How to stop seeing Strava virtual rides

Any way to stop Strava showing me people’s virtual rides? Simply don’t care, but do like to see actual rides. Is this possible?
Thanks in advance

Yeah… could do without the daily dozen or so Zwift squiggles I see also, they don’t even look like anything on a map as they always appear half under water??

It’s taking over my feed, but then the same people also post interesting outdoor rides that I occasionally pinch ideas from…

Exactly my point, love the real world route ideas, way to check my pace etc, just can’t be arsed with pics of virtual rides and digital riders 🥱

if you are using chrome then “sauce for strava” or “stravini” extensions will allow this

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sauce-for-strava/eigiefcapdcdmncdghkeahgfmnobigha

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stravini/ilogdlddgndehmpabkafohhfapaopgkd

I have tried and I don’t think you can.

My guess is that Strava are beholden to Zwift in some way, so won’t create this basic bit of functionality for commercial reasons.

It’s been something that people have requested for years (as well as the ability to filter out commutes). Ignored by Strava.

Perhaps you could ask the person you’re following to make them private? 😉

If it bothers you that much just stop following them and use the route planner with heatmap for new routes, I find that better anyway.

Why do the Zwift rides appear to be done underwater ?

Are they all on pedalos ?

(had to be carefull spelling that)

If it bothers you that much just stop following them

In my case, I don’t even want to nick people’s route ideas – but I do want to keep seeing their real life rides.

On a rainy day it can sometimes seem like it’s 3:1, virtual to real rides.

I use this

https://thomaschampagne.github.io/elevate/#/landing

It’s an extension for chrome. Don’t think anything works on the app. This one has loads of add on functions I find useful as well.

The underwater thing in Zwift are tunnels in the sea. The Volcano is also not on the map which makes it look like you’re in the drink as well.

I kind of like the rides where all you’re seeing is the GPS drift of someone’s Garmin squiggling around their garage.

It is annoying that other people have to see my commutes, virtual rides, and concept2 sessions. And not just see but be posted with a big map or picture to fill the feed.

I stopped subscribing to strava a while ago, basically because of their ignorance to the requests to sort this out.

if you are using chrome then “sauce for strava” or “stravini” extensions will allow this

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sauce-for-strava/eigiefcapdcdmncdghkeahgfmnobigha

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stravini/ilogdlddgndehmpabkafohhfapaopgkd

Nice one, that does the trick. I used to use strava toolkit but it stopped working a while ago.

Strava will always show virtual rides in your feed unless the person who did the ride makes it private. If you look at a virtual ride in your feed it will have a tag of ‘Virtual’ as well as one saying ‘Zwift’ or whatever programme the rider used. This Strava classes as advertising so the company who supply the programme have to pay a (tiny) fee for every ride posted. Being able to advertise your programme as directly linking to Strava is good business sense as it attracts more riders so the companies are happy to be associated with Strava in this way. If a rider has all their real world rides on Strava then they will naturally want their virtual training rides on there too.

I know it annoys some people that follow me so all my virtual rides, commutes and gym exercises are marked private unless it was a group activity.

It is annoying that other people have to see my commutes, virtual rides, and concept2 sessions. And not just see but be posted with a big map or picture to fill the feed.

This is easy enough to sort, I defaulted all my rides to private and only made them public if I wanted to share for whatever reason.

I had to change this though as Strava seems to make a complete hash of new results and segments if your ride uploads as private first, so now I default to public and make the ‘boring’ rides private, if I remember, which I rarely do…

It’s been something that people have requested for years (as well as the ability to filter out commutes). Ignored by Strava.

That applies to absolutely any functionality Strava users want.

My guess is that Strava are beholden to Zwift in some way, so won’t create this basic bit of functionality for commercial reasons.

That does come across a bit hysterical.

That does come across a bit hysterical.

It wasn’t supposed to.

I work in digital product development myself, on an app in the health & fitness sphere actually. So I understand that if Strava won’t create the functionality that a lot of users would like them to, there’s likely a commercial reason for it.

**** knows why you can’t differentiate MTB from road or mark a ride as “uplift” yet though.

That applies to absolutely any functionality Strava users want.

This is certainly true. They don’t respond to tickets raised and just ignore requests to fix pretty basic things.

This is the reason I cancelled my Premium membership.

So I understand that if Strava won’t create the functionality that a lot of users would like them to, there’s likely a commercial reason for it.

There’s definitely a “We Know Best” attitude at Strava. My virtual rides (except for races) are set to private by default so that my friends don’t see how crap I am when required to produce consistent power.

I think Strava should automatically make every route under 10miles/15k private unless you change it to ‘let everyone see’. I only upload races to Strava from Zwift, but the amount of people who upload the daft 5k warmup before an event annoys me.

if Strava won’t create the functionality that a lot of users would like them to, there’s likely a commercial reason for it.

Because like virtually every modern corporate entity the management structure is all about the next quarters results. If they can get away without investing in development to keep the next meetings PowerPoint presentation looking good, then that is what they will do. No long term thinking about keeping existing users happy by giving them some of what they want.

I’m usually prepared to put up with virtual rides filling my feed for the sake of their real world efforts, but this thread has reminded me that there are a couple of smug bastards who spend all winter in their “pain cave” and mock those of us who are out getting cold wet and muddy.

I need to unfollow those guys. And then I won’t have to see just how much an indoor winter has improved their speed and power when they come out of hibernation in May.

It does get a bit tiring to be honest , A 20 mile ride through Richmond on Zwift or a cheeky 20 miler on Watopia Isnt the same as heading out in the wind and rain hence why its so popular . I had Zwift for a year and really enjoyed it to be honest , Its just I didn’t have a garage and my living room smelt a bit ripe for a few hours after a race.
If I want to noise one of my best mates up I normally just post ‘Nae real miles though’ to which I normally get ‘Better than freewheelin for 3miles though’ to whci refers to a 16 miles Innerleithen ride.
When I had a Zwift I had a fairly cheap tacx Flow , my mate just bought a top of the range Wahoo and is moaning that it now simulates 29 degree hills and he cant handle It. 😀

Why do the Zwift rides appear to be done underwater ?

Are they all on pedalos ?

(had to be carefull spelling that)

It’s because strava requires a route to have an actual GPS log so with Zwift since it’s virtual, they use a remote island in the south pacific that the first world was very very loosely based off (I think) so it doesn’t clash with any actual real world cycling routes.

If a rider has all their real world rides on Strava then they will naturally want their virtual training rides on there too.

I don’t, and certainly with Sufferfest only uploaded the data to Garmin, and not to Strava.

Quit Strava or stop following roadies or any fair weather rider that lives in a wet country so is likely to be in the garage all the time 😄

Covid seems to have brought out a lot more, even though there’s a huge increase of people riding outside. Maybe it’s all those who are self isolating.

Seems a good time to share this again…
https://www.bikeradar.com/features/why-you-should-try-outdoor-cycling/