Not giving yourself credit MG, you’ve still got this one

Ooh.. 🙂

I set that as a personal training loop to be an approximation to an XC race course. Probably should’ve been private, but I’m impressed you didn’t whip my arse.

Was a while ago I did that time though!

I’ve had 2 in my time.

One was near Doncaster, where I got a KOM doing 125 mph.

The other was in France this year where my speed was recorded from what I can remember at about 485mph.

😀

Edit:

Just checked that Strava thing, and they have taken them off me 🙁

Ive got 57 all on my spesh enduro and it seriously knarks off some of the local CXers 😉

and it seriously knarks off some of the local CXers

are you sure? have you asked them?

And hilarious 2 days later when the previous owner goes out to reclaim his KOM on a segment with <10 riders.

I recently went out to reclaim one of my KOMS the day after while the wind was still in the same direction. I ripped I tell you and for sure was utterly certain with 100% I’d regained it. Unfortunately not.
It’s not funny, very serious. Now Spring is almost past it’s too overgrown so will unlikely be able to regain that one for a while.

Recently lot my other KOM, on a segment which now has 3 riders.

I only have KOMS because where I live is a bit shit for MTBing and it’s rare anyone else can be asssed.

Yeah coz they go straight back out to get them back !

Abroad is a fertile hunting ground for KOMs. In a lot of countries many MTB communities don’t use it at all. Hardly any in Sweden IIRC.

I created a segment from the cliff tops down the ramp to a sandy beach and back up again, mainly as a memory aid. Not bothered about attaining KOM on that.

There’s a slight question about measurement implement, some seem to be less reliable than others, so on short segments it can throw up weird results

I’m going to set a segment in my garden, ha! I don’t think I have any top 20s, I’m firmly mid table

I have the KOM around my field. Just to be safe from any cheeky attempts I had it ploughed shortly after.

I set that as a personal training loop to be an approximation to an XC race course.

Can’t yet make it up the first climb on that loop. Think your KOM is safe.

Yeah that one is tricky to clean, greasy and polished, but I’ve been doing that since I came to Cardiff in 1994 so I’ve a bit of practice. It’s much easier now there’s a line to the right of the rocky step though.

I like hearing about the OPs experience of strava. It’s nice to go out for a ride where you’re giving it some effort and come home and find out the effort made you go fast.

It makes me wonder a bit about the mentality of someone who will go out specifically for a segment in the hope of a KOM (particularly folk who go out in full TT kit for the purpose). Does anyone really care who the fastest person from the bins to the bus stop is?

dunno, stevious. Different levels of the same thing.

If you come back from a standard loop in the woods and you find you pegged a top 10 time on a section where you weren’t really trying, you’d be tempted, next time you were out, to have a go at getting the best time possible on that bit. Bit different on a mtb, as there’s a different level of genuine fun and enjoyment from pinning it on a DH, getting everything right, or cleaning a technical climb that you haven’t before. That comes before you get the “results”.

Maybe it’s similar on a road bike, uphill and down, measuring your effort. I dunno. There’s always satisfaction in knowing you did something the best. Doesn’t matter if it’s the best you’ve done, or the best anyone (on Strava) has done, but the closer you are to the latter, top 5, top 3, the more likely it is that the two could be the same.

jam bo – Member

http://labs.strava.com/achievement-map/

KoM map.

Didn’t know you could do that – cheers.

Never knew I had a KOM at Bike Park Wales!!!

Shame it’s on the climb.

Does anyone really care who the fastest person from the bins to the bus stop is?

Me, sort of. It’s fun. If that all a person did on their bike, then it might be a bit weird, but if you want to practice TTing on a section and measure your success by the result you get against other people, then I say ‘fill your boots’.

I was KOM on a fairly well used segment I created round my local woods for a long time. About 2 years later I noticed a couple of guys would keep hammering the loop almost every other day to gain it. Never saw the point of that myself, it’s a really flowing smooth single track but, if hammered hard, it’s a lung bursting final push.

Cue virtual high fives and back slapping when one of them managed to beat me by a few seconds. Don’t think they’ve come close since.

I’m still second or third and I reckon I could easily take it back (now the fallen tree has been removed) but I don’t see the point. It’s not that much fun then.

This is why I use Map My Ride. I feel good about myself being King of a small Kingdom. I don’t need the stress.

I have my rides set to upload automatically from the Garmin and then on to Strava. For some reason I was looking at a 135k ride I did in Snowdonia a couple of weeks back. Strava had about 120 segments, Garmin Connect had …. wait for it…. NONE! 2 of the hills were 100 Climbs ones. (Pen-y Pass and Prenteg)

Never saw the point of that myself

It’s an arbitrary target, just a fun way to train that’s all. I’ve come close to a coronary trying to get a KOM on my local tricky climb and it’s great training. I won’t gloat even internally over the guy I beat finally, because he has no idea who I am and was probably just on a normal ride. I set the segment specifically to track my own progress on it.

Does anyone really care who the fastest person from the bins to the bus stop is?

The only person I care about beating is the idiot I see in the mirror every morning 😛

At my age Strava is as much a means of recording your decline as anything else. 😳

I had one of my few KOMs taken off me last week by 20 seconds over a 21 minute climb (third place is five minutes back), the segment is quite a way from home and I’ve only done it twice and might not do it again for a year or two.

You know you can filter Strava segment results to see just members of the STW group?

Interesting for popular riding spots, though obviously I rule with an iron fist on most of my local trails.

😉

You should all clearly be female, I have 98 QOMs! I get very pissy when people steal them back off me, especially when their GPSes flag it wrongly and they haven’t even ridden the segments.

I like that Strava labs achievement map. I have a KOM on a segment with 8646 athletes, 17496 attempts! Happy happy happy, joy joy joy

My only one at the moment is about 17 seconds long, and mysteriously most of the riders who ride the other segments on that section don’t seem to appear on it.

Seems kosher!

EDIT: Found another one. That’s on some cheeky so everyone else was clearly being responsible.

i’ve found if you stand up and peddle hell for leather then top 10 is doable,
you’ll then find if you look at the majority of KOMs they havent just put effort in on that one section but they’ve smashed numerous on their way..

one of our local KOMs got the majority of his KOMs on the local 30 mile bike challenge.

Oh, didn’t think of cheeky KOM pot hunting! Good idea! 😉

I like the graph of your previous efforts over time – since my fitness goes up and down so much. However I can only find it half the time on the website. Does it only show sometimes or what?

You can count them? Where?

I’m proud of a few of my QOMs (steep technical uphills) especially where I’m top 10 overall. And I’ve got a few local downhill(ish) ones but only because I’ve ridden them in super dry buff conditions where I can really go for it.

But I was probably pleasedest about getting onto the same leader board as Joanna Rowsell once and briefly the top 20 of Cragg Vale. Like my (fake) name there, next to all the pros! Training works…

Of the handful KOMs I have, two of them I’m pretty happy about, the first is a commonly used segment locally which just had a really good day on and the latter is a downhill segment where 3 or 4 of the top 10 are pros in a race. Okay, I know the road well but there was no chance of a head-on collision for the pro riders so I reckon it balances out.

When I first moved to Luxembourg, strava wasn’t used much here so I had a lot of KOMs after the first few months. The following summer two pro races rolled through and smashed most of them. I remember one Saturday when I had about 20 notifications in one afternoon that someone had taken them off me.

Can’t yet make it up the first climb on that loop. Think your KOM is safe.

As MG saes there is a line around the step, but much of the climb is so cobbly cleaning it in the wet is a real achievement. I found the final climb from Castle Coch to the fireroad the hardest part of that loop. Your bound to have tired legs by then if you’ve been going for it and the last bit is SOOOOO steep 👿

😈

molgrips – Member
Went out for a 2 hour spin on the road last night, gave it a moderate amount of beans, and got some top ten overalls.. ON CLIMBS! On segments with a few hundred riders!

Tad of an exageration … 136 is not hundreds!

Strava sees everything …

Just counted mine, 13 KOMs but only seven with a decent field of competition if I’m honest.

Best is out of 334 people.

No KOMs but have got 7 running CRs. “Best” is a 200m effort at a running track, 1/198. Given I was only 2s off the 200m world record I suspect GPS error may be playing a part 😆

Taxi25 – given the size of the loop the head-to-head comparison is quite interesting. You lose time on the really steep bits, but gain on the steadier climbs and almost pull it all back on the rocky gulley. What bike were you on?

136 is not hundreds!

It’s more than A hundred 🙂

I don’t see the point. It’s not that much fun then.

I think in this instance the fun isn’t in how you much enjoy the ride but watching how much effort the other guys go to to win it back 🙂

Generally I just use stava to measure against myself, and for finding new trails.

Taxi25 – given the size of the loop the head-to-head comparison is quite interesting. You lose time on the really steep bits, but gain on the steadier climbs and almost pull it all back on the rocky gulley. What bike were you on?

I was on my Trek superfly 100sl. But it’s got 120mm forks and a dropper on it. Providing descents aren’t to technical or silly rough it flies downhill 😀 regarding the steeper climbs I’m a bit heavy. I can power up them pretty well, but if I want to carry on at the top at good pace I’ve got to back of a bit or I kill my legs.
I’ll have another go on that loop when everythings dry again but I’m not expecting to kill your time it’s pretty good.

Slightly different sort of unexpected. I did what I thought was a relaxed 30km round Mugdock in Glasgow, however according to Strava I had been doing somewhere north of 400mph and had mad it most of the way to Iceland at an altitude of 10,000m. I was barely out of breath.

I know you are older than me taxi25.. that steep bit by the castle is pure brute strength rather than proper climbing fitness, I wonder if that has something to do with it too.

I will have a crack at it too, but I am not even sure I could match that now. Do you fancy a head-to-head? (aka a ride 🙂 )

Strava is best used as a measure of your fitness. Getting close to, or beating last years best times, is always a good indicator of your fitness … especially when your a couple years past 40!

Getting the KOM of a popular climb is getting almost impossible with more local pro riders using strava … and just smashing the times.
I think thats why I see so many people on my strava list finding little used climbs to get a KOM … or just going for the KOM on the descent!

You’re invited too mooman, not sure if SaxonRider’s aorund for a while. In fact, anyone from Cardiff.. let’s have a ride.