I’m chasing the Strava holly grail:
Offroad decent
Offroad climb
Road sprint
Road climb

Currently hold 3 out of the 4, all for fun you understand.
I used to get really hung up about Strava and as someone else said, it took over and started ruining rides, now I just ride for the fun, fast where I can and see what happens at the end.

Last March I went for a ride ahead of some bad weather. I didn’t go as far as usual so I felt fairly fresh on the way back and with leaden skies behind me I was pressing on. A couple of lads were cruising along and they politely pulled over so I could pass with a slightly breathless ‘thanks’

I thought nothing of it until one of them came past going *really* fast but trying not to make it look obvious. I dug deeper and stayed with him until he stopped at the top of a hill to throw up let his mate catch up. We exchanged knowing glances.

A little later his mate came past and the same thing happened. By this time a huge tailwind had picked up and our leap frogging game carried on at a cracking pace.

The Strava times from that ride were insane I haven’t got anywhere near them since.

Strava: racing strangers since 2009 🙂

i only think about it if riding alone, gives you a bit of incentive. dont worry about it all in a group, just trying to either catch up or out run my mates…

Obvs. What other reason is there for Strava

i use it mainly for snaffling routes and segments off other users, and just to keep account of my rides. its also linked to my vitality plan do every ride = points and points = prizes!!

anagallis_arvensis – Member

If you have Strava premium with live segments does it tell you your time on a segment compared to who you are following? One of my mates keeps taking 1s of loads of my times.

Strava premium with Garmin 520 allows you to choose the KOM time, PB time, or the quickest time of all those who you follow (not one specific person though – the whole leaderboard). So if you fit one of those criteria, then theoretically yes, but I’ve not found it accurate enough to let me beat times by 1s

Strava really isn’t that accurate (or the GPS data isn’t). I’ve been riding alongside people and we each gets different segment time by up to 4 seconds.

Ghostracer Pro (one-off £3 fee over free) allows you to choose what already recorded time from you or others to “ghost race” against in real-time for an unlimited number of segments.

It will give visual comparisons and on many gadgets (but not Sony Smartwatch 3) audio comparisons at a frequency of your choosing.

Great as a bit of extra motivation, if you are trying to push your boundaries.

imnotverygood – Member 
Strava really isn’t that accurate (or the GPS data isn’t). I’ve been riding alongside people and we each gets different segment time by up to 4 seconds.

It’s the nature of consumer GPS devices, variations in signal, differences in devices, calibrations, and numerous other factors.

For me the only valuable comparison is with my own rides, and even then it can be off at times.

bit late to the party, but if anyone wants a laugh…

read the comments

😆