[Closed] Awesome Strava tales

Tricky little steep/slippery root section around a tree:
I got it all wrong and ended up bailing from the bike and going through the foliage of the tree - got a PB 🙂

One of my mates, runs along sections he can't ride, to get a good Strava time. 🙄

I rode a trail on Sun I'd not been down since the Autumn. I went so fast it made my eyes water! 😀

Because some ****s over the winter had straightlined practically every corner. 👿

Descending a local off-road hill on my CX a few years ago, I got hooked on a rut, fell off sideways, clipped the bank and broke my collarbone.

Lay there for a bit, very winded. Disentangled myself from the bike, picked it up and walked very gingerly down to the bottom (it's a long hill). My mate was waiting there assuming I'd got a puncture or something so I hobbled up, trying to hold my arm still while lugging the a bike along.

From there the only option was either to call out mountain rescue and an air ambulance or just walk / ride. So we went with the latter. I could ride flat roads and walk the rest.

Made it to the station and got the train home.
When I uploaded the ride later, I wasn't even close to being last on the leaderboard in spite of the crash, the getting sorted and the long walk down!

A downhill bridleway section local to me has two gates. Once I was fortunate enough to have some walkers hold open the first gate for me. I got a pb and 5th overall. The odds of that happening again and for both gates 😕

Another local one, a little rocky, rooty off piste section. I did it on my HT, at night, in frosty conditions. Got a pb. **** knows what I'd been doing on the FS in dry daylight conditions 🙄

When it was first catching on, all the chat was still "it's for people who don't race". I went up to Fort William and got some decent times, thought, "wonder who's top"? Greg Minaar- Person Who Doesn't Race

Now on our local trails it's all world champs and bloody Radogair.

Milkie - Member

One of my mates, runs along sections he can't ride, to get a good Strava time.

So #enduro

A segment near me has a couple of gates. A lot of the segment is on the route of a local fell race and I was marshalling at the start of the segment, it was also early in the year when the grass was still short and it was dry. Once the runners had been through I got the other marshalls to hold the gates open and went for it - knocked two minutes off a nine minute KOM! 😆 Still over a minute ahead of the next rider.

When I uploaded the ride later, I wasn't even close to being last on the leaderboard in spite of the crash, the getting sorted and the long walk down!

Ah, that's probably the bit I broke both my legs on and then rode out.

One of my mates, runs along sections he can't ride, to get a good Strava time.

He should take up CX.

Now on our local trails it's all world champs and bloody Raddogair.

He lives round my way.

I have a KOM on a small insignificant hummock quite near his house.

He hasn't noticed yet. Too busy tearing up the Tweed Valley and being a roadie to notice that i've sneaked in under his very nose. He's got the KOMs on practically all the other local trails round here.

It's only a matter of time though.......

I was on an evening road ride with a friend who I had been on a few rides with before. On our way back into the city, we were about to cross a large bridge with tolls. He sprinted away as there were no cars coming, past the empty tolls and across the bridge on the wrong side of the road.
I asked him what the hell he was doing. He replied, airily: [i]'Strava segment'[/i].

I like Strava as much as the next person, but I just thought: '[i]idiot[/i]' and actually never rode with him again, now I come to think about it.

whitestone - Member
A segment near me has a couple of gates. A lot of the segment is on the route of a local fell race and I was marshalling at the start of the segment, it was also early in the year when the grass was still short and it was dry. Once the runners had been through I got the other marshalls to hold the gates open and went for it - knocked two minutes off a nine minute KOM! Still over a minute ahead of the next rider.

Goes off to work it out... 😈

There is a local (road) hill that I normally beat all the Sunday club-runners up, yet their times are quicker than mine. Turns out the lay-by I wait for them in is just short of the segment finish, so they just ride by and get a better time. I forget this every time we ride it, doh!

I am 34,522nd out of 35,389 on Mont Ventoux par Bedoin

go me

2nd down The Widowmaker on Dartmoor. Timing meteorology is EVERYTHING.

Spent more than a year obsessing about a section of trail I fancied myself on - shaving fractions, taking risks being a bit silly.

I'd finish each ride there agonising as the data uploaded - drat, a second slower - then compare it with my mates time. Of course Strava would say I rode 500m further than him that day and he climbed 50m higher for example and I realised obsessing about something that was in real terms in the lap of the GPS gods that day really wasn't worth worrying about.

2nd down The Widowmaker on Dartmoor. Timing meteorology is EVERYTHING.

POSTED 4 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

My mate is first on a hardtail. It's not just about the wind, you have to do it the day after the tour de moor where they send 1000 people up the widowmaker and flatten down all the rocks.

I'm a lowly 42nd...

I picked up 17th on the Champery World Cup track last summer (its the first thing I tell anyone new I meet).

I've now been knocked down a few places... but still! 17th on a World Cup DH track on my #enduro bike!

Some people say DH riders don't use Strava, but I choose not to listen to them.

Overcooking a bit of trail and almost going over the bars. Guy walking on the moors a short distance away: "STRAVA?"

I approach my cycling as an activity that I enjoy, therefore the more time I spend doing it the better. Hence why would I rush to get the ride over sooner?

My strava KOM profile reflects this perfectly.

(same with golf - green fee is fixed, why wouldn't I want 120 hits?)

Martinhutch

Goes off to work it out...

One of the local MTB groups has five in the top ten on that segment 😉

@theotherjonv

Sometimes I go out to get good Strava times, other times I'm not bothered and will just amble along. The best ones are where you don't think you've been trying and get a top ten.

Warming up for local 10 mile TT, I pushed it hard on some back roads and got a KOM on a 1km section.

Then blew up on the actual 10 and barely got below 27 minutes 🙁

smatkins1 - Member

I picked up 17th on the Champery World Cup track last summer (its the first thing I tell anyone new I meet).

Yeah? Well, buddy, you're talking to the former King of the Innerleithen Push Up Track.

(the person who took it off me took about 10 minutes off 😆 But I think they cheated by riding a bike)

One of my local "trails" (ie farm tracks that nobody else rides) I had KOM on for well over a year and then almost a year ago another local rider smashed my time by 20s coming in at 2:23. On the commute home the next day was feeling confident with a strong tailwind and blasted down there. Was certain I'd done it. Came in short by 3s. By the time Winter came I'd only had 3 efforts coming in under 2:30 and more or less gave up.

Then at the end of February this year, 3/4 of the way through a 30 mile xc ride, went for it again, not expecting too much despite the strong tailwind and a rigid mtb. I knew it was fast as I switched onto the 48tooth chainring on the front and my vision seemed to be zooming in.

And by god is was fast, smashed that sucker's time by 6 seconds with a top speed of 36mph.

Tried to get one last Wednesday.
One of the other lads got it instead (the one who was holding a gate for me).
Then when we got home, it turned out that my 11 year old daughter had got the QOM on the same section, with out trying too hard...

Perhaps it's not for everyone!

One of my local "trails" (ie farm tracks that nobody else rides) I had KOM on for well over a year and then almost a year ago another local rider smashed my time by 20s coming in at 2:23. On the commute home the next day was feeling confident with a strong tailwind and blasted down there. Was certain I'd done it. Came in short by 3s. By the time Winter came I'd only had 3 efforts coming in under 2:30 and more or less gave up.

Then at the end of February this year, 3/4 of the way through a 30 mile xc ride, went for it again, not expecting too much despite the strong tailwind and a rigid mtb. I knew it was fast as I switched onto the 48tooth chainring on the front and my vision seemed to be zooming in.

And by god is was fast, smashed that sucker's time by 6 seconds with a top speed of 36mph.

And [i]this[/i] is what Strava is all about.

*applauds*

I got joint 32nd with quite a few others down a short section of Sixtapod last weekend. I'm 42 and three quarters and think I've probably peaked, I might retire now. Anyone want to buy a four ride old Trek Fuel?

Spent 6k on an overpriced framed bike. Went out and smashed pbs on 80% of about 150 segments at a trail centre I'd ridden 100s of times before.

Wasn't even trying. Made me very happy with my purchase 🙂

Did a 55k strava loop with a mate, flat out the whole way round. Started and finished together and bloody strava gave him the KOM over me by 5 seconds.

Strava sucks

Have to keep flagging the same idiot on an E bike to protect one of my few remaining uphill Brazilian Kom's. Had many but some idiot seems to flag everyting with a bit o descent in as dangerous. Lost my pride and joy 67K passes 2nd out of 3700 now but the guy has a powermeter proven 750watt average comparision says I timed it wrong as he nudges pas just before the end. Good memories of sunshine. In my local land i get beaten most times by a lot by some French pro Giro stage mounten sateg winner top ten rider. But on the downhill into my house we are even, so nice of him to ease off and leave the local lad his pride.

Only been riding my fatbike for 3 weeks now and all mt personal bests are falling by minutes , one section ive been trying to get under 1m.14 for 2 years ,fatty hit 1m.3 tonight matching the kom set by a local on his downhill bike .. GO team 4 inch rubber 🙂

Don't pay any attention to segments under 7 minutes. Too much GPS variation. Like a bit of fitness rather than just skillz in my segments.

Last time out at BPW I got a pb on the uplift, 6sec quicker than my mate who was on the same bus 😆

Not exactly awesome but there is a 1.2 mile 5% average road climb where I used to live that I would climb to get to the local trails all the time on my SS rigid Karate Monkey with big 2.4 tyres, I still go back now and again to visit my parents and sometimes take my road bike.

Annoyingly I cannot beat my time on the road bike the half dozen or so times I've been up the segment, and I have really, really tried and it is starting to annoy me a bit. I have been pulling all sorts of faces on the way up but am still just off it...

I got a KOM in the local woods on a trail then found the ride flagged, turns out one of the local pro's flags people rides if he thinks they are faster than they should be able to go (I made a point of redoing it a few times)and then just for fun on some of the fire roads he had KOM's on we would leave the garmin running on uplift then crop the ride after a few days just so he got the email 😉
On some of our local trails this fella just turned up
https://www.strava.com/athletes/1500873
He wasn't publishing all his runs last time I saw him but a local shop guy persuaded him to just to wind up the local fast boys 😉 I predict all leaderboards to be a pro zone by this time next week 🙂

On the LEL in 2013 i joined up with a guy who had a similar pace to mine after fuelling up in Moffat and heading over the Devil's beeftub. He dropped back to join his mates as we approached Edinburgh, but i got the KOM for the 80km stage. Not bad when you're 700km into a 1400km on your first audax.
Afaik, I've still got it.

My local loop has a short road climb which is Strava'd to death by many thousands of people. It's one of those 1/10 mile balls-out sprints the top 30 are separated by a few s

one day last year I had a tailwind on the downhill approach which is a right turn across a main road. By some miracle there was a gap in the oncoming traffic which I was able to anticipate and I took the corner like Rossi and started the segment at 20+ mph. I gave it 100% and didn't really start to slow until a few m from the top.

Joint 7th with many other people

On a FAT BIKE 🙂

I was staying up the road from a large welsh trail centre. Went for a ride with the kids and they couldn't be arsed with the road climb back so I rode back to the cottage and got the car.

My GPS is wrist mounted and I forgot to turn it off.

Easy KOM!

I did trim the ride in the end (left it a week) but I can imagine the poor roadie getting "the email"...

Took an E-bike out for a spin up onto the south downs from home on my usual evening ride, popped it into turbo mode for the climb and smashed the KOM by over 6 minutes.
email the next day from the guy who held the previous record asking me if my battery went flat.
Lol.

I'm 42 and three quarters and think I've probably peaked

The only bad part about Strava for me. As I near 50 I have to sadly realise that I am getting slower and will never match the times I recorded just 4 years ago.

Took an E-bike out for a spin up onto the south downs from home on my usual evening ride, popped it into turbo mode for the climb and smashed the KOM by over 6 minutes.

That is just despicable! Stone him!!! 👿

The only bad part about Strava for me. As I near 50 I have to sadly realise that I am getting slower and will never match the times I recorded just 4 years ago.

Not true Kerley....I'm 55 and still have a bit of life in the olde legs. Okay I'm not getting any faster, but on a good day in the right conditions, can still put down a decent time.

Im mostly average on the MTB, same or worse on the road.
My best road segment is a 1/4 mile climb, I'd been at a mates until 2am drinking and smoking weed, hammered the preceding decent and just kept it in the big ring right up the climb gurning away trying to ignore the rapidly increasing pain in my thighs whilst still pushing the cranks. I managed to get 4th out of 870! Im still 5th 3.5 years later!
And this was on my MTB with slicks!

And this was on my MTB with slicks

You see this is why I get soo frustrated with Strava......people just don't play fair!

Part of my commute coincides with the 2014 Commonwealth Games TT course. I had a hard won KOM up a particular hill. Matt Osborne took it off me (along with a few other riders after him who got better times). I could later claim that he dropped out of the road race due solely to taking my KOM.

I still haven't got that KOM back even though I have beaten his time. 1s off on a 2m segment - and I got slowed down by traffic on my best (and very wind assisted) time!