OK so I don’t pay too much attention to Strava KOM’ however I do like to see ride on ride improvements. Plus it is nice to see how I stack up against friends and is also a very useful way of charting different routes that I have ridden.

However after absolutely smashing some trails last night I had a peek at who was at the top of some of the segments that I had improved on.

There are some serious world beating riders hiding in Surrey/London. On one of the routes someone had averaged 30km/h smashing down tight twisty trails, on another the KOM had averaged a worldy 146.5 km/h.

How awesome are those guys? How big must their b**** be?

Sorry if it comes across as being sarcastic and I hope they are genuine times and speeds but really, what is the point of owning a KOM if it is false?

Personally I just like seeing that I have improved or having that ‘I rode that quick’ confirmed.

Rant over.

Enjoy your weekends.

146.5 is clearly a GPS error, but the other one doesn’t sound like it, trail depending. look at the top times on any Surrey Hills descent, they’re very very fast!

Don’t know the Surrey hills, but if the descents are in woods and/or they have used a phone to record, it’s likely to be a gps glitch. Plenty of them on my local trails in Bristol. Otherwise, digital epo?

So post up your strava ID and we will see….. wink:
Surrey ‘ills is home to some seriously fast guys, some of which are currently riding on the world DH scene. So there’s them and then their local mates who aren’t to shabby either.
No shame in flagging stupid times either.(unless the trail is near a roadie decent, in which case you are wasting your time)

Sam Pilgrim, Brendan Fairclough….one of the Madison Saracen WC guys from a few years ago are just some of the riders I’ve seen out and about in the Surrey Hills and I don’t ride there that often so the 30kph trail could be legit….obviously the 140kph one isn’t!

I’ve seen how fast some of the fast guys I know can ride those trails, and then I see the top Strava times which are ludicrous speed fast, but then I see who they are and having seen some of them ride, it’s more believable.

But there are a lot of GPS spikes on Strava. There’s one over Tunnel Hill with switchback climbs and myself I’ve got a crazy time that can’t be right, but then a load of people I know who are way faster have similar or better times so I thought maybe it’s possible. Then I looked at the track and it’s basically straight lining. Dropped signal at start, picked up at end. Though I’ve raised this kind of thing with Strava and they insist it shouldn’t be possible as it logs entry time and exit time for a segment and that’s the time run, so a straight line shouldn’t make a difference.

Main thing I can believe is my own times and only through an average over time. A one of fast time I have to doubt, but if it’s consistent then less likely a dodgy GPS.

http://www.digitalepo.com

I’d say the top few Strava times treat as bogus.

Except the 99.9% which aren’t bogus you mean?

I had a glitch img GPS at Swinley a few tears ago. It gave me 0 secs on a few segments, which wasn’t even on page 1

some of those strava times in the Surrey Hills you see are sessioned with specific bikes for specific trails. In addition to Brendan Fairclough you have the likes of Olly Wilkins, Bernard Kerr etc as well.

Yesterday we witnessed a couple hitting Evian on a tandem, that looked extreme!

Njee20 so your saying glitches and cheating aint widespread

Well I know i’ve got/had a few KOM’s round Peaslake & knowing most of the other riders either in person or by name, no, I would say the vast majority are legit.

Of course you get the odd one where it’s obvious the GPS has gone a bit mad, but they arn’t exactly common.

Njee20 so your saying glitches and cheating aint widespread

Correct. Like Hob Nob, I’m saying they’re legit. It does depend what you consider cheating I suppose – sessioning a trail, drafting vehicles on the road, tail winds etc. but I really do think the vast majority are genuine.

Link me a Surrey Hills segment you think is cheating?

Yep, you get the odd GPS glitch, which normally gets removed, but most times are legitimate.
Just accept that some people are a lot, lot faster than you.

It always gets bandied about, but does anyone know any cases of Digital EPO actually being used? Even anecdotally?

Surely it’d be even more shameful that using real EPO? At least you still have to actually ride that fast then.

I’d expect most of the KOM owners in the Surrey Hills would either be racers or fast local riders anyway, but please give us a link to any which are suspicious but not obvious glitches?

I know of someone who has a lot of dubious rides, but I can’t believe they’re genuinely editing each one, but I seems unlikely their GPS somehow makes them 10% faster all the time!

The whole ‘Strava KOMs are all fake’ does seem to be perpetuated by people in the middle of the leaderboards!

A much loved Strava segment from home. I don’t dispute the times but the gradient and total height is impressive for a road around the edge of the marina. 😀

Old GPS I used clocked up some silly times. I worked it out as being down to auto-pause being turned on. Again, Strava claim this doesn’t make a difference as they use entry and exit times on segments, but I was get stuff like 10seconds on a steep climbs that take a couple of minutes at my pace.

Strava works out stopped time themselves anyway whatever GPS you use, so it’s better with auto pause turned off, or manually pause it when stopped at the shop for cheese straws 😉 , or just leave the thing alone, ride and have fun. Strava is just a thing of interest to see where I’ve gone and maybe hunt down cheeky trails.

Hmm. Don’t know why that didn’t work. Let’s try this one, also in Weymouth.

https://www.strava.com/segments/2055411

Also dead flat despite the 24% slope…

I reckon the vast majority round by me (macc forest,peaks,Wales etc) are genuine, there’s a consistent spread from the fastest to the slowest, and there are thousands of times being set.

Njee20 the last time I rode there was a few years ago. I know if you ride silly early in some parts of the peaks gates can be left/propped open to aid a clear run.

Strava is supposed to be about measuring yourself/a training tool not competing on shared trails with walkers, dogs and horses.

Strava is supposed to be about measuring yourself/a training tool not competing on shared trails with walkers, dogs and horses.

Then I guess you make all your rides private so you don’t appear on leaderboards?

TBF I’d be **** furious if a dog stole my KOM.

If you think you smashed the trails and still don’t feature well on the leader board it’s probably that you are not as good as you think you are. Riders like our man from pedal and spoke who features a lot in the top 10 go out specifically to improve on a single strava segment. A good local rider sessioning a local trail is going to be way faster than any weekend down from Londoner.

I dont use strava. My rides are about flow, fun, nature and getting out there.

So you’re able to comment and base an opinion on fast times based on what exactly?

Are people who use Strava not allowed to have fun & ride flowing trails?

Hob nob Im a slow rider but apparently I was within the top 20 out of 800-something on one section of a trail ..with my chain off.

I dont believe the time(s) recorded are bulletproof nor open to some sort of manipulation.

About the obviously wrong speeds etc… on segments, if the maker of the segments gps data is wrong, then that is what will give the segment false speeds &/or false elevation making it look dodgy.
All you need to do is (if you want) remake the segment using your data which may be more accurate than the original and that should fix the problem.

Hob nob Im a slow rider but apparently I was within the top 20 out of 800-something on one section of a trail ..with my chain off.

Surely you’d need to use strava to know that?

All you need to do is (if you want) remake the segment using your data which may be more accurate than the original and that should fix the problem.

So you are one of those people who generate multiple segments because it didn’t quite match your ride…..

So you are one of those people who generate multiple segments because it didn’t quite match your ride…..

I still think there could be a facility to cull similar segments, especially on busy trails, there defiantly aren’t 500+ valid segments at Swinely, there’s ~40 even if you split trail sections into climbs and descents.

Just give that facility to the person with the most KOM’s on those trails.

You can highlight duplicates, and they do remove them sometimes.

Swinley is a prime example of people going a bit mad on the duplications 🙂

X-treme.

Box Hill is even worse, ridiculous! BKB is pretty daft too!

Swinley does seem to be the worst for it, I reckon it’s just in proportion to the numbers though, there was some incredulous statistic that there were more laps of the blue trail in the fist month after opening than Glentress get’s in a year.

Means there’s more strava duplications, and huge potholes on downslopes where people roll them and drag the back brake :_(

How long have you been cycling for OP?

Having cycled since I was a child, I’ve managed to become proficient at most genres of cycling. Whether it’s flowing through a set of BMX trails, roosting berms on a DH track, or finishing in the fast group of a national sportive, I feel comfortable doing it all.

I regularly take the local KOMs on Strava; I’ve also upset riders further afield when I’ve KOM’d on their patch aswell!

All of my KOMs are genuine, and they’re a good reflection of the years I’ve spent riding bikes, and the different skillsets I’ve acquired. It’s almost a bit insulting that people question the validity of them, especially when I’ve invested so much time in my sport.

You’re a poor man’s RichMTBguru DT!