The Beacon Message Board

Hello Possums,

Have any of you ever dobbed someone in on Strava?

I was flogging myself senseless on a local climb recently with little effect on my time and consoled myself later by comparing myself to my (new) age group peers on Strava. Blaaah. The (recent) age-group KOM was suspiciously fast. Like 45 secs (on a c. 8 min climb) faster than 2nd, AND the guy was claiming to be over 85 kg. 2nd onwards are -as you would expect- all 20 kg less light weights. In the 85 kg+ weight category he at the same level as riders 30 years younger than him! His watts/kg put him in UCI level 2 category, aged 55+!

I have no doubt the ride is genuine (although there is no HR or power data), but I can't believe this guy is >55 years old AND >85 kg.

I flagged the ride and explained my rational. The ride and KOMs were removed for 24 hours, but have now re-appeared, with no word from Strava?

What to do?

Cry in to my milk? Get a life? Train harder? Comment on the ride? (It has received a lot of acclaim). Propose to buy him a magnum of champagne if he rocks up with his birth certificate and weighs himself!

Perplexed DownUnder

Barry, the bloke is either a phenomenon or a fraud. Does it actually matter which? Either way, there's nothing to be gained from comparing your performances to his.

Things have changed a lot since the 1950's...

Used to be scared to ride too hard in case I broke the little star wheel on my milometer.

I've reported one or two that seemed to be due to faulty GPS tracks rather than fraudulent egos, not that they were depriving me of anything just my contribution to the "community", Stuart White was the true KOM. They both disappeared immediately and didn't return but I've just checked and there's another which is less obviously wrong other perhaps than it's 32 seconds at 746w near the end of a ride with averages of 13kph and 80w.

I've reported a few that were obviously achieved in cars, but age doping is a new one on me!

I've grassed up a couple before too - one of which posted a 74km/h sprint. After a little sleuthing it seemed to be the first time he'd ever ridden that fast period - let alone on the flat!

Its these ones that fly under the radar a lot I feel. The question is - if your GPS bugged out and handed you a KOM would you dob yourself in?

The short lived KoM of Winwood and nearly every other Clent hill, all achieved on one ride by a guy who hardly rode before. Don't think I was the only person who reported it. Long gone now and the usual KoM is back in charge😎

The suspicious one's are usually those that have a large time gap between them and 2nd place. I don't trust the result unless it has HR, Power or both as it's all too easy to stick strava on a mobile phone and moped it.

laurence_cooley wrote:... but age doping is a new one on me!

Wonders.... how old do I need to make myself to appear any good?

The guy is supposedly kosher, saying he raced in the 90s (so what!), except he admitted to being in the wrong weight category.... weight doping!

And now some other fat old man has posted a time another 30 sec faster!

CakeStop wrote:I've reported one or two that seemed to be due to faulty GPS tracks rather than fraudulent egos, not that they were depriving me of anything just my contribution to the "community", Stuart White was the true KOM. They both disappeared immediately and didn't return but I've just checked and there's another which is less obviously wrong other perhaps than it's 32 seconds at 746w near the end of a ride with averages of 13kph and 80w.

Thanks for this BTW Steve, I know which one it is and it's been nicked a few times, I wondered how I kept getting it back. Just gotta watch out for that Mark Patton fella now, he's been after it for a while.

DELETE: "If it's not on Strava, you didn't do it".
ADD: "If it's on Strava, you didn't do it".