Strava KOM’s - Etiquette of flagging rides

Don’t think there’s a way to do that. You can now go here through the Maps portion of the app but it doesn’t really do what you want, however still useful to know where to go for stuff

I’ve always gone for them organically. I’ll see segments popping up on my regular rides and then decide to go for one or two on a subsequent ride. The closer they are to my house and the more they appear on my regular rides the more territorial I am about segments.

I saw a friend get a KOM just behind my house. I didn’t even know the segment was there because it was in my privacy zone so I changed that and then went for it.

I was 3 seconds under my friend. I know I could get it if I want it. I’m just trying to decide whether to let him keep it for now. :slight_smile:

yes, one reason to use Veloviewer:

Oh I had never really played with that before, interesting, thanks.

I had never heard of that before. Looks cool! Does it require Strava Premium?

I’ve never heard of this before, but there goes my evening.

Thank you

Yes, Strava changed policies and now you need Premium for Veloviewer to fully work.

I only noticed joint KoMs showing on my account in June :man_shrugging:

So a buddy just nabbed a hotly contested KOM….but he was drafting off an eBike. He was also busting his nut and said it was the hardest segment he had ever done.

I told him I considered flagging it, but since he was actually pedaling and killing himself, I’d let it go. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

(And for more context, he is one of the strongest guys in the area and the KOM is littered with group ride efforts. No one is getting it solo….ever).

It’s kind of wrong to go for KOMs that way though not much different if he had been drafting a pack of riders.

At least in a group he would have to out sprint the other riders to get the top spot.

The other riders may not have sprinted, or even known the segment was there, or even cared. Sounds legit to me

he wasn’t “going after” the KOM…he was going up ahead with the other person to block a dangerous intersection so the group doesn’t have to stop of slow down on a very fast stretch of road…we do that every week.

And you absolutely don’t need to sprint other riders to get the top spot…at least not if you plan correctly.

Your description sounded like he was out riding around with e-bike friend nabbing KOMs.

Not that I care either way but what if he had drafted a car and got a KOM - legit?

If it’s on a bike that doesn’t have a motor it’s legit. Everything else is fair game as long as it’s safe, and “safe” is a pretty grey area. KOMs are mostly a bit of fun, can’t take them too seriously.

I think drafting off a car or truck is a different issue…but no doubt it quickly becomes a grey area. Even murkier would be drafting off a scooter, which can achieve similar speeds to an eBike, but is completely mechanical.

At least the person on the eBike was also working, not just twisting a throttle.

As noted in my first post, this guy is one of the strongest guys in the whole area…and I think that matters, as well. If it was some guy who regularly gets dropped on group rides, etc then it is a different situation, IMO.

Totally agree.
But maybe there’s a bit of a spectrum of KOMs? Personally I would feel different about a solo kom than one where I set out with a buddy on an ebike to try to win one. Or happened upon a vehicle going just the right speed for me to kill myself hanging on to their draft and win is in the middle of those a bit?
Kom is kom but I’m going after them for my ego for sure… and deep down I know the difference between me beating others and me gaming a system.

Its very rare to find a KOM these days that wasn’t set by a pro or led out, in draft or crazy tailwind except lol, those that involve getting up at 3am when theres no pedestrian or vehicle traffic and take a spurious routes :joy:

There’s a group around me that intentionally goes out to snag KOMs. Just another way to maintain speed easier than doing a solo effort for 5-10 miles, IMO. The end of the day it’s Strava and not an actual race, to me it’s more for egos and kudos.

It’s really what you want to make of it. I use wind to my advantage like everyone else so if it’s moving east, I won’t be trying for any westward facing KOMs, but some guys purposely plan around strong winds and wait for a 15mph+ tailwind to go for something. Or they drive to a spot to session a road segment instead of riding there from home, or a combo of the above. The hunts I’ve done this year tend to be around 5mph wind, one day was 9. Some guys hide their weather data but I can see which way the wind is blowing based on which direction their efforts were lol

I’m currently 1 second off a flat KOM which has a 4 way first place tie and the entire top 10 was set on a group ride back in 2015. I think it’s pretty awesome that I got within 1 second of a group effort on my own, and for me that’s something to be happy about, and a carrot to reach for.

I also think some KOMs are unattainable, there’s some really fast times especially up climbs from before 2015 when recording was mostly done on phones and GPS errors were the norm. I regularly see times that are far ahead of the competition and they all share the same GPS speed spikes

Compared to using sensors and a wahoo etc

This is just a fact of life and not flag worthy, IMO

If I see weird GPS speed spikes or tracking errors, I flag it.