I was surprised to see that smart trainer/virtual rides are being included on Strava leaderboards for real rides now. A colleague uploaded a ride up Alpe D’Huez last week which I thought seemed impressive when I’ve got other mates skiing out there, and apparently it was a virtual ride, but when I click on segment leaderboards his name shows up alongside mine from a real ride?
Late last year a bloke I vaguely know turned up with a ride on Alpe D'Huez- at the time I was a bit confused because I was pretty certain that he'd not been out there on that date. He's a triathlete, so my first thought was that he'd doctored a file, perhaps from another date, but in light of what you've said, perhaps it was a turbo run.
Strava KOM’s etc mean absolutely nothing as wind conditions, riding within groups on sportives etc. can effect timings..Zwift chasing — just does not mean anything either.....If people are so concerned about being on a leaderboard, join British Cycling with a race licence option and sign up for proper road,mtb or CXracing against real people on real terrains....also may benefit your local clubs.....just a thought 🤭
I have segments I’ve ridden both in real life and virtually [FulGaz}, as far as I can see my virtual times don’t show up in the segment history of my real life times...and vice versa.
Zwift segment don't show up on real Strava leaderboards. Maybe with some computer trickery you could do something.
If people are so concerned about being on a leaderboard, join British Cycling with a race licence option and sign up for proper road,mtb or CXracing against real people on real terrains
+1.
Many zwifters on here race IRL. Of the ones that don't, I know several of them are building up to it/planning to.
"Zwift segment don’t show up on real Strava leaderboards"
well something virtual does. I don't do virtual so I've no idea what platform it was on, but he definitely wasn't out in the Alps but it displayed as if it was a real ride on Strava complete with map, segments and leaderboard places.
"If people are so concerned about being on a leaderboard, join British Cycling with a race licence option and sign up for proper road,mtb or CXracing against real people on real terrains….also may benefit your local clubs…..just a thought"
Amazingly many people manage to do both. I'm currently having some KOM-swapping and bantz with a clubmate who rides the same commute route as me but at different times. He's a road racer, I race CX, we both dabble in the club TTs (though I've volunteered at more TTs than I've raced this season if you're talking benefiting local clubs).
I know other people for whom life gets in the way of being able to commit to racing and they snatch opportunities to ride whenever they can, and leaderboards can offer them some competition/motivation/reward.
Yeah, I don’t get this idea that you can ‘beat’ a ‘person’ on ‘terrain’ (which doesn’t actually exist)
using an unknown bike, which doesn’t actually go anywhere, because it’s strapped to a machine which might (or might not, you don’t know) give an accurate representation of how much power is being sent through it, and of course, they could be lying about their weight, or using a drill to turn the wheel.
That’s a lot of unknown variables to base any kind of competitive event on surely?
obviously, you could overcome this, by only ‘racing’ against your mates, at least you know if they would be likely to ‘cheat’ on zwift (or strava)
in fact, unless you actually know the person who ‘beat’ you, it could just as easily be a computer in some 15yo kids bedroom in utah trolling everyone.
Just to be clear, my comments were mainly aimed at zwift.
i totally get why people use strava, although i choose not to.
To be fair on those that take it more seriously, anyone with KOM has to be fairly handy on a bike, I've only ever had one and it was a remote farm track in north Yorkshire, when in won it, it turned out I was only the third to ride it on strava! My only other one was Swinley when I rode it the weekend after it opened. Good weather, buff trails and I was at my fittest and still that one didn't last long!
Maybe it's more trivial in remoter areas but even my commute has segments with 20,000+ times on the leaderboard, getting to the top of one of those would be quite an achievement.
Tinas
id agree, I doubt I would trouble the leader boards, even on an ebike.
You think this is an issue. I have just had an email informing me that my long standing KOM from 2014 has just been beaten 🙁
Must have been a power surge today 🙂
https://www.strava.com/segments/4855340
