I wanted to let you know about a new service, matesrace, that I have been developing and get some feedback.

http://www.matesrace.co.uk

It allows you to set up virtual events using multiple Strava segments and provides a leaderboard showing the overall times for each athlete. Think virtual enduro or even tour de france!

I’ve been testing it locally with my riding group in Brighton and we have run a number of events so far, all being loads of fun. Have a look here for an example event:

http://www.matesrace.co.uk/event/41

Matesrace is designed to be totally self service. I will not be running or promoting any events myself through the site. I realise that Strava can polarise opinion on here and that other sites that have promoted race series using Strava have been criticised before. I hope that as I am not promoting races, just provided a different way to analyse the Strava data it will be well received.

The site is up and running and ready for use, so please go ahead and create some events for your local riding groups.

Enjoy!

Ha, that’s a nice idea. I wonder if the gang would be up for setting something up.

logged in but cant create an event. just loops me back to the events page with the message:

Looks you aren’t involved in any events right now. You can still browse and take part in the public events.

Ooops, thanks jam bo, that’s a slight hangover from when only I could create events. I’m just updating the site and it will be back allowing you to create events within minutes 🙂

I like that.

You will be able to create events now jam bo… Thanks for reporting!

I really should pay more attention, I read that as Maste(r)race.

Why not just have an enduro amongst your mates instead of a virtual one?

I agree that it shouldn’t discourage riding together with your mates, but it can be hard getting everyone together at once. This allows you to have a bit of friendly competition running over a longer period, a month or whatever you choose.

It can also be slightly more under the radar than a load of riders all arriving somewhere at the same time and setting up timing devices etc…

I can get further but still not allowing me to create a race.

Hi jam bo, the issue is now resolved. Thanks for sticking with it!

I’ll have another go later.

I’m one of the locals who’s been having hilarious fun beta testing this over the last six months or so. Many KOMs have been set by us lot, PRs on pretty much every race segment and we might have crashed once or twice… 😉

We’ve ridden together more because of this, not less – though we’ve often set off down segments on a hot run with bigger time gaps than normal so that everyone could get a fair run.

I think it’s brilliant, even though despite my best efforts I never stay on the virtual podium for long. Well done Chris! 😀

I keep reading the title as “Masterrace”.

Sharing the details on the site – how many of those are visible to others? If you have a locked down Strava account, how much is then visible?

Looks a good idea…

Hey Dick,

Which bit of data are you referring to re:visibility?

Currently all of the races are visible to everyone. If you marked a ride as private it would not show up on the site. Essentially, only data that is already publicly available on Strava will appear.

None of your personal data (email etc) is visible to anyone else.

For anyone that is interested in further updates to the service, you can follow us here:

https://twitter.com/matesrace
https://www.facebook.com/matesrace

Sharing the details on the site – how many of those are visible to others? If you have a locked down Strava account, how much is then visible?

Any ride you do thats not tagged as private is visible to everyone, regardless of if they follow you or your account is private. Otherwise you cant get on segment leaderboards.

This is a great idea tho, something id assumed some one would come up with in the end, but this is better than id thought up, good work!

Currently all of the races are visible to everyone.

Id want the option to make races private. Mates are already in a club and dont want randoms requesting to join.

Appreciate you may want to make open races for any locals, but you are based on strava clubs so they’d need to create a open club too?

[ looking again i think i may have misunderstood this bit?, are My Events public or private? ]

Hey Stato,

I definitely intend to have the ability to create private events. I’ll bump that up the priority list as it’s easy to do.

At the moment, as you say joining a race is dependant on how you set up the Strava club. If it isn’t open then people have to request to join as you say. I hadn’t appreciated how it may be annoying having people requesting to join so I’ll take that onboard and provide the private race option.

My events refers to events that are running that you are already a member of the club .

Nice one. Missed the last race but keen to try another. I want to see what happens to the leaderboard if there’s some segments in there going up as well as down!

We included a technical climb in one of the events, certainly got the heart racing. That’s the nice thing though, you can use any type of segment from Strava. Descent, climb, road, run, swim, whatever they have.

Sorry, I meant the user’s details I.e. Email, or anything else they have marked in their Strava profile. I kind of understood the rides wouldn’t be private otherwise it wouldn’t work.
Thanks for clarifying.

I too read it as Master Race and had visions of racing leading Nazis. Hitler on a unicycle, Goring on a 26er, Himmler on a 27.5 and poor old Goebbels running along cyclo cross style shouldering his bike.

Hmmmm, not sure about this new direction for the brand. The above would make an interesting video though 😉

I’m sure stw could provide all the actors for the video, well you’d have no problem casting Goring anyway 🙂

created a race. see if I can get people to sign up.

gren-duro if your in the west devon area…

http://www.matesrace.co.uk/event/91

That’s great. I’ve always fancied coming and checking the riding out in Devon, so this might give me a good excuse!

As per chief above its been great helping Chris test this. Gives you a good excuse to squeeze the extra ride in and to focus on a few particular trails. A good bit of friendly rivalry never hurt either!

Awesome!.

I’ll be using this for the inaugural F.E.C.K.I.T. – Fairlie enduro championship knockout invitational tournament.

With extra reference on the ‘invitational’. We don’t want no fast buggers!. 😀

I can add you a “remove fast bugger” option if you like 😉

I’ve got a random from San Diego signed up to mine…

Nice!

Great idea I’ve just set up something for the road club.

Here’s a question,

Is it possible to set it up so there has to be a minimum time between people attempting segments? I’m wanting to avoid people chainganging them rather than a solo effort.

Rich

That sounds like taking it entirely to seriously….

It’s a road club what do you expect! 🙂

Added bonus points for looking miserable & not waving would be good as well.

In that case add in a weather feed to make sure they aren’t getting a tailwind assist.

Already picking segments that avoid help with the prevailing wind!

You stole my idea OP!

By stole, I mean had a similar one and you actually did something… Well done Fella!

Looks good, Chapeau.

Thanks Chapeau, it grew from wanting to get something working for my local club to everyone enjoying it loads and offering it wider.

To be honest, I enjoyed lapping some of the segments so I wouldn’t want to ban that altogether. Something that I thought about introducing as an option would be defining how many attempts someone can make on a segment. So you could set up that only the first attempt counts etc. More like a blind effort on an Enduro. Could extend that to once per day I guess.