The last (or chronologically the 1st) item in this blog cracks me up.
As I havent seen the power of his ride, it could have well been motorpaced for training reasons…which would make the flagging of the ride quite legit.
Being moto paced isnt a legit reason IMO unless he was on the motorbike or using a sticky bottle
He’s completely blocked me… I can’t view his profile or see his KoMs
I suppose motor pacing is easier to police but to me its no different to the 1000’s of rides where folk are drafting a private car/ truck, etc and as I’ve given up bothering about anything other than PRs a long time ago
It is definitely more organised than open road drafting but hey ho, I’m long since past caring about anything other than PRs. What does occasionally irk me and I flag rides is when I see a group of very good local riders all about the same place (within seconds) and then you see a lone KOM minutes ahead. Sure enough every time its a ride averaging circa 10mph but with a max speed of 50-80mph and a quick glance at their ride indicates it was probably a MTB ride or similar and theyve thrown the bike in the back of the car to get home. I don’t know why Strava cant flag that automatically.
Lol, I got a 4th place in London in a similar fashion. It was pre the phone cropping days and I got knocked off, so me and the bike finished in the back of an ambulance. I titled the ride “Finished in the Back of an Ambulance but to be cropped when I get back to a PC on Sunday”. This was Saturday and before I even got back someone had flagged it
A year before someone had took one of my last KOMs in Scotland in the same way, and my first instinct was to ask if they are OK, not to flag it
I think when I was knocked off that was the last time I actually bothered about the leader board and getting on it
Just got a flag from a ride in 2016. It’s a pan flat segment and the flagger is pissed that his 24.5mph over 34s can’t be the KOM. He hid the the shadows and only commented when Strava reversed the flag and prevent anyone from flagging it in the future. He’s comment wasn’t all that civil but I did edit the ride description advising the flagger to get a life after he flagged the ride a second time. I was never the one that tacking all the segments and Strava never awarded me the KOM (until after their determination). Granted the segment was a GPS error but my PDC would support the 34mph speed that Strava calculated (~630w over 34s, yes not that impressive). There’s normally a tail wind blowing so it not that hard if I actually was trying. The ride was one of a handful of morning commute I have ever done and it was to rack up mileage for May is Bike Month. I normally bring my bike on the bus in the morning and ride after work. I did refresh the activity achievement in Strava but it didn’t change anything. I’m not going to switch my ride to private unless someone else request it just to stick to the a$$.
People take this stuff way too seriously.
I just had (in June 2023) a mountain bike race from 2015 flagged. The GPS glitched and put me out on a highway for 50m. No KOMs involved, just my PB lap time on that course.
Down the street from home, there’s a ~2 mile segment that a friend took back in 2012 or so. He got it in a strong group ride, with a tail wind, and they caught 2 lucky green lights. It’s unlikely to ever get broken - too much traffic to risk either light. It’s a nice segment for training and coffee talk, but that’s it.
I did create a new segment that starts just after the mid-point traffic signal and ends 50m before the final stop light so you don’t have to sprint through the intersection to get the KOM. That one has fallen several times in the few years it’s been up.
I guess I had a better example set on my first “flag”. Technically it wasn’t a flag as the flagger commented and requested a correction but didn’t actually flag the ride. So this was technically the first flag. I guess civility is not a thing since one can hide behind anonymity.
A bike shop owner and Mr BMX - #respect he is a legit BMXer and has a pile of trophies. But now the national level is out of reach and he has an unnatural fascination with my KOMs.
Last week he asked one of my riding buddies to lead him out on a 1 mile KOM attempt because he couldn’t close the deal himself. Mr BMX did this in 2018 and 2019, getting people to lead him out and take my solo KOMs, but stopped during the pandemic.
4 days ago my buddy did the lead out for him… my buddy ended up 1 second behind my solo attempt, and Mr BMX got me by 3 seconds on a ~2 minute / 30+mph / 48kph sprint.
Perfect opportunity to talk shit, am I right? So I call his ass out because once again he can’t close the deal himself and has to enlist help:
And he freakin denies it A few years ago he was targeting my KOMs and enlisted the help of ‘my adopted son’ that told me he was doing lead outs for Kevin, so that Kevin ‘could show me’ who’s boss. Whatever dude, I’m not that strong.
His KOM case has some legit BMX stuff (under 1-min), after all this guy has a pile of trophies. And then strangely he has KOMs for much much longer 30-50 minutes efforts. So I’m thinking he is absolutely fast under a minute, but 30 minutes? Look at the leaderboard on one - 2 people. Another - 6 people.
Anyways talking shit is fun, thats what I like about local KOMs when there are no pros on the leaderboard. Saw him on Wed night ride and said “Hey Kevin” and he just grunted and dropped back. Week before he was trying to sell me on Giant bikes because he just signed up as a reseller. Yeah, I’d be embarrassed too at some lame ass KOM shenanigans.
Some buddy!
I’m thrilled that I’ve gotten about 20 KOMs. I didn’t start going for them until I was over 50. I have decent 2-3-4 minute all out power and with the right course conditions, I was able to nab a bunch.
I pretty much targeted every KOM within 5 miles of my house. They were especially more desirable if I could get it from someone in my club.
I’m 57 this year and haven’t gone for a KOM in 2 years. We last lived in Knoxville and with the national championships being hosted there frequently, every KOM in town had names on it like McNulty! (I’ve actually got a 2nd place with McNulty in 1st.)
Now, I don’t care much anymore.
I don’t chase them, they aren’t on my bike computer, but I do know where some key segments are to benchmark myself at specific durations.
Can we please get a one on one race between Kevin and WindWarrior set up pronto?!?
So he can draft me, and then out sprint me at the end? Dude has some legit BMX trophies and a hell of a 30 second kick!
Ok… No drafting. Mano-a-mano.
Here’s when he got pissed off:
MrBMX solo 369W at 2:02.
Versus mine from a month ago, when I was simply feeling out a hard repeatable power for some 2 minute full-gas efforts that were coming up on my workout calendar:
WindWarrior 357W at 1:54
So on Monday this week he gets a pull and “evens the score”
277W at 1:51 on the draft of #3
whatever. I barely hit upper tempo HR, it wasn’t even close to full gas.
Recruit a full leadout and take it by a good 10s or so. Ride title is “recovery”
“easy peasy recovery” lol. My “adopted son” is on Voler Factory racing team and did 2 hours at something like 28mph a couple months ago. But it just seems like too much effort over some stupid alpha male shit.
Haha yeah, I rarely chase koms anymore but it’s good fun when I need a break from training. Nice motivation to dig deep.
Man, some of you guys and girls get really triggered by KOMs, I thought I was bad!