM without ever getting the KOM. Horner's was not there when he uploaded. He says it was a mistake. It was an invalid record none the less.

atwl77

Yeah, I see a lot of car KOMs locally, very obvious that they are unintentional due to the routes taken which often start out of parking lots and then move onto 110km/h motorways and such. But the funny thing is, either the local community is too complacent, too nice to point it out or too ignorant about it (or simply don't care?), but some of these KOMs have been around for more than a year (i.e. apparently no one has bothered flagging them)?