TJKnight

I knew that guy had to be doping! So is everyone else who is faster than me going up the hillz! U R ALL CHEATERS 4 LIFE!

Hot Potato

my no social media policy really leaves me asking WTF on threads like these. Wait, Bike forums doesn't count as social media, does it?

UmneyDurak

That's why I do all Strava KOMs on electrical assit bicycle.

znomit

Something the 41 can only dream of.

T Stew

I thought this was going to be about someone stealing Schwinn KOMs (they are pretty rare mountain bikes) by finding the route they normaly take on strava. But this stuff I didn't even know existed, and that was a few minutes of my life reading this I'll never get back. *sigh*. I use endomondo and keep all my workouts and tracks and whatever on private.

therhodeo

That reminds me of a guy who I used to ride with. We lived in a college town and he would show up to the group ride on his wife's electric assist bent (bought so she could keep up with him). He wasn't a bad rider but not up to par with the college race team. Except when he was on that bike and he'd sit in with them and just chat it up going up hills. They'd get so frustrated and it was hilarious.

OwenMeany

I only recently became aware of the Strava underworld...yikes.

As I return to cycling from a long lay-off, I find it fantastic to measure and document my improvement over time....When I left the sport, Strava had not been invented, I had all my stats in an excel spreadsheet as it was reflected in my Cateye. Which was the custom and practice of most riders at the time.

Keeping my Strava relationship at "arms length", may be the rite move...

Dan333SP

Bringing this thread back to life.

Phil Gaimon, who just retired from professional cycling, is specifically targeting this Sassquatch guy's KOMs in the Los Angeles area-

https://cyclingtips.com/2016/12/gaim...s-strava-koms/

This is what he said when he realized a couple years ago that he hadn't beaten that guy's time-

“That really opened my eyes,” says Gaimon. “I was training for the Tour of Austria at the time and that was my best 15 minutes of power, ever. I realize that there are a bunch of guys who can out-climb me for 15 minutes, but the truth is I know them all and can name them. That’s when I realized just how lit up this guy was. His time on Mandeville was world class. There are maybe only 60 guys in the world who can ride that fast up that climb solo.”

Kudos, Phil.

DrIsotope

"So over a 30-day span beginning on October 30, Gaimon has done something about it, grabbing 152 KOMs in the greater Los Angeles area, many of them held by Brandt-Sorenson."

It's kinda like Michael Phelps getting in the pool during kids swim though, innit? I'd be excited to log 152 PRs in a month.

Heathpack 

I saw this on FB. Phil Gaimon is my new hero. Just awesome, what a great smack-down project. He put together a local fondo this year and my basic response was <shrug>. Haha, next year I'm totally in if it doesn't conflict with my racing schedule. Gotta love this guy.

Dan333SP

Not really, a lot of those climbs have top 10s that are almost entirely current or ex-pros. In the grand scheme of things it's meaningless, but it is still satisfying to see a convicted doper losing a little pride to someone who has done it clean.

DrIsotope

I know that feel-- the Redlands Bicycle Classic runs on the roads I ride daily, so on many segments my best day efforts are good enough to just get me up past 200th place.

It must be nice to be fast.

Dan333SP

A friend of mine is an ex-pro and raced with Phil as a development rider 10 years ago or so. Phil's book, which I think came out last year, made some reference to how my buddy went with their team to a stage race in Australia just to drop out after the first stage and then go boozing with Aussie ladies, as if he'd planned that from the start and didn't care about the team.

My buddy was offended because he'd actually been really sick that week and simply couldn't start the 2nd stage, so he called Phil out on Facebook. Phil publicly apologized and issued a correction to that little blurb in the book, which I thought was a fairly nice gesture for him to do when he was under no obligation to do so. Seems like a good guy, and I definitely approve of his Strava-questing.

himespau 

Man, you spend too much money on that brown garbage water. (Well, I don't know you, so maybe not you personally, but in general people do.)

Dan333SP

+Infinity

Heathpack 

I've had a lot going on in my personal life of late, and as a consequence, it's easier for me to get frustrated by things that normally I'd find amusing. So I was venting recently to my coach that I was sick of group rides in which men ride like idiots all because the presence of a woman makes one insecure guy ride as hard as he can so as not to be riding at a woman's level and then everyone else ramps up the pace until the woman is dropped and they are no longer riding with a woman and then they constantly bug you to ride with them and wonder why you always have something else on the agenda.

Anyway, coaches response was how he hates that kind of crap too but at least he has the ability to make people pay when they do that stuff. Whereas I can't do squat about it or even bring it up lest I be labeled a complainer.

So Phil Gaimon resonates. He may not be doing what he's doing for people like me, I think he's making a statement on doping. But it's just awesome to give a smackdown to the a-holes of the sport and not just anyone can do that.

Great story too about your friend. You should come to LA next fall for his fondo. It's called the cookie ride and there's cookies at every stop. Apparently Phil loves cookies.

wphamilton

While I get a kick out of someone of Gaimon's caliber going after Strava KOM's (and I say more power to him) I have to ask this. Is using PED's really cheating on Strava? As long as it's legal, I don't see anything in the terms of service prohibiting it. Strava evidently does not disqualify rides based on doping. So why isn't it effectively just part of the game?

Dan333SP

I love cookies too. Soft-baked? I'll look for tickets and a bike rental

Dan333SP

It is, and Strava acknowledges that. This is from the original article in the OP-

I reached out to Strava for comment, and this is the statement I received from the company’s co-founder and CEO Mark Gainey: “At Strava we strive to record accurate segment times and rely on our community to flag unsafe rides and mechanical cheating. We applaud those dedicated to fighting doping in sport. But we are not able to judge this very nuanced debate of who used PEDs, when and where they used them, and to fairly determine how that use improved times on one segment or another. Strava values sportsmanship and fair play, and we want members of our community to earn spots on the leaderboards through clean and safe competition.”

himespau 

I liked this quote from Phil, (emphasis mine):

Heathpack 

Phil Gaimon's Malibu Gran Cookie Dough


October 15, 2017. Bring your climb. Its hilly.

jitteringjr

I resemble that comment in areas. There are points on my rides where there are rather short but steep climbs that I have been sprinting up for years before anyone ever heard of Strava and I do quite well on those climbs now. I often even win the day on the climb, only to be humbled the rest of the ride. I do it because it's fun and don't care about my place in the whole thing.

I like to use Strava to compare myself to myself, but I could care less about my place in the whole thing. I also can't imagine any team or sponsor giving a Strava rider anything without an in person showing of their power and skills. I could see it getting you noticed, but don't you still have to produce the results in person?

RJM

It's impossible for Strava to police, but it is certainly unethical, IMHO.


If you have to dope to win something as fake as strava where there isn't any money and there isn't next year's job on the line, then what exactly does that make you? What exactly would you be going for? It's just a really weird thing to do.

himespau 

While I agree with you, I can see someone (say a certain Mellow Juan) who has been banned for life from all other competitions who needs to feel the thrill of competing trying his hand at Strava. Whether or not he's still doping might be an open question, just like I wasn't clear whether it was known that the person in the story is confirmed to be still doping or if his lifetime ban came from selling to others.

RPK79

Some people take Strava too serious. This doesn't affect me, so I don't care.