FWIW - I’ve flagged a few that were obviously in error, i.e. dude had his head unit on and ‘rode’ the segment at 30 mph and even admitted in his ride comments he did it. Other stuff, like you describe, I’d just move on and and know you’re the stronger rider.
I’ve gotten Cups (not Crowns) on segments I wasn’t even riding, just merely passing by — one was a CX segment! ![]()
Strava is kind of a joke; social media w/ weak technology and definitely brings out the worst in some people.
Pro Tip #7: ignore any and all placings that don’t have a true power file =⚡️.
Have fun.
I got a cup (3rd) last night on a off road segment… haven’t targeted a segment for a longtime and didn’t do this full gas as I eased right off before the segment finished. I’ve now starred the segment for progression!
I’m the only one in the top 250 with power data. The fact its called pebble track speaks for itself… means the majority if not all are on MTB and not too many MTB with power meters around here I guess… nothing else is going to make it through there in one piece imho.
Pro tip #7 whoop whoop… I’ve got a virtual KOM
and lots more to come ![]()
Apparently it means - “the dumbest thing ever”
Sorry to take your thread unintentionally off topic. Was reacting to the HTFU response.
And yes, I would flag if inaccurate.
I tried to flag this ride but Strava immediately told me it’s been resolved… since February 2020. Not sure who this guy is, but he should be a World Tour pro with numbers like this.
Yeah… no…he hit almost 200 mph!
57mph is more than world tour numbers. But, what are you going to do? Contact Strava customer service? Ha ha, maybe they answer in 6 months.
The funny thing is that it’s a segment on a virtual platform.
What I thought was bad etiquette was when I was knocked off my bike in London in 2013. The ride in the back of an Ambulance got a few too 10s after my genuine 90mile cycle. On the phone you could not crop rides at the time. So I titled it, 90 miles then ride in a Ambulance, to be cropped on Monday when I get access to a PC. This was Saturday and some daft barsteward had flagged it in those 2 days. ![]()
Forgot to follow up on this…
I emailed Strava and after about a week they replied and basically said they don’t “police” virtual rides. While I understand why they would take that stance, when a ride is obviously BS you’d think they’d take action. I guess that would be opening a door…
I suppose you could email them back, thank them for their reply and also mention that you are cancelling your Strava subscription (even if you won’t actually cancel)…
I’m nowhere near quick enough to get any KOMs where I live; it’s a pretty popular cycling area, and some seriously quick riders - including a few pros- live nearby. About my best is c.150/c.8,000; that is on the hill to my old house (literally 50 metres over the summit) so I could flog it to the max up there knowing I could safely keel over in my own front drive.
That said, my ‘best’ Strava performance was on a day in this summer. It was towards the end of a short-ish evening ride; one of those slightly bittersweet days when you’ve only got time for a 1 hour spin and suddenly find you’ve got the best legs you’ve had in months (and it’s beautiful weather).
Anyway, on this particular day I hit a fun stretch of road. You come down a shortish hill more or less straight on to a roundabout. A left turn leads to a c.11km road before you hit the next town: long, straight-ish road, no junctions, rolling gently but trending down (loss of c.100m in the whole stretch), generally downwind. It’s a very quick bit of road.
Just as I turned off the roundabout onto the road, a farm vehicle pulled out in front of me. Initially I was irritated, but as it sped up, it suddenly occurred to me ‘can I draft that?’ and I went flat out to get behind it (as close as I thought was safe). I ended up doing about two-thirds of the distance home, until the road hit a slight rise and I missed a gear and lost the draft
) . I saw later I’d got in the top 20 all time numbers for a segment of a popular 25km TT! Strava didn’t even occur to me when i was doing it.
After some deliberation, I deleted the ride, but always wonder about it!
Personally I would have left it on there.
You don’t know what conditions other riders used to get their times. Maybe they were part of a group/peloton and used that to their advantage?
Because fast groups don’t care.
Yea drafting/motor pacing is a no no from an ethical and safety standpoint. I got into a huge argument with one guy who kept poaching my KOMs literally if I got one in the afternoon he’d be out there that night doing it over and over to try and steal it. He admitted to drafting a dump truck after I saw him exceeding speeds of 40mph on a flat, to which I flipped out on him reminding him that his 4 kids at home are more important than our measuring contest.
That’s the kind of thing that if a squirrel jumps in front of the truck and the driver slams the brakes, you’re dead.
Not quite, pretty much everyone in the local A/AX rides likes the thrill of the hunt, they just realize that hunting in a pack against a solo effort is not the right thing to do.
I suspect any KOMs or similar achieved this way will, in the main, be inadvertent. While I normally ride on my own, on the occasional times I go out with faster riders, I’m worrying about hanging onto a wheel/not disgracing myself, not Strava PRs. I’m not saying some people don’t do that, but I think (at least, I’d like to think) that’s a real minority.
EDIT: and in any case, the groups are still probably going to get beaten if the segment is flat and on a TT route. I think GCN did a vid on this, and even 3 guys (including Connor Dunne) working as a pack couldn’t beat 1 guy with the dedicated aero setup/bike. But that’s something to bear in mind as well.
Here’s a good one where a bunch of guys (I know them all, not intentional group hunting) just happened to snag the former KOM and a lot of the top 10 positions at the start of an annual group ride. It makes it easier to spot now that strava shows the date achieved
I flag ebikes, amazing how many ebikers are shameless cheaters. and motorized vehicles, for example person who doesnt ride did a climb that takes pros a couple minutes to complete did it in under a minute. Gps errors like 65 mph uphill are also flagged. Be cool if more people flagged there own rides with bad data.
It’s interesting to read everyone else’s views.
Compared to everyone else I obviously care too much about strava
.
My view is that it’s a fun platform that only works well if it is self policed by the people who use it. If someone has dodgy data or is inappropriately given a segment then flag it in order keep the segments interesting.
Sure, most segments are wind / conditions dependent but everyone knows that. If aiming for a segment motivates you, then waiting till the conditions are good is just another part of it.
I’d rather see a wind assisted strava segment than people posting 40+kph Zwift rides ![]()
RH

