KOMDefender - Do I flag this ride?

[Mr Purple]

Just had one of mine poached by a guy who was four seconds behind me on a 540m climb but turned off 100m before the end of it to beat me by one second.

Sometimes I'm not sure if they're doing it deliberately, but fairly sure this guy did.

The old 'do I flag it' or 'do I just do the same thing'? I think taking back a 5% climb at a GPS mismatched 45km/hr or so would hurt him more.

[warthog1]

I'd say go racing instead.
You won't have to encounter any of that sort of nonsense and will enjoy it, particularly on courses with climbing .

[Mr Purple]

You are correct. But I am self employed and have a hollow left humerus.

I should probably time trial or something, not sure I'd survive an actual close packed race!

[warthog1]

I loved time trials, my favourite event.
They are allergic to them here though and you struggle to find climbing ones most places.

[Mr Purple]

I loved time trials, my favourite event.
They are allergic to them here though and you struggle to find climbing ones most places.

Yep, that's the problem. The only event I'd do ok at and not break myself would be a time trial, and even then only if it's a hilly time trial. And there's no such thing as a hilly time trial.

Having said that I'm a bit over the Strava KOMing anyway now. Hold enough KOMs and you get a series of e-mails every weekend - 'this guy in a car/on an e-bike just took your KOM', 'this guy did half your KOM but is using a potato as a GPS so now think he owns it', and my favourite 'this guy attempted your KOM, but thought you were going too fast for it to be believable and has done half your speed and flagged you, and by the way you can't unflag it'.

Honestly, I'm struggling to care enough to try to fix it!

[warthog1]

Not that I have any koms these days, but I'd be over that too!

[MichaelB]

Not that I have any koms these days, but I'd be over that too!

I left Strava a while ago and haven’t missed it for a second

[warthog1]

Not that I have any koms these days, but I'd be over that too!

I left Strava a while ago and haven’t missed it for a second

I do bunch rides and have met alot of good people and made friends with a number of them.
Strava lets me see what everyone is doing.
It keeps track of my k's and each bikes k's too. I like that about it

[Mr Purple]

So I succumbed and just took it back using his shortcut; and by five seconds.

5% climb, 540m (AT) 49 seconds and 570W/40km/hr.

Strava is so majestic in its stupidity. I think I need to start competing properly somewhere.

[warthog1]

So I succumbed and just took it back using his shortcut; and by five seconds.

5% climb, 540m (AT) 49 seconds and 570W/40km/hr.

Strava is so majestic in its stupidity. I think I need to start competing properly somewhere.

Great numbers

[Mr Purple]

So I succumbed and just took it back using his shortcut; and by five seconds.

5% climb, 540m (AT) 49 seconds and 570W/40km/hr.

Strava is so majestic in its stupidity. I think I need to start competing properly somewhere.

Great numbers

Just a GPS mismatch and some artificially created Stravawatts I’m afraid!

I allegedly hold another 500m 6% climb at 43km/hr and 802W. The truth is that was 500W and a heck of a run up.

[warthog1]

Fair enough, either way you would blow past me on any climb.

[familyguy]

Well now this is interesting:
https://cyclingtips.com/2022/04/exposed ... o-cyclist/

[queequeg]

Well now this is interesting:
https://cyclingtips.com/2022/04/exposed ... o-cyclist/

They never did explain the dodgy KOM after all that! Unless I missed it? However, talk about pulling a thread loose and seeing everything unravel!

[Mr Purple]

Well now this is interesting:
https://cyclingtips.com/2022/04/exposed ... o-cyclist/

They did sort of. He averaged 152W up an 8.5% climb for 53km/hr. Then they thought 'that's weird' and found that he went up another 23km climb at 23km/hr with 136W for a top 20 finish.

Someone started looking into his claims and his past and realised the guy completely made up his own back story.

Reminded me of this guy I kept running up against on Fulgaz; but a virtual Walter Mitty this time.

https://www.strava.com/athletes/56327531

Genuinely awarded wins in Fulgaz competitive events. Then cites these in his profile as evidence of how good he is. But when you look closely he weighs 95kg, has an FTP of 500W+ and an average cadence of 150+. With a total of 3000km in Strava and a handful of real world rides. At about 140W.

Fortunately he seems to have recently injured himself. Probably because he's an unfit overweight guy spinning twice the normal cadence on a dumb trainer with no resistance rather than a beginner amateur cyclist with TDF winning outputs.

It'd be pretty easy to create a fake Strava persona is you were delusional enough.

[Mr Purple]

In a 'so wrong it amused me' fashion this is a Fulgaz leaderboard from a segment I had a go at this morning.

Just a little 430m climb at 2.9%. Nothing special. This is the top 10 (I'm 10th).



Ah, the internet. When some dude can 'average 2040W' for 35 seconds and go 24km/hr slower than the guy averaging 271W.

And the guy averaging 123W up a climb is 10km/hr faster than the 61kg guy averaging 422W.

Internet warrior physics!

[JPB]

Maybe moved their cooling fan behind the bike that day so it was a tail wind rather than a head wind

[vbplease]

Maybe moved their cooling fan behind the bike that day so it was a tail wind rather than a head wind

Haha, too funny!!

Maybe they set the trainer up to have a decline as well..

The leaderboards on strava are such a mess with people leaving their garmin on in their car, that I never look at the leaderboards anymore..

[Mr Purple]

The thing that gets me is the number of people in the forums on this platform that will say things like 'maybe there's just people faster than you, it is a wide world'.

Breaking that list down - riders 1, 2, 4,7 and 8 literally weighed significantly less than nothing. And they remainder were all over 700W over 45 seconds. For reference rider 6 did 4.35km with an average weighted power of 1835W. Yep, sure mate.

You just have to laugh, it's not worthwhile doing anything else. Fulgaz regularly holds 'races' where the top 4-5 riders are all on dumb trainers averaging over 500W.

Agree on the real world though. I particularly like the leaderboards on steep climbs around mountain bike trails (Gap Creek and Mt Cotton are classics here). Someone does 70km/hr+ up a 6% climb on those pretty much every day. Holding the KOM legitimately would not be worth the Strava alerts.

[Mr Purple]

Found the dangers of holding virtual KOMs today.

Three of mine were taken out by one portly looking older gentleman from Florida in one ride.

Only problems:
a) He demolished my times up the short climbs despite averaging 150-200W less than me and being in the '85-94kg' weight group.
b) He averaged a metronomic 280W for the whole 3 hour ride at 118bpm.
c) He 'rides' 415km a week in 10 hours.

I know I shouldn't care, but the combination of fake weight, fake power and fake kilometres is annoying. To top if off every time I flag it he takes down the ride and then reuploads it a few hours later. We'll see who gets bored first. It'll probably be me, he doesn't really look like he has anything better to do.

[stevenaaus]

So, does anyone know the difference between CR and KOM ???
We have a local segment where the fastest time is recognised as CR, but the KOM is 3 seconds slower.

[jasonc]

CR is course record. Could be someone doing it on a different form of transport?

[Mr Purple]

So, does anyone know the difference between CR and KOM ???
We have a local segment where the fastest time is recognised as CR, but the KOM is 3 seconds slower.

'CR' is fastest overall - KOM or QOM.

There appear to be a bunch of riders who have older Strava accounts and haven't got a specified gender.

I've had a few times when I've missed the 'CR' by a second or two but still taken the 'KOM'. The 'CR' holder is clearly male but doesn't show up in the 'KOM' rankings.

[stevenaaus]

Cheers. Probably too unPC to handle this in a more common sense way. They don't even explain it afaics.

[Mr Purple]

There is genuinely some weird stuff that goes on with the older accounts.

I took a KOM last year only to have it wiped out by someone who uploaded a ride from 2016. I'm suspicious he took the segment on a GPS mismatch, got flagged by the original guy, then reuploaded it when I beat the original KOM time.

Either way if he wants to make that much effort, I don't really care to correct it. Even though he was pushing 60km/hr up a 5% gradient.

I think it's a byproduct of some of the older rides being uploaded by a GPS technically equal to a potato.