Here's the thing with the wind- I live in a place where the wind blows pretty constantly. In the summer, it's anywhere between 10mph, and 45mph gusts.....So, in a sense, it's simply playing the course, which IS a skillset. I can promise that MOST of the KOMs around here ARE wind-assisted. The days without significant wind are probably less than 20 a year. Where I grew up, it was even worse- flat and windy. Which requires certain skills to race as you know echelons and gutterballing.
I would also argue the same, and the fact that sometimes a tailwind section is not obtainable for some people due to their physiology, as in they may not be capable of being able to have the leg speed or something similar. I often chase short flat segments with strong tailwinds because that's about all I am goood at, it's my only genetic gift! Certainly not a gifted climber, so why should they get all the glory? 😆
Yep how can he say it's not a fair fight - when everyone has free access to the same conditions. I finally took a KOM that the previous rider freely admitted was on a windy day. And when I took it I averaged over 180bpm for 9 minutes, so I was indeed proud of my performance. Nobody else in the top 10 went that hard.
@@scottwebsdale Believe it or not we have races out here where the tailwind section may well determine the race. Group will stay together in the 25-30mph headwind section, turn around and suddenly the split is made with high heart rates and high legspeed. Been that way since the late 80s.
Wind-doping is definitely a thing. I haven't done Strava in years, but when I did it was kind of fun to check the weather patterns for wind direction, and then pick a segment where there would be a good climb with a tailwind. Which then produced some good numbers. But after awhile it was more silly than fun and I quit worrying about the numbers like that. It was motivation to put some more miles in for awhile, but not that big of a deal.
Or the people who have 300,000 hours for an activity challenge that has a 20 day window. For those who don’t care about doing math 300,000 hours is 12,500 days or 34 (rounded) years. I don’t get how that happens, they must have really good cheating methods.
I love this fun format. Please keep it coming. Strava segment wars are a geeky fun competition. There are some segments in my area that go to the person who had the biggest tailwind. Solo, 33mph for many miles, will put a huge grin on your face when you're finished. Please keep Judge Phil in the rotation. Way better than Judge Judy.
They could, with very simple code. Especially where there is hear rate (or power) data. Sure, they were trundling along at 20kph and now they're doing 50kph up sustained gradients at resting heart rate? Come on Strava! They could automatically flag rides that show sustained highway speeds on the flat or up hills. Or rides where the average speed suddenly ramps up 2-3x faster. And they could automatically detect e-bikes, because the activity shows world-champion speeds up very steep hills, and granny-level speeds down the descent (due to legal speed limiting). Come in Strava!
Hell yes. I have a friend whose twin is really competitive. They both love cycling but my mate is quite relaxed but his brother is as intense as any racer can be. Whenever his brother does a good Strava section my mate goes out on his moped and does the section a fraction faster than his brother. His brother trains like fury, wound up by being beaten. Eventually he regains the lead on the Strava section only to see my mate beat him again by a few seconds. This has gone on for years. I don’t think my mate’s brother has realised the improvement on his racing is down to this rather suspect approach to Strava chasing.
Dude I love Judge Phil! I feel an every so often series coming on and that's a good thing. And by the way, be nice to us tri-geeks because we watch you! 🙂
I got a KOM from a pal with a tailwind, it wasn't planned just happened - and it took ages for him to get it back as it's rare the wind blows from that direction here. But then he got it back using his Aero road bike, on a gravel descent - now that's proper CHEATING 🙂
Strava is great for tracking fitness. If folks on Strava are bugging you with KOM and Segment behaviors - just stop looking at them and race against yourself. Social media seems as much a curse as it is a blessing.
Strava KOM's kinda were dead to me once I saw a guy take all my local ones in one ride and then named the Ride "Trying out an E-bike".... like really we can't filter that one out when the guy suddenly goes twice his normal speed for one ride. I was going to report it but sure someone else already did and yet it's still up there.
I once considered doing that but naming my ride: Buy My Book! It would have been guerrilla marketing, and I would have been universally hated, so I decided against it. But feel free to use this idea if you have something to sell.
I think, clearly, that anyone who cares about Strava , let alone enough to cheat for a Strava position, should visit Phil's sponsor BetterHelp to work through their personal issues. Like, for real. That's just sad.
The whole KOM thing has become more of a collection of weather data. We can see on what date the wind was strongest at any point on the map. Since the second year of Strava’s existence, any KOM Ive snagged has been accidental/unintentional on days of gale force winds.
Anyone could go ride his bike that day, but they didn't. Fair win in my book. I've gone out with storms to get kom's. I can tell you, it's still not that easy with unpredictable side gusts. Some near death experiences to get kom's makes it a fair achievement xD
@@YannickLB So it’s more of a competition to see who can get the time off work on a day when the winds are up? That seems like it gets away from the original intent of racing.
@@JamieSmith-fz2mz Well.. I only work evenings and/or mornings.. Should I change that to make it fair for others? It's not a race or anything. It's just a fun competitive option in an app.
I can promise you, every KOM I have was earned. There is at least one I can say was winded influenced, but that was true for everyone else on the board, and even then you have to fight cross winds to earn it (20 mile long segment that isn't a straight, flat line).
Wish there was a way to separate drafting KOMs from individual efforts. I have a KOM I've been pursuing by myself for a while...got within a second of taking it and a week or two later a group of 16 smashed it.
Plain and simple 'rules' to keep in mind when documenting one's efforts for public viewing. Great fun, informative..... and...... you are hilarious, Phil 😍 🍪 😉
Great video. Thanks for calling out all the Strava dorks who think think Strava is a race. A race is a race in any sport. Everything else is just practice
Anyone can attempt KOMs any day. Given that, it is smart to not attempt a KOM into a headwind on a cold day. Nearly all high-speed KOMs are in the warmer months due to air density. (Air pressure makes very little difference in comparison). It is a fair fight if everyone has free access to exactly the same conditions. You either have to say no wind (impossible) or all wind allowed.
well, I once cheated in the Swiss Alps... Garmin was still "on" with the bikes on the car, so the tour totaled extremely fast... bizarre thing is that Garmin apparently does not do any plausability checks (range check - if you are faster than 80 km, regardless if down- or uphill, this should be rejected by Garmin connect!)
Acutally here in Switzerland most KOMs/QOMs I have seen look quite legitimate. I dont think those people cheat, and I know some of those in person, they are all racing and super fit and training like hell. It also looks legitmate in comparision to my own times (about twice as slow, unfortunately, but that is how it is).
Every KOM in Minneapolis is wind assisted… maybe the original rider doing it was a dork but at this point if you want a KOM you need to be aware of wind direction
I just use Strava segments for my PB... and to track mileage for the whole year... I look at KOMs just to make an idea of how fast people can go... even if some KOMs are cheats... But I get more exited when I do a PB, a 2nd and 3rd time on a segment... Because it is something I can control... and I can improve...
At my local mountain bike trail, people cheat on Strava by riding like crazy along the maintenance road that goes alongside a good part of the single track. Strava can't tell they're not actually on the real trails. So, what have they accomplished?😢
I accidently took a MTB KOM that way. I saw it after the ride and first thought "woo-hoo, Kom!" then I saw what happened was reminded I'm not very fast.
Can’t wait for the 2024 “Standup Tour of LA cafés” lol , but seriously, standup comedy tour by bike through the most Iconic LA coffee shop(as long as they have fresh cookies obviously) lol
Of course people are cheating on Strava, not just on KOMs but also their monthly challenges. Right now, "Bruno Botelho" has allegedly walked over 16000kms in a few days. 2 people have supposedly done 18000 and 12000km cycling ! surely it wouldn't be hard for Strava to work out that's impossible ?
Strava flagged one of my runs as impossible....a 1k at 2:54 downhill....but Judy ran 25-27 kph for 21 miles on the same road trail.....thats 4 min pace per mile. How does strava not see clearly someone riding a bike average pace that marked it as run and letting it fly?
And it's all about having a sense of humour and enjoying yourself: brilliant. One question. Saw tou on a Kickr Climb. Want to start next year better on the hills. Do they help in your opinion?
ultimately you're only competing against yourself on Strava. In which case, there's not *that* much incentive to upload, other than it's a convenient place to analyze your rides and compare your data, probably with local people you know, and know aren't cheating (either). Have fun, improve yourself, but utlimately Strava, like all social media, isn't the real world. Getting KOMs is a nice dopamine boost however (I imagine).
Since drafting is a thing, I'm fine with those KOM's. Any pedal bike without a motor is fair game, recumbents and TT bikes are included. Using wind is strategy, everyone else can take advantage too. Honestly, for me, most road bike KOMs are fair game. I might judge you poorly for motor pacing and having someone hand you bottles, but I'll get over it. It's the MTB bros that are completely ruining trails by cutting corners and modifying/building bypasses for obstacles that are annoying me. I'm "local" fast, and have a long list of people who I guess feel the need to take me down, so they started cheating. My reaction was to just take all my KOM's off the board. For the most part, I don't show up on the top 10 of any of my local trails anymore. Oh, and I dated a girl I messaged on Strava. We're still friends too.
Glad you brought this up. Heck yes people are cheating on Strava. There are trail by me and some of the times are just impossible plus when you see a speed of way over than 20 mph on a tight technical uphill and downhill trail. It’s pretty sad . I try to only use my times as time to beat. Sometimes my friends also😜 also funny I just lost a kom today by 17 seconds. And I didn’t even know I had that kom 🤣
Can't go wrong, to be honest. I'd base it on weather or whichever one you haven't done before. Mallorca a little easier if you're not signing up with a tour company or guide.
lol seen cheating g on koms 10 years ago . I set a segment or kom I don’t recall. But my best time was minutes. Some others beat me with seconds and minutes. The some turd did it 28 seconds. Yea sure buddy. But here’s the thing it did stop me from getting pbs down the road and others too. We just ignored the putz. People in cars and motorcycles do shit.
There should be KOM/QOM for different bicycle classes and age groups. We are not all on the same type of equipment out here. If I’m not riding what everybody else is riding I can only ever break personal records which is not very motivating. It means that those of us who do not ride road bicycles or mountain bicycles will never achieve a KOM even though we are the fastest person on our type of bicycle.
Sounds like a skill issue to me. I have uphill KOMs on a 10kg orbea from 2006. If you dont have the leg power to beat a segment, find one that you can.
@@Tibovlexactly my point. I ride a Felt Breed from 2010 but it’s a single speed. Our bicycles are not in the same class, Yet the app has us “competing for best times”. If the app could simply create classes we could accurately measure our selves against other people riding similar bicycles. Our achievements would also be tied to a class. I want to see the fastest single speed riders out there. I can’t do that without doing a lot of following and searching. They wouldn’t have needed to add the “local legend” feature if the damn app would just divide everyone’s data into classes based on what they are riding. This is what any race series would do because it makes sense and it’s not complicated.
@@aliciaspearin6720 Don't worry about it. You ride because you enjoy it, not to become the best. But still, know that when I started my cycling journey in 2020 every KOM seemed absolutely impossible and I mean it. I thought I'd never be able to take a single one. Now I have the fastest time on 42 cycling segments. So if you really want to do it, just keep believing!
@@aliciaspearin6720 I could agree with that but it still should be divided into classes. Watch the video where he climbs the same segment on a road bike vs fixed gear. The road bicycle is obviously faster. He even says the fixed gear time is 3rd on Strava. This is because the fixed gear is never going to be as fast as that road bicycle. So my point is just dived the KOM in to classes and then that gives people riding something other than a road bicycle to achieve something. Just like Pikes Peak Hill climb. Sure there is a fastest overall time but what about best in class? Strava doesn’t have that and it should as not everyone rides a road bicycle but still wants to achieve something other than personal records.
I tried chasing a leaderboard position on a short little flat dirt section on my mountain bike and ended up breaking my femur. Moral of the story: going fast may not be as worth it as you might think it is.
@@roadcyclist1 imagine being so stuck up in your superiority complex that you can't see how going fast on an MTB and going fast on a road bike are two different concepts.
Phil, you don't have to wonder "how many people are cheating on strava?" Read the comments on any doping video, they all say "who cares" "get over it" " they're all doing it so . . . " People expect Sepp to cheat, so Sepp cheats, and they're fine with Jumbo Juice. It disgusts me, but then I was racing before "doping" or cheating on s trava so I'm an old fogey.
I wonder how many people are actively using e-bikes to get a kom? My most annoying cheat is this local guy pretending to be a woman getting QoMs. His QoMs are faster than the KoM and he often does 50mph on flat roads, but Stava doesn't pick up on that despite the number of reports on this person. Oh and they also have a racist/insulting asian pun name for good measure.
There are also people who go for KOM's by pedaling really hard, tucking their body in, having their drivetrain well maintained and tyres at optimum pressure. What idiots. Smart people win by leaving it all to chance.
Yeah, I don't want to buy a 600$ pair of pedals just to prove my KOM is legit. And my HR monitor regularly gives wrong stats, especially when taking KOM's.
Strava could do better with some basic automation. There is a hill here that is a short 4.5% avg climb but it is also used by mountain bike shuttles to get MBers to the top of their runs. Guess how many MBers hold the KOM/QOM with an avg speed of 40kph......
I agree. Like I have the Mt Baldy KOM by a couple minutes, it's been attempted tens of thousands of times, I have a pro badge, and I still lose it by 11 minutes regularly
It is unbelievable that they haven't added the dead-basic code to flag vehicle rides. Like ones where the rider is trundling around at 15 - 20 kph for half the activity and their heart rate is in the triple digits, then their heart rate drops to resting and they sustain 50 kph up 10% hills.
There is so much cheating on Strava . E Bikes , or guys drafting guys on e-bikes , or large groups drafting . I suppose Strava can check the wattage to determine if someone is cheating , but in the end who cares .
My mom has a bunch of segments, because she doesn't know how to switch her profile to say she has an e-bike lol. So you will see a bunch of profile pictures of dudes in spandex competing in various events then at the top, my mom, wearing a flower hat.
Just finished my sentence. 1 triathlon. Hated the swim, basically walked the run. Coming out of the water, I was on the tail end of the race. I passed about 400 people (on my road bike) and I’ve seen all sorts of crazy riders on very expensive tribikes seated upright and holding on to the elbow pads. Please your honor, don’t make do another half Ironman. I’ll ride 300 miles instead!😂
Strava gets seriously scrambled simply due to GPS problems. There are a great many segments around Chicago, for example, where bridges, embankments, buildings and tree cover create all kinds of crazy errors, like 70mph plus averages over a busy pedestrian bridge on a ride that overall averaged ten and that kind of thing. That's before you even begin to broach the question of e-bikes and other performance enhancers.
Very good! I must admit to shamelessly using wind assists when I can. But I'm 102kg and 203cm, so I am subject to a little more gravity and air resistance than almost all other cyclists! I have to try to level the playing field somehow 😆
I’ve personally had my butt kicked by Phil in a race. Former competitive racer who has lived in rural areas, so not much competition. I’ve been flagged many times, even with PM data and sometimes HR. Even had people mark segments as hazardous to ruin it for everyone…while living abroad I had a fleet of local riders flagging rides more than once so that they disappear. I’m not half as strong as Phil so he must get lots of love!
I enjoy chasing personal records the most.
Here's the thing with the wind- I live in a place where the wind blows pretty constantly. In the summer, it's anywhere between 10mph, and 45mph gusts.....So, in a sense, it's simply playing the course, which IS a skillset. I can promise that MOST of the KOMs around here ARE wind-assisted. The days without significant wind are probably less than 20 a year. Where I grew up, it was even worse- flat and windy. Which requires certain skills to race as you know echelons and gutterballing.
I would also argue the same, and the fact that sometimes a tailwind section is not obtainable for some people due to their physiology, as in they may not be capable of being able to have the leg speed or something similar. I often chase short flat segments with strong tailwinds because that's about all I am goood at, it's my only genetic gift! Certainly not a gifted climber, so why should they get all the glory? 😆
Yep how can he say it's not a fair fight - when everyone has free access to the same conditions. I finally took a KOM that the previous rider freely admitted was on a windy day. And when I took it I averaged over 180bpm for 9 minutes, so I was indeed proud of my performance. Nobody else in the top 10 went that hard.
@@BC-wj8fxya I coughed up blood and had burning lungs for days after the ones I got… definitely worked hard for them
@@scottwebsdale Believe it or not we have races out here where the tailwind section may well determine the race. Group will stay together in the 25-30mph headwind section, turn around and suddenly the split is made with high heart rates and high legspeed. Been that way since the late 80s.
Wind-doping is definitely a thing. I haven't done Strava in years, but when I did it was kind of fun to check the weather patterns for wind direction, and then pick a segment where there would be a good climb with a tailwind. Which then produced some good numbers. But after awhile it was more silly than fun and I quit worrying about the numbers like that. It was motivation to put some more miles in for awhile, but not that big of a deal.
That guy isn't cheating, he's clearly just twice as fast as every other person that ever attempted that climb.
Or the people who have 300,000 hours for an activity challenge that has a 20 day window. For those who don’t care about doing math 300,000 hours is 12,500 days or 34 (rounded) years. I don’t get how that happens, they must have really good cheating methods.
Even worse. Some people claim to have covered distance and gained elevation pedaling on a stationary trainer.
Phil is a better arbitrator than any UCI official.
I love this fun format. Please keep it coming. Strava segment wars are a geeky fun competition. There are some segments in my area that go to the person who had the biggest tailwind. Solo, 33mph for many miles, will put a huge grin on your face when you're finished. Please keep Judge Phil in the rotation. Way better than Judge Judy.
Strava could easily flag the OBVIOUS times, i.e., 2nd place is 29mph, 1st place is 62 mph. Obviously, something is wrong.
Yes, this is super annoying. Especially when the perp knows about it and does nothing (it's like over a year old).
They could, with very simple code. Especially where there is hear rate (or power) data. Sure, they were trundling along at 20kph and now they're doing 50kph up sustained gradients at resting heart rate? Come on Strava! They could automatically flag rides that show sustained highway speeds on the flat or up hills. Or rides where the average speed suddenly ramps up 2-3x faster. And they could automatically detect e-bikes, because the activity shows world-champion speeds up very steep hills, and granny-level speeds down the descent (due to legal speed limiting). Come in Strava!
@@WattWireNet Just Flag their ride their KOMs will be removed.
Something IS wrong: you're using mph. Everyone knows that all cycling stuff is metric :-)
The lesson: everyone needs to stop taking themselves so seriously
Hell yes. I have a friend whose twin is really competitive. They both love cycling but my mate is quite relaxed but his brother is as intense as any racer can be. Whenever his brother does a good Strava section my mate goes out on his moped and does the section a fraction faster than his brother. His brother trains like fury, wound up by being beaten. Eventually he regains the lead on the Strava section only to see my mate beat him again by a few seconds. This has gone on for years. I don’t think my mate’s brother has realised the improvement on his racing is down to this rather suspect approach to Strava chasing.
Dude I love Judge Phil! I feel an every so often series coming on and that's a good thing. And by the way, be nice to us tri-geeks because we watch you! 🙂
mostly bugs me when KOM is given for leaving your computer on in the car
And if you get they kind of KOM they should delete that part of the ride.
I've left my computer on after a ride during the drive home. 100 mile ride average 70 mph. It happens....
I got a KOM from a pal with a tailwind, it wasn't planned just happened - and it took ages for him to get it back as it's rare the wind blows from that direction here.
But then he got it back using his Aero road bike, on a gravel descent - now that's proper CHEATING 🙂
Your sentence is one triathlon 😂
Cruel and unusual punishment.
Harsh, really harsh.
Strava is great for tracking fitness. If folks on Strava are bugging you with KOM and Segment behaviors - just stop looking at them and race against yourself. Social media seems as much a curse as it is a blessing.
Only PRs matter , KOMs not so much.
Strava KOM's kinda were dead to me once I saw a guy take all my local ones in one ride and then named the Ride "Trying out an E-bike".... like really we can't filter that one out when the guy suddenly goes twice his normal speed for one ride. I was going to report it but sure someone else already did and yet it's still up there.
I once considered doing that but naming my ride: Buy My Book! It would have been guerrilla marketing, and I would have been universally hated, so I decided against it. But feel free to use this idea if you have something to sell.
There are exceptional athletes where I cycle, hikers that that have a top speed of 43mph and mountain bikers capable of 71mph.
Pretty sure all these fat, unfit mountain bikers haven't broke 10 mph in their life.
Well you never see those because they are so fast.
I think, clearly, that anyone who cares about Strava , let alone enough to cheat for a Strava position, should visit Phil's sponsor BetterHelp to work through their personal issues. Like, for real. That's just sad.
The whole KOM thing has become more of a collection of weather data. We can see on what date the wind was strongest at any point on the map. Since the second year of Strava’s existence, any KOM Ive snagged has been accidental/unintentional on days of gale force winds.
Anyone could go ride his bike that day, but they didn't. Fair win in my book. I've gone out with storms to get kom's. I can tell you, it's still not that easy with unpredictable side gusts. Some near death experiences to get kom's makes it a fair achievement xD
@@YannickLB So it’s more of a competition to see who can get the time off work on a day when the winds are up? That seems like it gets away from the original intent of racing.
@@JamieSmith-fz2mz Well.. I only work evenings and/or mornings.. Should I change that to make it fair for others? It's not a race or anything. It's just a fun competitive option in an app.
I can promise you, every KOM I have was earned. There is at least one I can say was winded influenced, but that was true for everyone else on the board, and even then you have to fight cross winds to earn it (20 mile long segment that isn't a straight, flat line).
Wish there was a way to separate drafting KOMs from individual efforts. I have a KOM I've been pursuing by myself for a while...got within a second of taking it and a week or two later a group of 16 smashed it.
Plain and simple 'rules' to keep in mind when documenting one's efforts for public viewing. Great fun, informative..... and...... you are hilarious, Phil 😍 🍪 😉
Great video. Thanks for calling out all the Strava dorks who think think Strava is a race. A race is a race in any sport. Everything else is just practice
How horrible that people want to be fastest on a segment..::
Strava is bigger than a race. The feeling of KOMing with numb PNS can't be matched
@@out_spocken I had hoped that people would se the sarcasm...
Anyone can attempt KOMs any day. Given that, it is smart to not attempt a KOM into a headwind on a cold day. Nearly all high-speed KOMs are in the warmer months due to air density. (Air pressure makes very little difference in comparison). It is a fair fight if everyone has free access to exactly the same conditions. You either have to say no wind (impossible) or all wind allowed.
I took the advice, went to a bike race. Got my ass kicked, came second to last. Had a blast, 10/10 experience, will do it again.
well, I once cheated in the Swiss Alps... Garmin was still "on" with the bikes on the car, so the tour totaled extremely fast... bizarre thing is that Garmin apparently does not do any plausability checks (range check - if you are faster than 80 km, regardless if down- or uphill, this should be rejected by Garmin connect!)
That's one of the nice things about mountain biking - historically it's been harder to cheat with a car although with e-MTBs now maybe not so much.
Acutally here in Switzerland most KOMs/QOMs I have seen look quite legitimate. I dont think those people cheat, and I know some of those in person, they are all racing and super fit and training like hell. It also looks legitmate in comparision to my own times (about twice as slow, unfortunately, but that is how it is).
Mtb bikers on strava cheat to a point where we now have “strava lines” around the techy fun stuff.
the triathlon joke at the end was good
Holy shit. This is gold.
"Go to a bike race and get your bud kicked". That is the best advice ever! Trust me.
Hey Phil, I would be interested (and probably other cyclists too) in your Girona guide! Is the only way to access it is to slide in your dm? 😏
Every KOM in Minneapolis is wind assisted… maybe the original rider doing it was a dork but at this point if you want a KOM you need to be aware of wind direction
I just use Strava segments for my PB... and to track mileage for the whole year...
I look at KOMs just to make an idea of how fast people can go... even if some KOMs are cheats...
But I get more exited when I do a PB, a 2nd and 3rd time on a segment...
Because it is something I can control... and I can improve...
At my local mountain bike trail, people cheat on Strava by riding like crazy along the maintenance road that goes alongside a good part of the single track. Strava can't tell they're not actually on the real trails. So, what have they accomplished?😢
I accidently took a MTB KOM that way. I saw it after the ride and first thought "woo-hoo, Kom!" then I saw what happened was reminded I'm not very fast.
Good thing it's just mountain biking, a kiddie version of cycling that requires little to no fitness.
That and people cutting through switchbacks in a straight line down/cutting 'strava' lines. Or people obviously on ebikes...
Props on the Mt Hollywood segment.
New series, Strava Court 👨🏼⚖️
When KOMs look suspicious just FLAG their ride and their KOMs are removed..........
Can’t wait for the 2024 “Standup Tour of LA cafés” lol , but seriously, standup comedy tour by bike through the most Iconic LA coffee shop(as long as they have fresh cookies obviously) lol
Judge Judy couldn’t have said it any better.
Oh that Salvador 😂
I have never had a tailwind. Every time I ride it is alway feels like a headwind. Am I doing something wrong?
Of course people are cheating on Strava, not just on KOMs but also their monthly challenges. Right now, "Bruno Botelho" has allegedly walked over 16000kms in a few days. 2 people have supposedly done 18000 and 12000km cycling ! surely it wouldn't be hard for Strava to work out that's impossible ?
Yeah or 1st day of the month they've cycled over 10,000km and only recorded one ride.
Almost 2 mins in & the reason I'm here hasn't started......Hmm. Begining to be like tv. 18 min program with 12 mins of commericals
I heard the ad revenue is higher in December... definitely seeing a lot more ads than usual on all channels.
@@adamweb Agreed, not only "Left coast" channels either.
skip, skip, done
My man, audio level indicators are your friends.
The sentence was classic.
Superb 😂👏
Phil's funny...you should do color commentary for TDF ...you and the guy you beat in Australia would be something to watch two brilliant fools😂
Always listen to Emily.
Not much you can do about KOMs, other than go have fun with it.
Strava flagged one of my runs as impossible....a 1k at 2:54 downhill....but Judy ran 25-27 kph for 21 miles on the same road trail.....thats 4 min pace per mile. How does strava not see clearly someone riding a bike average pace that marked it as run and letting it fly?
This is like asking if people are seeking attention on social media......
And it's all about having a sense of humour and enjoying yourself: brilliant.
One question. Saw tou on a Kickr Climb. Want to start next year better on the hills. Do they help in your opinion?
85% of the time I don't even know I'm in a segment. I do like beating my riding buddy's times though
I can only average 10 mph in my area lots of hills in Alabama how are people going faster with the same terrain
Time Trial Bikes... 😂 There's people in full shell recumbents out there taking KOMs 🤣🤣🤣 Now that's the real "challenge" to compete with...
Velomobile and e-bike rides don't count for normal cycling KOMs. If they list them incorrectly, flag them.
@@BC-wj8fx Oh, good to know! I was aware about ebikes, but not about velomobiles.
All the damn E-Bikers stole the KOMs around my city. I doubt even a pro could do 60mph on a straight-away for a mile, even with a tailwind.
Is using a velomobile or a streamliner considered cheating?
_Gavel_ biking heh heh
that's cruel and unusual punishment
ultimately you're only competing against yourself on Strava. In which case, there's not *that* much incentive to upload, other than it's a convenient place to analyze your rides and compare your data, probably with local people you know, and know aren't cheating (either). Have fun, improve yourself, but utlimately Strava, like all social media, isn't the real world. Getting KOMs is a nice dopamine boost however (I imagine).
Love it 😂
Since drafting is a thing, I'm fine with those KOM's. Any pedal bike without a motor is fair game, recumbents and TT bikes are included. Using wind is strategy, everyone else can take advantage too. Honestly, for me, most road bike KOMs are fair game. I might judge you poorly for motor pacing and having someone hand you bottles, but I'll get over it.
It's the MTB bros that are completely ruining trails by cutting corners and modifying/building bypasses for obstacles that are annoying me. I'm "local" fast, and have a long list of people who I guess feel the need to take me down, so they started cheating. My reaction was to just take all my KOM's off the board. For the most part, I don't show up on the top 10 of any of my local trails anymore.
Oh, and I dated a girl I messaged on Strava. We're still friends too.
Glad you brought this up. Heck yes people are cheating on Strava. There are trail by me and some of the times are just impossible plus when you see a speed of way over than 20 mph on a tight technical uphill and downhill trail. It’s pretty sad . I try to only use my times as time to beat. Sometimes my friends also😜 also funny I just lost a kom today by 17 seconds. And I didn’t even know I had that kom 🤣
Nice. Your first point is basically the point. Strava is Strava...that's it. Peace!
The guys that get upset about losing a KOM were the kids at school who reminded the teacher that there was homework to hand in
So you mean the people who worked to achieve something and didn't want to be shafted for freeloader's sake? Yeah.
Love Phil making fun of tri
Strava KOM question: Can you do a bike change mid KOM?
Yes. Anything goes. And changing bikes is even legal in a TT.
Relax it's Strava it means nothing. Life goes on.
Hey Phil, would you recommend Mallorca or Girona for a road biking vacation (i love climbing), and also which climbs would you recommend?
Can't go wrong, to be honest. I'd base it on weather or whichever one you haven't done before. Mallorca a little easier if you're not signing up with a tour company or guide.
lol seen cheating g on koms 10 years ago . I set a segment or kom I don’t recall. But my best time was minutes. Some others beat me with seconds and minutes. The some turd did it 28 seconds. Yea sure buddy. But here’s the thing it did stop me from getting pbs down the road and others too. We just ignored the putz.
People in cars and motorcycles do shit.
There should be KOM/QOM for different bicycle classes and age groups. We are not all on the same type of equipment out here. If I’m not riding what everybody else is riding I can only ever break personal records which is not very motivating. It means that those of us who do not ride road bicycles or mountain bicycles will never achieve a KOM even though we are the fastest person on our type of bicycle.
Sounds like a skill issue to me. I have uphill KOMs on a 10kg orbea from 2006. If you dont have the leg power to beat a segment, find one that you can.
@@Tibovlexactly my point. I ride a Felt Breed from 2010 but it’s a single speed. Our bicycles are not in the same class, Yet the app has us “competing for best times”. If the app could simply create classes we could accurately measure our selves against other people riding similar bicycles. Our achievements would also be tied to a class. I want to see the fastest single speed riders out there. I can’t do that without doing a lot of following and searching. They wouldn’t have needed to add the “local legend” feature if the damn app would just divide everyone’s data into classes based on what they are riding. This is what any race series would do because it makes sense and it’s not complicated.
Only way I can get a QOM/KOM is if I was the only one attempting the segment😞…some of us just ain’t got it no matter how hard we train🤷🏻♀️
@@aliciaspearin6720 Don't worry about it. You ride because you enjoy it, not to become the best. But still, know that when I started my cycling journey in 2020 every KOM seemed absolutely impossible and I mean it. I thought I'd never be able to take a single one. Now I have the fastest time on 42 cycling segments. So if you really want to do it, just keep believing!
@@aliciaspearin6720 I could agree with that but it still should be divided into classes. Watch the video where he climbs the same segment on a road bike vs fixed gear. The road bicycle is obviously faster. He even says the fixed gear time is 3rd on Strava. This is because the fixed gear is never going to be as fast as that road bicycle. So my point is just dived the KOM in to classes and then that gives people riding something other than a road bicycle to achieve something. Just like Pikes Peak Hill climb. Sure there is a fastest overall time but what about best in class? Strava doesn’t have that and it should as not everyone rides a road bicycle but still wants to achieve something other than personal records.
I tried chasing a leaderboard position on a short little flat dirt section on my mountain bike and ended up breaking my femur. Moral of the story: going fast may not be as worth it as you might think it is.
But did you KOM? because if you did, it would be worth it
@@Shadowboost I unfortunately didn't 😭 😭
Mountain bikers trying to go fast...funny concept.
@@roadcyclist1 imagine being so stuck up in your superiority complex that you can't see how going fast on an MTB and going fast on a road bike are two different concepts.
Phil, you don't have to wonder "how many people are cheating on strava?" Read the comments on any doping video, they all say "who cares" "get over it" " they're all doing it so . . . " People expect Sepp to cheat, so Sepp cheats, and they're fine with Jumbo Juice. It disgusts me, but then I was racing before "doping" or cheating on s trava so I'm an old fogey.
Why are you hung up on jumbo? Your favorite team is doing the exact same thing. Get over it.
I'm not doping, I'm KOMing
Yes! I E bikes
I wonder how many people are actively using e-bikes to get a kom? My most annoying cheat is this local guy pretending to be a woman getting QoMs. His QoMs are faster than the KoM and he often does 50mph on flat roads, but Stava doesn't pick up on that despite the number of reports on this person. Oh and they also have a racist/insulting asian pun name for good measure.
Car identifying as woman 🫨
keep reporting the person. I've had success with discouraging similar "riders" via Strava tickets.
There’s a couple guys locally that specifically “hunt” kom’s when the wind is howling favorably….such idiots
There are also people who go for KOM's by pedaling really hard, tucking their body in, having their drivetrain well maintained and tyres at optimum pressure. What idiots. Smart people win by leaving it all to chance.
I don't know why they just don't eliminate rides without power meters or heart rate monitors.
I don't have either of those. But I have legitimately KOM'd several segments
Equipment shaming. Equipment elitism. Your statement isn't wrong...just can't happen.
Yeah, I don't want to buy a 600$ pair of pedals just to prove my KOM is legit. And my HR monitor regularly gives wrong stats, especially when taking KOM's.
You're pretty cool, I don't think I'm cool enough to ride with you, but I would love the chance, Stay safe Phil ;) peace OUT
This activity is fine DOT DOT DOT Trust Me
Just cycle for yourself do your own thing
Strava could do better with some basic automation. There is a hill here that is a short 4.5% avg climb but it is also used by mountain bike shuttles to get MBers to the top of their runs. Guess how many MBers hold the KOM/QOM with an avg speed of 40kph......
I agree. Like I have the Mt Baldy KOM by a couple minutes, it's been attempted tens of thousands of times, I have a pro badge, and I still lose it by 11 minutes regularly
It is unbelievable that they haven't added the dead-basic code to flag vehicle rides. Like ones where the rider is trundling around at 15 - 20 kph for half the activity and their heart rate is in the triple digits, then their heart rate drops to resting and they sustain 50 kph up 10% hills.
There is so much cheating on Strava . E Bikes , or guys drafting guys on e-bikes , or large groups drafting . I suppose Strava can check the wattage to determine if someone is cheating , but in the end who cares .
People going up local climbs at 33 mph kinda gave away that people are cheating 😂
Depends on how short it is XD
I lost my only KOM to my wife with her garmin on driving down my driveway. Cheater
Do bears shit in the woods?!
My mom has a bunch of segments, because she doesn't know how to switch her profile to say she has an e-bike lol. So you will see a bunch of profile pictures of dudes in spandex competing in various events then at the top, my mom, wearing a flower hat.
I used to get weekly notifications of old ladies beating my running segments on their E-bikes. Rather annoying.
I have one KOM, its downhill. Is being fat cheating? Dont judge me. :)
It's a downhill doping. So yes
Just finished my sentence. 1 triathlon. Hated the swim, basically walked the run. Coming out of the water, I was on the tail end of the race. I passed about 400 people (on my road bike) and I’ve seen all sorts of crazy riders on very expensive tribikes seated upright and holding on to the elbow pads. Please your honor, don’t make do another half Ironman. I’ll ride 300 miles instead!😂
No expenses spared with the costumes.
Hey Phil, just purchased “….$10 a day…” and just listened to the “January 2nd in Baltimore” chapter this morning!
"Just go to a bike race and get your butt kicked, you'll feel even worse about yourself, but you'll gain some perspective" - Truer words never said.
Important take homes:
1) Try therapy, it'll make you faster
2) Enter a race
Strava gets seriously scrambled simply due to GPS problems. There are a great many segments around Chicago, for example, where bridges, embankments, buildings and tree cover create all kinds of crazy errors, like 70mph plus averages over a busy pedestrian bridge on a ride that overall averaged ten and that kind of thing. That's before you even begin to broach the question of e-bikes and other performance enhancers.
Very good!
I must admit to shamelessly using wind assists when I can. But I'm 102kg and 203cm, so I am subject to a little more gravity and air resistance than almost all other cyclists! I have to try to level the playing field somehow 😆
I’ve personally had my butt kicked by Phil in a race. Former competitive racer who has lived in rural areas, so not much competition. I’ve been flagged many times, even with PM data and sometimes HR. Even had people mark segments as hazardous to ruin it for everyone…while living abroad I had a fleet of local riders flagging rides more than once so that they disappear. I’m not half as strong as Phil so he must get lots of love!
The only people to leave negative comments after losing KOMs on my activities have been 50-60yr dads and grandfathers, literally.
Too many e-bikes stealing hard effort KOM/QOMs…especially where I live…they need their own category…or something…
Worry about your time not others hahaha BEAT YOUR OWN TIME!!! 🤘🤘🤘
Well the guy who did a 1km segment at Kirra in 2 secs was clearly in an FA-18 Super Hornet, but is that really cheating ?
Turned off when the bullshit promoting arrived lol!
Stopped watching when you mentioned betterhelp.