Cheaters on Strava..

TheBlaaMan · 04-03-2013 09:55AM

detones wrote: »

They usually pass a few times there. Would not have thought those lads would be using Strava in a race.

Oh, but they do.......

The Ras went up Brown Mountain in Co Kilkenny on 28 May 2011 and no-one has subsequently got within a minute of the times set that day............take a look at the top 7 times and then 'everyone else', here http://app.strava.com/activities/42781945#720062408

Wishbone Ash · 04-03-2013 10:26AM

Zyzz wrote:

I fully understand that, but then again there are definitely people out there who are doing it on purpose

But if someone was cheating on purpose I doubt they'd draw attention to it by posting a ridiculously fast time. You can also check the rest of their ride to see what sort of speed they are averaging.

What puzzles me is that those who accidently leave their Garmin running while the bike is on the car don't remove the ride after uploading it especially when they see a KOM.

Beasty · 04-03-2013 10:40AM

An alternative to deleting a ride is to simply crop it, but I suspect a lot of people don't even realise they can do this

seamus · 04-03-2013 10:45AM

Yeah, I only found the crop function last week. Also handy for chopping off the very end of the ride where you turn into work/home, etc. The privacy filter goes out quite far and eats into one of my segments.

I don't think many people (if anyone) goes out of their way to claim a KOM in the car. If nothing else, a quick look at their stats will usually reveal whether they're taking the piss. I'd say the vast majority are simple error, and you look at the ride and see that they went up the M50 at 100km/h.

nilhg · 04-03-2013 10:50AM

Had a strange one recently, there was a little hill climb segment not too far from here which because it was lightly used looked gettable for me, so one morning when I was out over that way for a spin with my daughter I gave it full gas over the top of the hill then eased off and waited for her, went home, uploaded the spin and happy days I had got my KOM.

A few of the hardy boys round here noticed and were slagging me about heading over there and taking it off me so I wasn't too surprised when I got the OOopps email a while ago to say that it was gone. Checked strava later on to see who had taken it and was surprised to see no new spins but that yes I was no longer KOM. Couldn't figure out what was happening till I noticed that the segment was gone from .6KM to 1.2KM, I have to be careful here but it seems that the segment was edited to lengthen it just past the point where I stopped to wait for Emma.......

I know it was easy to make a new one to the top of the hill but I just thought it was silly what had happened.

My pal Gav took both of them a day or so later anyway;)

Raam · 04-03-2013 11:30AM

Beasty wrote: »

As the top 10 times were set the day the Ras came into town last year you can probably assume there was some drafting going on. The first non-Ras time was set by a Boardsie

That was done in a race too, well a hill climb TT. :pac:

petethedrummer · 04-03-2013 12:41PM

I've heard that a lad I used to work with used to set strava times in his car to wind up the cyclists. It was a large multinational in a large industrial park with a sprint segment set up between two roundabouts. There was an unspoken sprint war between cyclists who hardly knew each other. He used to edge it up faster in his car for the laugh.

dedocdude · 04-03-2013 01:46PM

petethedrummer wrote: »

I've heard that a lad I used to work with used to set strava times in his car to wind up the cyclists.

that to me is what Strava is about - honestly not trying to wind lads up here but it should only be a bit of a laugh, dont plan you rides around going to beat a 600m time up a hill. If you cant beat the times - then just try and beat your times - like its aways been, testing yourself on a particular hill or stretch of road to see how u are going.

I dont use Strava by the way, just my opinion of it.

buffalo · 04-03-2013 01:51PM

dedocdude wrote: »

that to me is what Strava is about - honestly not trying to wind lads up here but it should only be a bit of a laugh, dont plan you rides around going to beat a 600m time up a hill. If you cant beat the times - then just try and beat your times - like its aways been, testing yourself on a particular hill or stretch of road to see how u are going.

I dont use Strava by the way, just my opinion of it.

Whaaaat? Screw that, Strava is exactly for beating other lads. I'm still awaiting the right wind to retake my Howth KOM from Raam, and another from Mr Grieves... that time will come gentlemen, I will have my crown again! muahahahaa!

amjon. · 04-03-2013 01:58PM

I use Strava the odd time. Noticed that one of my rides last summer where I got a few KOM's is not showing up on the leader board. When I go onto the segment on the ride it says 10 minutes for the climb is my time but my best time is down as a slower ride of 11 minutes?

seamus · 04-03-2013 02:04PM

amjon. wrote: »

I use Strava the odd time. Noticed that one of my rides last summer where I got a few KOM's is not showing up on the leader board. When I go onto the segment on the ride it says 10 minutes for the climb is my time but my best time is down as a slower ride of 11 minutes?

Yeah, it can do weird stuff. You should also check that you haven't flagged the ride as private.
Have a look at the "total time" for your ten minute one. This is where I get caught all the time. I have my commute set up as a private segment, and this morning got a moving time PR by 45 seconds or so, but when I looked at the total time (damn traffic lights), it was only third.

Also had a hill climb that I hammered up while leading a newbie ride and then stopped at the top to wait. I stopped about 10m short of the end of the segment, so the climb itself was about 90 seconds but came up as 4 minutes on Strava. D'oh.

dedocdude · 04-03-2013 02:22PM

buffalo wrote: »

Whaaaat? Screw that, Strava is exactly for beating other lads. I'm still awaiting the right wind to retake my Howth KOM from Raam, and another from Mr Grieves... that time will come gentlemen, I will have my crown again! muahahahaa!

ok, well best of luck with it so - its not for everyone i guess. i dont have a playstation either!

I guess dont get hung up on the cheaters - the sport is full of cheaters we know this - dont presume the lads that went up the hills in the Ras were not cheating either -

Wishbone Ash · 04-03-2013 02:23PM

seamus wrote: »

I stopped about 10m short of the end of the segment, so the climb itself was about 90 seconds but came up as 4 minutes on Strava. D'oh.

That often happens me on long rides in unchartered waters. I'll stop for a break for 10 minutes or so and discover later that I was in a segment!

I have some woeful placings on a few segments in London as I got a puncture (on a rental) and had to walk for miles looking for a bike shop which would fix it on the spot (most wouldn't). I left the Garmin running and must have crossed dozens of segments while walking. On one I'm in 2,600th place! :eek:

seamus · 04-03-2013 02:28PM

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I have some woeful placings on a few segments in London as I got a puncture (on a rental) and had to walk for miles looking for a bike shop which would fix it on the spot (most wouldn't). I left the Garmin running and must have crossed dozens of segments while walking. On one I'm in 2,600th place! :eek:

Set your garmin to auto-pause when travelling less than 7km/h. Problem solved

petethedrummer · 04-03-2013 02:53PM

buffalo wrote: »

Whaaaat? Screw that, Strava is exactly for beating other lads.

If I had strava this is exactly what I'd be doing. I'd be out on the Chapelizod Road on a track bike in a skin suit waiting for an easterly wind. So for my own safety I don't partake.

doozerie · 04-03-2013 03:07PM

Remember too that not everyone on Strava is "competing". There are a couple of segments where I noticed recently that I am placed ahead of Ryan Sherlock. Either myself, and those above me on the leaderboard, are truly impressive riders (in fairness, some of them might be, but I'm certainly not), or Ryan Sherlock rode those segments during a very casua ride, and probably while pedaling with only one leg.

So you might well bust a gut to move up a leaderboard (I'm guilty of this too, I'm a shallow person) against people who are not even trying. Taking it seriously is a recipe for disappointment really. Having said that I don't like seeing people top leaderboards with farcical times either, they are taking it too seriously too if they feel the need to do that, but I tend to agree with the views above that this most often happens by accident rather than design.

CramCycle · 04-03-2013 03:19PM

I got 3 KOMs around Stepaside the other day, just nudged into 1st place by about a second or two or a km/hr faster. I looked at the route and realised I had not turned off my Garmin when I bumped into the wife, who then gave me a lift home.

Ride cropped. KOMs lost.

dub_skav · 04-03-2013 03:36PM

CramCycle wrote: »

I got 3 KOMs around Stepaside the other day, just nudged into 1st place by about a second or two or a km/hr faster. I looked at the route and realised I had not turned off my Garmin when I bumped into the wife, who then gave me a lift home.

Ride cropped. KOMs lost.

I thought you were going to say you bumped into the wife - who paced you over the top.

buffalo · 04-03-2013 03:36PM

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

That often happens me on long rides in unchartered waters. I'll stop for a break for 10 minutes or so and discover later that I was in a segment!

I have some woeful placings on a few segments in London as I got a puncture (on a rental) and had to walk for miles looking for a bike shop which would fix it on the spot (most wouldn't). I left the Garmin running and must have crossed dozens of segments while walking. On one I'm in 2,600th place! :eek:

I had a time of 1hr 45mins on a segment where everyone else had <2mins. Stopped into my Granny for a cup of tea. Garmin was on auto-pause, but that's what happened. I've since corrected it, by getting the KOM.

Tar.Aldarion · 04-03-2013 03:38PM

Pretty sad to do that but all you can do is report it. I'm not bothered, I'm quite slow and try to beat myself, I'm destroying tar from last week :pac: but I can see why it is very annoying.

doozerie · 04-03-2013 04:08PM

buffalo wrote:

I had a time of 1hr 45mins on a segment where everyone else had <2mins. Stopped into my Granny for a cup of tea. Garmin was on auto-pause, but that's what happened. I've since corrected it, by getting the KOM.

So what actually happened is that you dropped into your Granny and you subsequently rode a 2min climb in 1hr 45mins? Was your tea laced with cake and deep-fried Mars Bars?

…oh, and if your Granny's house is made of gingerbread, and you have a sister called Gretel, then I'd stay well away from all open ovens if I were you.

buffalo · 04-03-2013 04:22PM

doozerie wrote: »

So what actually happened is that you dropped into your Granny and you subsequently rode a 2min climb in 1hr 45mins? Was your tea laced with cake and deep-fried Mars Bars?

…oh, and if your Granny's house is made of gingerbread, and you have a sister called Gretel, then I'd stay well away from all open ovens if I were you.

My Granny's house is approximately halfway along the segment. And my auntie who lives there as well gives me lots of fairy cakes, which probably doesn't help either. Rarely gingerbread though.

Wishbone Ash · 04-03-2013 04:52PM

Is it possible to re-name a segment created by someone else?

One of my city centre KOM's is grossly mis-named - totally wrong street name and it's described as a "climb" when it relatively flat!

buffalo · 04-03-2013 05:22PM

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Is it possible to re-name a segment created by someone else?

One of my city centre KOM's is grossly mis-named - totally wrong street name and it's described as a "climb" when it relatively flat!

You could always report it and re-create it.

I often think there should be a poll on each segment for name, length, and whether it should be rejected as hazardous/superfluous. There's one on Howth called "first climb" or something, which is obviously not a great name.

doozerie · 04-03-2013 06:03PM

When looking at a couple of rides on Strava yesterday I noticed at least 3 segments named "R755 Rd Climb". The R755 is a long road and all three segments were in different places. What's more I think that one of them was not even on the R755 at all but on a road parallel to it! Even more weirdly, even though I'd ridden along them all, only one of the segments showed up in my ride. At that point I stopped trying to decipher it all, and just wept openly.

Raam · 04-03-2013 06:05PM

I think Strava went through a phase of automatically creating "climbs" based on gps data loaded.

buffalo · 04-03-2013 06:07PM

doozerie wrote: »

When looking at a couple of rides on Strava yesterday I noticed at least 3 segments named "R755 Rd Climb". The R755 is a long road and all three segments were in different places. What's more I think that one of them was not even on the R755 at all but on a road parallel to it! Even more weirdly, even though I'd ridden along them all, only one of the segments showed up in my ride. At that point I stopped trying to decipher it all, and just wept openly.

I noticed that segment, and bookmarked it for future KOM-ing.

Wishbone Ash · 04-03-2013 07:06PM

buffalo wrote: »

You could always report it and re-create it

I suppose I could but I don't even like it and couldn't be arsed!

Another thing cropping up is those who create what seems like standard named segments between one town and another for example, but then have a diversion within it or begin it on an obscure side road presumably to reduce eligible traffic on the segment.

rab!dmonkey · 06-03-2013 07:46AM

Strava will automatically create a segment the first time someone rides a categorised climb. Problems arise when patchy elevation data tells of climbs when there aren't any (see: any and all cat 4 climbs in Dublin city). You can always hide segments that don't make any sense: just click the 'Hide' button on the far right of the row of the segment under the graph on a ride page. The button is aptly hidden until you hover your mouse over it. This has a voting function too. If enough people hide a given segment, it will be hidden by default for other users - expelled to the 'Hidden Segments' at the bottom of the list of segments. Conversely, by unhiding worthwhile segments which were hidden by default, they will be exposed to more riders.

dario28 · 06-03-2013 10:38AM

From what I have seen around my area unless its a windy day in the right direction most KOM's are out of reach now -

Would be nice to somehow intergrate wind speed and direction to make results more realistic

Cheaters on Strava..

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