Nice and sunny on the commute this morning, decided to lengthen the commute and beasted it on the country roads.
Got into work, turned off the strava and noticed I got a few "cups", unusual for the commute but I had beasted it in the sun so was pleased and had a look at them.
Managed to get a silver cup on one, decided to look at how off the pace from my best I was - turns out I was the KOM holder, my silver would have given me the KOM if I didn't already hold it - dam, wasted effort. Oh well, has given me an idea for the commute home, different route but now KOM hunting.
Oh the fun of strava and enjoying the commute
But how many rides of that section? I think I still have one KOM in Sheffield, but last time I looked I was 1st out of about 15. This is a bit different from my more normal being 1789th out of 3965!
I've got a couple of commuting KOMs - they're generally on some of the less used segments, but I'll take them and chasing the odd segment helps perk up the commute sometimes. I've got 2 in my sights at the minute!
I have one KOM, its for a section of tow path on my commute thats quite narrow and windy. I didnt chase it and certainly wont be doing anything if someone else claims it. Coming off into the canal whilst clipped in doesnt seem like a cunning plan
I think i at one point unintentionally got a very specific 25 minute segment wiggling from Covent Garden to Stratford. I was ecstatic until I realised I was the 4th person to log it!
My other was a hill in East London that took me 2 years of commuting to beat the local cycling club, only for someone to have what i am certain is a strava goof up and beat me by 6 seconds off my 52! I checked his ride and his overall average speed was a scorching 12mph. I'm not at all bitter as you can tell.
Had a really good run of KOMs yesterday.
Might have had something to do with being on the Suzuki, rather than the Trek
There's a couple I'm very close to the current leader on, but every time I have a good effort, I get denied by the traffic
I once got a whole bunch of KOM's. I had cycled to the garage after work to pick up the car and forgot to turn Strava off before driving home.....
Yet to get any KOM's I'm normally pretty happy if I can make the top 10% on popular segments. Best I've done I think is 24th out of 4636 on the descent of Newlands pass in the lakes while feeling I was still holding back a little. However, given the likely hood of hitting a car head-on if there happens to be one on the bend, it's not one I'm going to try and best any time soon.
A whole different ball game with Women though, my wife used to get top 10's and QOM's in cycling and running quite regularly and was never seriously into either.
My finest batch of KOMs were in Lincoln, which given that they have crit races there was no mean feat.
However, the reason my phone was still running was that it was still in my jersey pocket and I was strapped to a spinal board in the back of an ambulance. I did the decent thing and deleted them.
There are a few KOM's I chase - one is local and unlikely to be pursued by anyone else mad enough to take a certain corner flat out and then sprint like a loon to the second turning on the left before screeching to a halt before the T-junction.
The other one - I've not got much of a chance because all of the top spots are filled by riders from the Olympics who each had ten goes at nailing the bends on a closed road, whereas I need to stick to my side of the white lines or die. The rest of the spots are filled by Surrey Classic/Ride London riders who also had closed roads. Still, I just go for fastest of the day and quite often nail it.
My best effort on another - drafting a tipper lorry with a huge tail-wind for a mile and a half and still didn't get close - hmmm. That one's brutal, with an uphill finish
PS - I'm usually happy with a top 10%
Ive got a few seconds out of 5-odd thousand and a smattering of top tens. No KoMs though. My main claim to fame is beating Kwiatkowski on a segment. I screenshotted it ASAP
My one and only running QOM is an obscure segment in the hills north of Tremp in Lleida. I was delighted when I got the notification on Strava until I realised I was the only woman who'd ever logged that segment...
I think running (CR) and cycling (KOM) are quite different, I have dozens and dozens of CRs and one KOM.
The cycling segments are generally much, much busier.
I don’t chase segments at all, although obviously pleased that my KOM is a segment that both Yates brothers have ridden.
Chasing KOM's is fun for sure but its all a bit arbitrary at times. Wind plays a massive role as does riding in a group. I used to try and bag KOM's but then found I was loosing them faster than I was getting them. For two years running the Tour of Britain came through my local area and I literally hemorrhaged a bunch of KOM's. That Uh oh! email from Strava used to get me down but now I just enjoy riding for the adventure of it and chasing my own PR's.
Irrespective of what I've just said if I do get a KOM I'm happier than a pig in sh*t
> A whole different ball game with Women though, my wife used to get top 10's and QOM's in cycling and running quite regularly and was never seriously into either.
although they are not beyond some "unsporting" competitive practices! - the overall leader of a number of my local running segments is a woman who appears to walk to a specific segment and then sprints it.
> I have one KOM, its for a section of tow path
"King of the Mountains" on a towpath...?
Hmmm....
That's nothing. I'm fortunate enough to live near the world's fastest human. She's got a running KOM for a 400m segment in 26 seconds. Amazing stuff.
My son currently holds the KOM for the Strava segment from his school's gates to the school front door, despite stiff competition sugar fuelled snowflakes !
I'm on Page 4.
> although they are not beyond some "unsporting" competitive practices! - the overall leader of a number of my local running segments is a woman who appears to walk to a specific segment and then sprints it.
That's not really cricket.
That said, I hold the CR for a 300m hill segment near my house that I specifically use for hill repeats. I've got a lot of CRs in the area mainly because it's rural, Strava automatically creates some segments (as far as I can tell) and there aren't many competitors.
I ran an ultra on 1st of this month, and this meant that at one point I was 18th in the Strava distance running challenge (out of over 100,000 people at the time) and in the top 1000 of 120,000 on the climbing challenge. I should've screen grabbed them
Not uncommon, but sometimes people set segment to coincide with their efforts when doing speedwork. I do.
Cyclists using the wrong setting on their watch are the biggest cause of messages from Strava for me.
> The other one - I've not got much of a chance because all of the top spots are filled by riders from the Olympics who each had ten goes at nailing the bends on a closed road, whereas I need to stick to my side of the white lines or die. The rest of the spots are filled by Surrey Classic/Ride London riders who also had closed roads
Box Hill (or thereabouts)? That must be one of the plummest KOMs in the country. I bet people go there specifically to try for the top spot (but if they just park at the top and cruise down for their attempt runs then you're automatically better than them, assuming you've ridden there)
> > I have one KOM, its for a section of tow path
> "King of the Mountains" on a towpath...?
> Hmmm....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caen_Hill_Locks
It’s heartbreaking isn’t it. It doesn’t matter, no one cares but you’re sat their saying yay wishing someone would be impressed and say well done.
So, well done, amazing effort, so you not only have the kom but can repeat it. Chapeau!! Loads of treasure.
cheers
toby
p.s i’ll Expect you to return the favour next time I get cups
Actually the descent through Headley, which with live traffic is all about perfect lines, no cars in front, no gravel on the cuts in and out of the apexes and sprinting into it from the top.
I've got no chance on the Box Hill climb, although I did once apparently go up the steep bit at the top at 30mph once (Garmin error). I rocked that KOM for an afternoon until I deleted it!
Box Hill is the secondmost recorded Strava segment in the world. The most popular is in Central Park.
i managed the fastest time that day on every climb I did in the alps last year at the end of August and 56-57 minutes up alp d’huez in the pissing rain in all my wet weather gear.
toby ( very proud of himself, even though no one cares about this mediocre middle aged effort )
> Box Hill is the secondmost recorded Strava segment in the world.
Sawyers Hill in Richmond Park more recorded attempts/people?
I just assume that everyone with a faster time than me was using an e-bike, in a chain gang, doped to the ginnels and had a tailwind.
As others I'm more happy with segments where I'm in the top 5-10% of a 'recognised' segment with many thousands of logged attempts than I am with KOMs where there is only a handful of logged rides.
No the leaderboards of follows and local clubs is different. I am big enough to admit that I have been out a couple of times with more or less the sole intention of beating a mates time if they've ridden a section faster than me.
Not sure how many people in this thread are aware of or watch Phil Gaimon, but you should.
youtube.com/watch?v=dMlYKGFkJEA&
I have a friend that gets annoyed when people log canicross runs on Strava as it messes up the KOM times.
My canicross times won't upset anyone, the dog takes me up to most people's normal speeds! Lol
I found myself in the top 50 women on the running climbing challenge last year after a big hill day on the 1st of the month. I stayed there all of about an hour but it was glorious while it lasted!
I got a QoM on the way home from work on Friday night (albeit I went a different way to normal), then a QoM mountain biking on Saturday morning (honestly, the others must have been walking because I'm super slow at mountain biking) then a course record trail running on Saturday afternoon.
I get very upset if I go out and don't get at least a few little cups
The trick is to go to esoteric places. Not that I would do that just because there's a Strava segment there. Ahem.
> although they are not beyond some "unsporting" competitive practices! - the overall leader of a number of my local running segments is a woman who appears to walk to a specific segment and then sprints it.
What's wrong with that? Do you object if someone drives to the start of a race? I have a handful of cycling KOM's and a lot of running CR's. I wouldn't be doing myself any favours if I made sure I was a bit knackered when I started the segment!
My best cycling efforts, I ride steady to the start including a proper warm up, rest, ditch as much weight as possible then give it full beans, come back to the bottom and pick up my gear and then try to ride home without being sick. Brilliant fun!
I will base a run around targeting a segment but wouldn't walk or drive to the start of one or end the run after one. They have to be part of a coherent whole for me otherwise it seems to be more about ticking rather than running.
What is the female equivalent of willy waving ? MrsD just took an off road QoM from another woman in the village, who we cycle with a lot. The Strava banter is ramping up nicely !
It isn't a race though, it's a training aid. If a particular segment is a regular hill or loop which you use in training to test progress, great. But otherwise, yes you probably are doing yourself a favour being knackered at the start of a segment, its is called training. The aim shouldn't be KOM or CR, the aim should be improvement.
> What's wrong with that?
It's a bit like targeting a 200 yard stretch of the London Marathon to be top of a table that says you are the fastest!
> What is the female equivalent of willy waving ?
Muff fluffing?
Quim preening?
I got 50th out 4000+ riding home on a singlespeed from the pub after a few pints whilst trailing balloons. I'm almost tempted to give it a go on a light bike without balloons! Just not sure it is worth the hangover...
And the leaderboard is currently topped by a Mr Dix
> I got 50th out 4000+ riding home on a singlespeed from the pub after a few pints whilst trailing balloons. I'm almost tempted to give it a go on a light bike without balloons! Just not sure it is worth the hangover...
I should have said it is a totally pointless segment!
> It isn't a race though,
Might not be for you, but it is for me, I see segments as informal races you can do at any point in the year. We even have one of them in our club championsips this year. Enjoy the training, I will enjoy the racing!
My only claim to fame (as stealing KoMs on unknown random segments isn't much of a competition) is scalping Wout van Aert on a major spanish climb.
Still didn't get me inside the top 300.
I feel like it would be a lot easier if I were a girl. My partner has more segments than me just from going on her casual "to the shops" bike rides / runs.
One of the amusing things about Strava, for me, is that I occasionally get one of those emails for segments I didn't know existed and for which I had no idea that I held the CR. I got one last week, for a CR I set five years ago on a 10 mile run. A proper CR!
I always give my usurper Kudos and a congratulatory comment, knowing I now have no chance of getting it back, and usually we both then follow each other.
I did once get back a CR that had been taken from me, just the day after the theft from a northern interloper whose mates, on his comments, dared gloat as to how he must have annoyed the locals. I replied Grrr, yes you have, got it back (briefly), and we've followed each other ever since.
I got a QOM once when I forgot to switch off strava after I’d just ridden to collect my van.
Im not giving it back.
No regrets.
I got a KOM last month. I've been on 30 mg of prednisolone for some months (now tapering down) for an auto-immune thing. Should I feel guilty? Or should I simply reason that the performance benefits are negated by the accompanying weight gain? I won't be able to produce a TUE if pressed.