Strava KOM’s - Etiquette of flagging rides

Go and do what the other rider did to take it back?

I guess I’m just picturing a dead flat, straight segment where a group can roll along at a very high rate but individuals will have no hope of competing.

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I’ve lined up on the start line for XC races next to someone who decided to ride his CX bike. And that guy finished faster than I did. Nothing wrong with taking whatever bike you have on any ride you want.

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:sweat_smile: Did you get that from my profile picture? (Same one on Strava)

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Of course its ok- that was my point (not E-bikes though :wink: )

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Some of the older/more popular segments around here are set so fast by prior windy days, groups, etc, I feel anything powered by legs goes - except the motorpacing or ebikes which is already forbidden per Strava rules. I’ve set a couple shared KOM with a riding buddy taking turns breaking the wind each mile on some longer ones.

Most of us notice a windy day and that damned segment running that way giving us a PITA pops to mind…

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Last summer I lost a group of KOMs to a guy riding around on a motorcycle. Every ride he’d go on would show dozens of KOMs with speeds of 60+mph. Those I flagged without hesitation. There are a couple of MTB KOMs that I’ve lost recently where you can see the wheel prints from people cutting through a bunch of the corners and the KOM time drops by huge margins. Given that there’s no way to actually know for sure who’s cutting the corners I don’t flag those.

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Honestly because I don’t think most people care about KOMs unless it’s a hill or maybe a popular loop that lots of riders/groups do where it becomes somewhat meaningful.

I’ve got a handful of KOMs, mostly picked up by chance doing road races. Honestly have no pride in that - my “achievement” was being in a pack of 50 people and I guess I must have been near the back at the start of the segments and near the front at the end enabling me to nab KOM by a second or 2. Big deal. I’m a lot prouder of having a top 100 time on a popular local hill which >10,000 Strava users have gone up, and where top 10 would take close to 7W/kg for 6 minutes so is completely unachievable for me unless I take some EPO and ride up it with a 30mph tailwind.

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Coming here to the TR Forum asking whether one should flag a rider for “accidental taking of the(ir) (Strava) KOM” = TDTE

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Take Dope To Excel?
To Die Takes Exercise?
Try Dancing, Then Eat?

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:rofl: It was a reply to the following from earlier in the thread:

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So asking a question about a cycling platform that 99.99% of us use on a cycling forum is TDTE?

The 90% of people who gave constructive answers I don’t consider to be TDTE.
But the two people who gave stupid answers I kind of think is TDTE.

Oh - it’s also definitely not the only Strava related thread to have ever been started here. But I’m sorry if it offended you.

Not offended. However, I apologize as it seems you are offended. You are correct that this is a cycling related forum. Furthermore, as far as I know, TR does not limit us to what we discuss here as long as we keep it civil. Again, I apologize if it seemed a personal attack.

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If anyone beats my KOMs then they must have been on a e-bike, so yeah, they’re getting flagged.

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Strava KOMs are a great motivator - if someone “cheats” it kind of removes some of that motivation. So yeah, flag em.

That said - I wouldn’t flag the ride mentioned in the OPs thread as it is Strava’s problem not the rider’s.

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What if the other guy who took the KOM didn’t knowingly cheat?

What if flagging him turned out to be a crushing blow for him, much like it is for the OP?

People take Strava far too seriously. As a platform it’s hugely overrated and the [KQ]oM tables are relatively easy to game. A rider locally to me rides with multiple GPS sources and uploads the one with the quickest times - when you’re gaming the GPS resolution you know you need to readdress your life priorities.

My take on the issue: If you compare the efforts and the other rider would have easily beaten you if they’d continued then it’s fair enough - if not, and it bothers you, flag it.

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Oh my goodness! That escalated? :flushed:

I guess one thing to bear in mind when posting on any forum is that there is always going to be differing points of view.

Anyone who posts a question, and expects everyone to give them the answer they wanted to hear, maybe is living in a parallel universe.

The OP wanted opinions and he got opinions. He may not have liked all of them, but hopefully all the opinions gave him food for thought.

Now I need to search and try to figure out how to unfollow topics so I can stop reading about KOM’s and get back to reading about useful stuff like training.

:v:t2:

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Click the tracking below :slight_smile:

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TDTE? I’m not up on the vernacular.