I joined Strava today and uploaded this mornings ride to notice I’d KOM’d on one climb and placed OK on a few others. This got me looking at the routes other people had ridden before they rode each section and I noticed quite a few people generally riding small-ish distances finishing up with the segment, linking a few together.

Is this poor form or is it OK to warm up for particular segments?

I think anything goes in the pretend race against internet strangers

maybe they just stop and start their gps’s as they come to a segment and leave it?

not sure what you mean by warm up – not have a standing start?

It’s just riding your bike, I wouldn;t fret, tbh.

Is it also out of order when people go riding and string all the good bits together?

people go riding and string all the good bits together

They don’t do they?

The bastards.

Is it our of order to do interval training or hill reps?

Not worth getting worked up about tbh. There’s a hill I use locally for hill reps, so if anyone looked at any of those rides all they’d see is me idling along to the segment, powering up it and then repeating that 8 times, the chilling out on the way home.

There’s no possible way to regulate how people ride up to a segment and nothing to stop you doing the same if you really want a few more KOMs. Live and let live and be smug that any KOMs you get are done on ‘real’ rides.

It’s known as Segment bashing, don’t let it worry you

maybe they just stop and start their gps’s as they come to a segment and leave it?

A lot of people I know do this, makes sense when you consider the battery life of an iPhone, etc with the GPS running

They don’t do they?

The bastards.
😆

i have a fun game atm

incrementally increasing the KOM time on a certain slight ascent on my commute by a controlled ammount rather than just going baws oot and smashing the other guy.

once i get bored i think ill take the TT bike out and smash the crap out the time.

I was genuinely interested. I’m not fussed about it tbh but finding out I’d placed made me wonder how much effort others were putting in.

That was all 🙂

I lost two KOMs to a bloke who rode 3 miles in total the other day. Does it bother me? Does it balls. He looks pretty damn fast and if I’m nearly as fast at the end of a 25 mile ride, then that’s pretty good.

Plus, it gives me a nice challenge finding those extra seconds next time. It’s all good fun

Definitely cheating. I also think that the world cup downhillers should get one run on it, no track walk, no qualifying. And ride their bikes from home, no matter where that is.

Is this poor form or is it OK to warm up for particular segments?

Do you care that much?

These days I slingshot in from a rope on the back of a fireblade. I’m unbeatable on anything up to 50 yards – sweet !

I also think that the world cup downhillers should get one run on it, no track walk, no qualifying.

If I can repeat a Strava section, then so can they.

Man, I’m minutes off their pace on my lunchtime loop.

We clearly need a Strava governing body with officials in blazers stationed at all popular segments and unannounced visits to the less popular ones. Together we can stamp out the scourge of Strava segment-chasers

😉

incrementally increasing the KOM time on a certain slight ascent on my commute by a controlled ammount rather than just going baws oot and smashing the other guy.

I do that with a mate. He does targeted rides to get KOMs so I wait until he’s got a couple then go out and beat him by a few seconds. It really winds him up, it’s brilliant. There’s an art to beating him by just the right amount to make him think he can get it back rather than just all out thrashing it and beating him by a mile.

Bar the odd bit of entertainment like the above, I mostly use Strava as a method of recording my rides rather than to get KOMs.

I’ve only do one ride with strava on and I think I did pretty much what your describing. It seems the obvious way to use it.

To be honest the route is actually my standard route.

Basically I go along a bit of road (your warm up/cycling from home to wood).

Then I bash it up the first hill as fast as possible and then just ride the rest of the ride normally.

I’ve always done this I reckon if I bash the first climb out at sprint pace I can kinda tick off the fitness side of the ride off and then just enjoy the rest of it at what ever pace I want.

Still only came 2nd on the hill 🙁

I think Strava is good for several reasons, but one is that it’s very good for motivating you, so getting out and going for particular KOMs is part of that.

It’s not a proper race, it’s a bit of fun. All this talk of etiquette is a bit over my head to be honest.

I find using Strava at it’s best is to compare yourself on various runs. Not just fitness but also equipment setup. More often that not faster can feel slower and strava lets you see the reality.

i’m more interested in getting my monthly mileage etc up. than KOMs.

I keep getting notified that i lost a KOM, but i’ve never held one (at least never had one shown on my KOM page) is this a glitch or is it when someone creates a segment which i’ve ridden?

Is this poor form or is it OK to warm up for particular segments?

So the pre-ride dump doesn’t count then?

I keep getting notified that i lost a KOM, but i’ve never held one (at least never had one shown on my KOM page) is this a glitch

Might be. I have a few which don’t show on my KOM page. One might be tied so that could be the reason?

You may not be aware you have a KOM if somebody created the segment after you rode it.

I was out on Sunday morning, only second time out with Strava and passed a known-to-me short cobbly segment.

Wasn’t heading up that way but it would have been rude not to…

Apologies if this has been posted before, but the way forward is to:

CREATE IMPOSSIBLE KOMS
Strava allows you to create your own KOM segments. If you have the fastest time on these personal segments, it’s still worth a trophy. To insure you have a KOM that no-one else can break, create one that ends inside your house. That’s right, ride straight through your front door (lock it behind you) and end your ride at the refrigerator. As long as you keep your doors locked, no-one will beat the KOM that ends with a sandwich in your kitchen.

Matt

I only use Strava to race against myself now. I have plenty of private segments I monitor my progress on. I learned months ago that I’ll never be quick enough to get or keep a KOM for very long so it just helps to motivate myself to try and do better than last time.

MAtt – the problem is that you shoudl also use Strava security to create a ‘dead zone’ that includes your house so people don’t use your gps trail to find out where your bikes are stored.

Any segments that fall within the deadzone don’t get publically logged on Strava.

I’m sure the UCI will ratify the rules before the inaugural 2013 STRAVA world championships.I believe they are going to run it along side the World Sportive Championships.

I’m going to buy a moped then join strava. Just call me King KOM.

Just set up lots of really short segments and chuck your gps along them.

people go riding and string all the good bits together

They don’t do they?
The bastards.

Hehe! 😉

Part of the fun is the stalking of the local competition (usually you’ll see the same names on the leaderboards in a 20 mile radius) and seeing how they are getting on and what segments they are targetting.

The sweetest victories are when you see someone targetting a segment for a while (can be weeks or even months) you see them getting closer and closer and you know you had a little in reserve when you set it – eventually they get a good day for it with a tailwind or whatever and finally get the top spot. Makes for a great motivation to get the bike out to take it back straight away, i realise that is all a bit sad and pathetic…but it is fun too 😀

I think anything goes in the pretend race against internet strangers

lol 😆

pretend race against internet strangers

Genius. Can we adopt this as the unofficial name for Strava (PRAIS?)