Yeah, those MTB'ers never seem to turn the Garmin off when they're done. It's 2 hours of 7mph average, then suddenly they're doing 80mph. I subscribe to KOM Defender, and probably flag about 20 activities every Sunday evening when I get my "update" email. The KOM Defender algorithm goes through the segments I've crossed the previous week and marks the ones it considers suspicious-- like going uphill at 50mph with zero cadence and an HR of 65bpm. Usually it's MTB, every once in awhile it's crit guys after the weekly practice/race.

I mean, cropping a ride in Strava is really easy. Just cut off that last 20 minutes where the bike is in the bed of the truck, mountain bike people. Jeez.

Haha. I must be the biggest bully of all. In 15 months in my old apartment I systematically worked through the (running) segments on the peninsula, north-to-south, and had all of them except a few at the southern tip that I moved before getting to. My now-wife and I had his&hers on a whole bunch of them.

Also bike rides tagged as runs. Sure, you ran 30 miles in under two hours. With downhills at 45mph. Ok.

How about your favorite segments?

Here's my favorite to try (only tried it 3 times so far):
https://www.strava.com/segments/6730711

Best achievement when lost and no clue there was a segment:
https://www.strava.com/segments/5308659

Segment that I'll hold for a while (on my short commute route):
https://www.strava.com/segments/15005205

Doesn't that make you a bit of a troll?

Good thing about living in California is I rarely have to worry about stealing anyone's KOMs.

Going to be hard to get anyone I know to take those from you.
This is one I see as a grand daddy. https://www.strava.com/segments/273807

If everyone's doing it...
I do like the discussion. You can read my posts. I'm pretty interactive arguing the subjects, which is what makes it not trolling.

Only last one I have the KOM on.

That looks like a terribly fun segment. I'd want to stop for lunch about halfway up.

I have some pre-strava numbers on three different TdF winners (well one was DQ'd but whatever).
At the time junior was going for #2 as Phil had a 55 min time.
I live through my kid's segments now...
This was the section:

This week's favorite! No so much a climb, but it will do: https://www.strava.com/segments/2835893

99 mile segment with 25+mph KOM... Was there just a race over that course and every October? All the leaderboard is filled with rides from October.

I don’t get to take them in most of Austin either, but this neighborhood was isolated and full of families with kids. The few fast people weren’t on Strava and I could get the others by attacking them, maybe a few times. It did mean that I had to do exactly what that guy was complaining about and do a run and sprint that segment, or maybe two. So? That’s one of the things about Strava: it’s built-in intervals.

Sometimes people steal your KOMs because the road improves.

I managed to get a couple of KOM because they were really rough roads that weren't part of a typical course, such as "Perry Roubaix," a stretch of cobblestones down in Greenwich Village. That's still cobbles, but way more people have tried it since, on more suitable bikes, I'm sure. But one that I was particularly proud of was a fairly steep ramp followed by a straight, which no one ever took it fast, because it was so beat up, and it ended at a stoplight after about half a mile anyhow. But one day I got up the ramp pretty quick and figured I shouldn't let up - just keep hammering. When I got home, I was disappointed to see how far down the leaderboard I was on the climbing part, despite the sense that climbing was my strong suit. But realizing that most people wouldn't have kept hammering like I did, I created an extended version of the segment - one continuing to just short of the light at the highway. Sure enough, KOM! And it was reasonably populated, too (currently 1800 attempts)

Unfortunately, some time later the same year, some guy handily took it away from me. Although I didn't know him, I did send him a message to ask if they had repaved the road, and sure enough, he said they had. Recently, they repaved the lower portion, too, so I keep falling down the leaderboard. Another interesting thing about this segment is that the bottom of the hill is at a stoplight, so it's best if one can start on the opposite side and time the light, but the most common courses in the area turn onto it instead. Interestingly, I got the KOM on the extended segment after making that slow turn, but my best times on the climbing portion alone have been when I've made the light heading straight onto it.


Could you elaborate on this?

Post in this thread or it didn't happen....

Yup, my times improved dramatically when some nearby chipseal was paved over with smooth asphalt. Didn't snag any KOMs, though. Too many really fast, strong riders here, including a few pros, riding those same routes.

That was the IRONMAN Triathlon. That was a solo by Cameron Wurf and was a course record. Cam is one of the nicest guys anywhere. Cam would pro bono coach my son in rowing machine technique after they met in some group rides. In 2004 Cameron won the World Championship in quad rowing, became a World Tour rider for a few years for Cannondale and is now doing triathlons.

Sometimes it is just matching the right equipment to the right job.
This is a MTB trail - was that cheating?
Capture.PNG

The GPS chips in phones have gotten really good at fixing a static position-- most new phones can get within a few meters. And their refresh or polling rate is 1hz, just like pretty much every consumer GPS device there is (there are some devices out there with 5Hz up to 20Hz rates) so they have the capability to be every bit as accurate as a dedicated GPS device. But the power requirements of GPS is one of the highest drains in a phone-- just behind the screen-- so the programming (and sometimes the hardware itself) quite literally cuts corners in an effort to balance GPS use and battery life. Depending on conditions, reported position can fall to the minimum accuracy of the chip-- 300m. This is why GPS is not great at determining speed. Even on a bike at 30mph, the GPS refresh is occurring once every 44 feet. So if a segment is a scant 0.2 miles long and the phone user gets the start/finish positioning "bonus," he will cover 8% (or more) "less distance" on that effort. The start/finish of a segment might happen to fall in the middle of a refresh for the GPS chip, so the rider is a full second (or more, based on the accuracy of the position correction) into the segment before the phone records that he's there. This is (in my estimation) why I see segment efforts with an average speed higher than the max speed.

Apps like Strava can't override the phone's OS instructions for the GPS, so you get inaccuracy. I've seen some files with insane zig-zags that cross over entire neighborhoods, and pick up segment PRs / KOMs on parallel streets to what the ride was actually on. This isn't as good, but it shows the less precise position correction of a phone GPS compared to a dedicated device. Strava Android App on the top, my 520 on the bottom:

Strava issue

A couple times I've stopped during a ride and discovered that my phone isn't in sleep mode but instead is showing Safari--thus draining the battery.

It appeared Strava was attempting to do an update or sign on via the browser.

The first time it also recorded the ride in progress. But yesterday it wasn't recording anything.

I closed Safari and rode for about 10 minutes. Made another stop and checked Strava again. The screen was completely black.

When I got home and fiddled with it I was able to post the ride. It had only recorded 0.1 miles out of 30, and classified it as a run.

Has anyone else had this happen?

Strava is totally changed as of now.

Page format is completely different.

Go logon and check it out.


-Tim-

Looks exactly the same to me.

Same here in Tucson. It really does reduce the amount of time I spend wondering about my chances of getting a KOM on even a mildly popular route. It's zero. Fun to scan the top 10 for pros, though. Example:

https://www.strava.com/segments/14959515

Yeah, Phil Gaimon has a lot of them around here. Spotted Taylor Phinney in the top 10 on one of the loops I ride too.

Phil did one of his 'Worst Retirement Ever' videos on the Mt. Lemmon segment I linked. Kind of fun seeing him entirely done in at the end, understandably.